Decisions, decisions: Exercise or video games?

At South Albany High School, P.E. teacher Lisa Dilbone can offer her students both at once.

South is one of five Albany schools to receive a Wii game console this year for occasional use during P.E. classes.

P.E. and health were due for new textbooks this year in the state’s curriculum adoption cycle, so Albany decided to experiment with the consoles as part of the programs at the middle and high schools.

Fred Meyer and its corporate parent, the Kroger Co., allowed the district to purchase, at a discount, a Wii system, a Wii Fit program and components, and a Dance Dance Revolution game each for seven schools (including Albany Options and the new Timber Ridge). A standard Wii system by itself retails for approximately $250.

Pronounced “Wee,” the wireless video game system relies on body movements to keep the onscreen action going. Players swing the controls like tennis rackets or golf clubs, or punch them at the screen for boxing games.

Dilbone sometimes uses Wii Fit, which offers users yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance games. Players stand on a flat platform a little like an oversized bathroom scale, which records balance, posture and movement.

“I do it maybe once a week — not that often — and it’s usually incorporated with other stuff,” said Dilbone, as freshmen in her “Fitness for Life” class took turns “snowboarding” last week. “It just adds an extra little flair to what they’re doing.”

Dilbone had set up the snowboarding balance game on that particular Thursday as one of 14 stations with exercises on back health and flexibility. Brittni Rogers, 14, said she preferred it to the leg lifts and knee-to-chest stretches at the other stations.

“It’s really hard,” she said, “but it’s a good workout.”

Classmate Casey Koob, 15, disagreed. “I’d rather do other stuff, really,” he said with a shrug. “I mean, it’s fun, but I’d rather be doing physical activity. Basketball. Football.”

But Lesli Cedillo, 14, says when Dilbone projects the Wii’s step aerobics or “Dance Dance Revolution” on the wall for the class to follow, real movement is the name of the game.

“You get to put your groove on, and you get to do exercise,” she said.

CATcHING ON

Wii is popping up in P.E. classes as far away as the United Kingdom. A 2007 study of a handful of teenage gamers in Liverpool, England, found players expend more energy on a Wii than on other gaming systems, but that the physical activity “was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children.”