Comments about the Homework Reading
Comments about the "tours" of virtual environments
Our group had 3 people with a high degree of expertise; and one person who had never used a Wii before. Time was spent showing the non-expert (me, Peggy)how to play the games.
As in "normal" sports, expertise in the rules of the medium is required and skill is developed through practice.
Guided questions
1)Can immersive environments be used as a pedagogical tool?
Issues:
Facility with the tools of the immersive environment needs to be taken into consideration. This facility (skills), as with other skills/ability in education, is affected by and affects self-esteem. This has both positive and negative implications.
Wii allows you to "decorate"(or personalize) your Mii which could add a level of interest and create a greater investment in your Mii. The instructor could keep track of individual Mii students and help her/him meet her own fitness goals. If students could see each others goals this could create a collaborative group where they may encourage each other to achieve their goals. (Or not - some students might not want to make their personal fitness goals public.)
Problem: once people achieve a high level of facility they don't actually have to move very much which then doesn't meet it's goal of improving fitness. However, some of the Wii games do require more physicality at whatever level of skill.
Could help introduce students to sports they may not have tried before (ie. skiing).
Could be fun to do during the Olympics to have students try out all the different sports.
Could have students try both Wii and real games then compare the experience.
Wii networks would be a good idea and make it more interesting.
2) What kinds of research methods and/or methodologies are good for considering immersive environments for pedagogy?