HPE and LTTC collaborate to enhance PE Teachers' technological expertise through game design workshops
Dr Gary Chow Chi-ching from HPE, designer and coordinator of the workshop, teaches incumbent teachers the idea of visual exploratory actions (VEA). The workshop has strengthened participants’ visual exploratory behaviour by asking them to actively scan the environment by turning their heads and bodies.
A group photo of workshop participants, all incumbent PE teachers, with the workshop instructors. The two-day workshop in June is designed and led by Dr Gary Chow Chi-ching from HPE, centre, with support from LTTC’s Miss Winnie Wong, far right, and Mr Matt Li Chun-wai, second from right. Mr Kenneth Ho Yik-kiu from HPE, fifth from left, also helped in the workshop.
In June 2024, 10 students taking Professional Development Programme on STEAM in Physical Education (PDP on STEAM in PE) joined a two-day workshop and a final presentation at Extended Reality CAVE Lab (XR CAVE Lab) to learn how to create and design their own interactive games for PE teaching. The workshop, developed by Dr Gary Chow Chi-ching from the Department of Health and Physical Education (HPE) with support from the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology (LTTC), also enhanced the technological knowledge about virtual and augmented reality of the participants. All participants of the workshops are incumbent PE teachers from local primary or secondary schools. They have teaching experiences in PE ranging from 5 to 30 years.
“While teachers frequently use pre-designed games from the XR CAVE Lab in their teaching, they generally have limited experience or knowledge in developing games or learning materials themselves, particularly in physical education. The workshop aimed to provide these educators with a comprehensive understanding of the XR CAVE Lab's potential in learning and development, and to enhance their relevant technological knowledge,” said Dr Chow.
Housed at the University Library, the XR CAVE Lab is one of the largest VR facilities in Hong Kong, and is part of the XR Room equipped with hardware and software for augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality designed for different learning and teaching needs. CAVE is an acronym for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, an immersive virtual reality system that uses multiple projectors directed at the walls, floor, and ceiling of a room to create a high-resolution 3D environment.
One of the key components of the two-day workshop was to develop participants’ knowledge of the surrounding through visual observation. “Visual exploratory actions (VEA) in sports refer to the head and body movements that athletes make to survey the environment and analyse relevant information before taking an action or making a decision. To strengthen their visual exploratory behaviour, I guided them to gather relevant visual information through actively scanning the environment by turning their heads and bodies,” said Dr Chow.
When applying the TPACK-in-Practice to design a game, user needs to go through the desktop design, pilot trial, and prototype presentation steps. In the photo, a participant is presenting the prototype of his game.
A LTTC staff member teaches workshop participants how to use software to design a game to be used in their school PE curriculum.
The two-day workshop was consisted of a three-hour short demonstration and practice, and a three-hour of guided group work held separately on 5 and 17 June. Through the training, participants have learnt how to use the various features of the MrCreator, a proprietary VR design software, to develop game prototypes aimed at enhancing players’ visual exploratory actions. “While the participants have mastered the basic skills in developing games, they need to learn more about developing game content relevant to the needs of the visual exploratory actions in sports and PE,” said Dr Chow.
The workshop used the TPACK-in-Practice approach to teach participants, giving incumbent PE teachers an opportunity to create their own motor-visual interactive games with specific consideration for the PE curriculum in their schools. Under the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge)-in-Practice learning framework, learners acquire not only content knowledge about the subject matter, but also pedagogical knowledge about teaching methods and practices, and technological knowledge about the related educational technologies. While Dr Chow taught workshop participants pedagogical knowledge, Miss Winnie Wong and Mr Matt Li Chun-wai from LTTC developed their technological knowledge in game design.
The culmination of the training was a group presentation held at the VR CAVE on 25 June. “Even though the training schedule was tight, workshop participants appreciated the opportunity to acquire skills in extended reality and they demonstrated great understanding of the technology. The overall quality of their learning results was satisfactory. Participants’ self-innovated games are extraordinary and are now open for trial and play. Even though they have only mastered preliminary skills, they have already discovered ways to implement them in their teaching. This will definitely advance their instructional methods to new stages,” Dr Chow remarked.
Dr Gary Chow was invited to share his teaching experience at the “Unmasking Educators’ Struggle” symposium at the European College of Sports Science (ECSS) congress 2024 held between 2 and 5 July in Glasgow. In his first invited lecture, Dr Chow highlighted how he adopted the TPACK-in-Practice approach to develop educators' intention and capacity for integrating technology into their future teaching. “The TPACK-in-Practice framework emphasises transferring knowledge and skills from theory to practice in teacher education. This approach allows PE educators to effectively combine technological, pedagogical and content elements to create innovative and engaging learning activities, preparing them to face future educational challenges,” Dr Chow explained.
