Universal High School makes virtual gaming part of academics to encourage children to take up real sports and musical instruments
Universal High School makes virtual gaming part of academics to encourage children to take up real sports and musical instruments
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game theory: Students practice tennis in the Nintendo Wii. pic/narendra dangiyau00a0u00a0 |
A Malad school has decided to use technology to encourage students to take up sports and music. The Universal High School has introduced once-a-week sessions of Nintendo Wii for its students of Std III onwards; a virtual video game, which unlike the PlayStations and Xboxes, keeps the child physically active.
Thus, since a month, students have been trying their hand at tennis, boxing, bowling, baseball, golf, yoga and aerobics, all virtually.u00a0 They also have virtual music class where they play the drums, guitar, trumpet and piano.
Jesus S M Lall, CEO, Universal Group of Schools, said, "The virtual sports and music class have been added to the academic curriculum since a month. These games are reasonably serious calorie burners. It is the other games the Playstations and the Xboxes that make children obese.
This one makes you swing your arm and burn some sweat. The goal here is only to spark interest, make students enjoy the sport or the musical instrument so much that they take up the real thing."
Results say it allWii music has been on the school's curriculum since a week, and Jay P, the school's arts teacher, is impressed with the results. "I see this as a tool to generate the 'wow factor' and spark interest in children."
Today is the school's annual sports day and Nintendo Wii has found a place here as well. Zarin Virji, principal, added, "We've introduced a competitive event called Virtual Sports in our Annual Sports Day." A spokesperson said, "We will demonstrate playing on the Nintendo Wii for parents, so that they have an idea of what this entails."
Lall added,u00a0 "Sports and physical fitness are important for the overall development of a child. Real sports have their own place, while virtual sports are an easier version of the same. Initiatives like these go a long way in breaking that barrier of interest. Once kids take a liking to boxing on Wii, there's a very strong chance that he will end up liking real boxing."
Nintendo WiiThe Nintendo Wii is a video game console that allows users to control a game using physical gestures using motion-sensing technology. For example, players have tou00a0 swing their arms to hit a ball while playing virtual tennis.
