Online Physical Education

Online physical education seems like an oxymoron to me. The point of physical education is to be active during 51% of class time and to learn how to be physically active for life. When children are learning about physical education online, on a computer, they are being sedentary. They are sitting in front of a screen instead of participating in the physical activity that they should be doing in class. Computers are one of the many factors that contribute to the increasing number of obese children in our country, so why would we want to take away their physical education and put it on a computer? And who is to say that a child will actually go through with the activities they are given online if no one is monitoring them. I also think a downside to OLPE is that the teacher and student lose the connection they can form from face to face interaction.

I think online physical education could be used in a good way though. If it is used with actual physical education class that meets face to face then I think it could work. It could be used to help students begin to learn a task being taught in class the next day so they are not walking in blind. Also, It can be used to evaluate students more efficiently with online quizzes and assignments. I think it would be more appropriate to use for high school aged kids than elementary school kids. In high school kids are more capable of working independently and are more comfortable working with computers. Overall I think that OLPE is not as beneficial to students as face-to-face physical education class.