Developing students' sporting spirit and creating a school identity

The discussion title may sound weird to other educators who may find it interesting how hard it could possibly be to get children into sports and identifying themselves with school achievements. The sad truth in many developed countries is that more and more children are getting addicted to computer gaming, online gaming and the television. So much so that they become inhibited, trapped in virtual reality worlds which seems to be the only things that are important. Many students become detached from real-life and reacts indifferently to events happening around them. This is also taking place in Singapore.

Recently, I led a team of students to set up a school iSports channel online. A social networking forum that allows students to discuss and know more about sporting events in school. The aim is to promote the sporting spirit among them as well as build on their identification with school achievements. By harnessing web 2.0 tools, we were able to reach the student masses and they were very receptive towards this form of communication. Not only were we able to stimulate interests in the many sports co-curricular activities in school, we also boosted the morale of the school teams, even though they may not have live supporters at every single match in a national tournament, the sheer number of online support makes them feel important and proud. Our school portal also recently won a national isports media competition.

Bedok Green Primary School iSports Channel

Do you have any similar experiences or ideas to share about this. Feel free to comment and any positive pointers to help us improve our isports channel is also very much appreciated!