With the push towards online courses in this day and age, it is not surprising that one of the topics that has come up is whether or not K-12 education should have online physical education courses; through a look at some of the pros and cons, it will be possible to see why this is not a positive concept.
Two of the benefits of an online physical education class include increased confidence levels and the ability to complete the work in the student’s own time. Students who have low levels of self-confidence as a result of body issues are able to complete the written portions of the course, the parts associated with learning about the body itself, often referred to as health or taken as a separate health class, on their own time (Grayson, 2010). They are able to record the physical activities that they do outside of class, giving those with low self-esteem or high levels of self-consciousness regarding their bodies the ability to complete activities without being embarrassed (Grayson, 2010).
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There are downsides to virtual physical education, however. More than 13 million children who live within the United States are either obese or overweight (Chandler, 2011), and the reason they are getting this way is because they are not devoting enough time to physical activities. These students are already constantly in front of screens, from the computer to their phones, their televisions to their console games, and there is no ability to monitor progress other than to take the student’s word that they are completing the physical exercises that they say they are. There is no accountability (Chandler, 2011). In addition, parents are able to simply sign off that students have done the work, regardless of whether or not they actually have, giving room for two different parties to lie and say work was done when nothing was.
While technology in P.E. can be useful, such as with the use of a computer software to explain the workings of the human body as projected onto a gym wall, students need to be present within P.E. and need to be working in order to be able to work to ensure that they are actually and actively exercising.
- Chandler, J. (2011, May 24). P.e. goes virtual. Retrieved from http://www.wctv.tv/
- Grayson, J. (2010, January 08). Virtual p.e.? no sweat!. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com
