DDR to hit Scotland school gyms?

Dancing is definitely a great way to lose weight, and it seems Dance Dance Revolution is making a resurgence in health circles. After our earlier report on American PE classes using DDR as a new addition to the PE curriculum, it seems DDR is also in the works to get teenage girls in Scotland to exercise.

In an attempt to investigate how using IT can help kids learn (and to combat obesity), Learning Teaching Scotland (LTS), a quasi non-governmental organization, is putting DDR into the mix as part of its project to see how far an IT-enhanced learning initiative can go. According to education lecturer Derek Robertson,

We’re looking at how the dancing mats can be used for exercise. And we are also looking at a series of other programmes and applications. For example, we are using the football game Pro Evolution Soccer to help with tactics and strategy.

Of course, there is some skeptical response to this. Instead of teaching dancing through DDR, some parents posit, why not simply teach dancing without the newfangled gadgetry? On a much deeper level, it seems more or less apt to teach it without the need for tech, as would be the case with ballroom dancing. At the same time, you have to admit that nothing gets the blood pumping faster than doing one run of Paranoia at 1.5 speed, preferably with perfect footwork to boot.

Dancing is definitely a great way to lose weight, and it seems Dance Dance Revolution is making a resurgence in health circles. After our earlier report on American PE classes using DDR as a new addition to the PE curriculum, it seems DDR is also in the works to get teenage girls in Scotland to exercise.

In an attempt to investigate how using IT can help kids learn (and to combat obesity), Learning Teaching Scotland (LTS), a quasi non-governmental organization, is putting DDR into the mix as part of its project to see how far an IT-enhanced learning initiative can go. According to education lecturer Derek Robertson,

We’re looking at how the dancing mats can be used for exercise. And we are also looking at a series of other programmes and applications. For example, we are using the football game Pro Evolution Soccer to help with tactics and strategy.

Of course, there is some skeptical response to this. Instead of teaching dancing through DDR, some parents posit, why not simply teach dancing without the newfangled gadgetry? On a much deeper level, it seems more or less apt to teach it without the need for tech, as would be the case with ballroom dancing. At the same time, you have to admit that nothing gets the blood pumping faster than doing one run of Paranoia at 1.5 speed, preferably with perfect footwork to boot.