The digitised future of physical education

This chapter provides an analysis of the emergence of wearable and mobile activity trackers, biosensors and personal analytics apps in physical education, arguing that the algorithmic processes embedded in these devices and software have an increasingly powerful part to play in how people learn about their own bodies, fitness and health. It considers the possible digitised future of physical education, examining particularly how health-tracking technologies promote new 'biopedagogies' of bodily optimisation based on data-led and algorithmically-mediated understandings of the body. These developments and issues suggest the need for greater attention to how algorithmic systems are becoming embedded in emerging physical education technologies and pedagogical practices. The chapter shows how the software and algorithms have been programmed to quantify embodied physical activity and to enable particular kinds of user experiences and recommend activities that might enhance young people's fitness and healthy behaviours.