| Benefits of Dance Dance Revolution
 
Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) ™ Does a Body Good
About DDR Teaching Guide Overview The benefits of using DDR in the classroom are lifelong. DDR helps students to develop healthy habits and a fitness-oriented lifestyle. DDR™ provides the opportunity for students to understand the use of energy in their own bodies. DDR™ also comes with a built-in workout mode that allows players to track how many calories they burn as they play. As a result, students have the opportunity to understand the basics to maintaining a healthy weight which is commonly phrased as “calories in = calories out”. Furthermore, using DRR, students also have the chance to learn about and improve their cardiovascular health and physical agility. Overall, DDR is an excellent way for students to strength and condition not only their mind, but also their heart. DDR™ is the ultimate dancing game which combines fun, excitement, competition, choreography, and a great workout (Gerstmann, 2005)”. The Advantages of Teaching with Games Today, students are getting this feeling from technology, especially in the form of video games. By playing video games students learn how to gain ownership, are challenged and become experts. Ownership, challenged, and expertise are often what many teachers would like to see in all their students. Therefore, it is time teachers take the concepts that drive videos games, and use those same
concepts to drive teaching and learning.
DDR allows PE teachers to use these concepts in class. Using DDR helps kids get interested in
being active. DDR is both physically and mentally challenging. Kids who don't like other things,
like basketball, jumping rope or ball activities will like DDR (Barker, 2005). It may be the one thing
that teaches students to enjoy a lifetime of healthful physical activity. Therefore, video games, like
DDR are a perfect supplemental material to use in the classroom. These games are realistic,
challenging, doable, and fun and even better they allow students to know what achievement looks Goals and Objectives The objectives of the lessons are to: What Teachers and Students Need to Know Before Beginning When an arrow scrolling up reaches the line of arrows at the top, you must "step" on the direction matching that arrow's direction. If two arrows come up at once, you must press both at once. If a green "freeze" arrow appears, you must hold that step at the beginning until the freeze arrow ends. Game Mode Options Used in this Guide Game Controller Pad Tips for a beginner:
Aerobic workout and weight loss effects (study results) The study used a console version of DDR and found that all children in the study raised their heart rate within the range for developing and maintaining cardio-respiratory fitness. The overweight children expended more energy to play than did normal weight children, but all raised their heart rate enough to reach an effective aerobic workout level. Another study looked at the exercise intensity of playing DDR at a medium level of difficulty and found that it met official standards for developing and maintaining cardio-respiratory fitness in an active and aerobically fit population (Tan et al. 2002). A third study, with 35 adolescents in Pennsylvania, found that DDR raised participants’ heart rates to double their resting level during a 45-minute period, on average, and this is evidence that playing DDR playing can achieve and sustain an aerobic exercise effect throughout a workout period (Hindery, 2005). The benefits of physical activity are well documented, and include cardio-vascular health, better weight management, reduction of anxiety and stress, improved sensory-motor learning, and improved cognitive alertness and performance (Shasek, 2005). There is growing evidence that frequent exergame use helps people stay fit and manage their weight. “DDR has been proven to be an extremely effective way of promoting weight loss among today's young people and the game fits in perfectly as part of the physical education curriculum in our nation's schools,” said Clara Gilbert, Director of Business Partnerships, Konami Digital Entertainment. “DDR is one of the most innovative video game concepts ever, and it is a fun and entertaining way for kids and adults to develop healthy habits and a fitness-oriented lifestyle.” One of the studies they funded investigated the health and fitness outcomes of young people who played DDR at home for six months. Another study identified the impacts of the game on students in 20 West Virginia schools that used DDR in physical education and health classes, and found that some of the youngsters lost five to ten pounds after playing the game every day during the first few weeks (Barker, 2005; Konami press release, 2006). A third study with 35 overweight children ages 7 to 12 found that playing DDR at least five times a week led to the children feeling more coordinated, less winded, and less self-conscious. They developed stronger self-esteem, on average, improved their aerobic fitness, and reduced their chances for developing diseases associated with obesity, such as diabetes and heart disease. Study participants’ parents reported that most of the children stopped gaining their typical three or four pounds a month and, with increased self-confidence, started exercising and playing sports regularly in daily life (Brubaker, 2006). Based on the positive results of these studies, the state of West Virginia now plans to use DDR in all of its 765 public schools and is developing a school-based DDR curriculum. DDR and In the Groove are being used during physical education classes, recess, lunchtimes, and after school in many other school districts in the US, and students, teachers, and parents are very pleased with the results (Barker, 2005; Hindery, 2005; Shasek, 2004). Teachers report that a single gaming unit in the classroom can benefit the entire class, because students are happy to follow the footwork on dance pads that are not connected to the console, while they watch a student play the game. |
