Difficulties and Relief: Innovative Research on the Integration of Digital Technology and Physical Education Teaching

The deep integration of digital technology and physical education is not only an essential direction for contemporary classroom reform but also a key pathway for enhancing students’ core competencies in physical education. Despite the vigorous promotion of digital tools in PE instruction, numerous challenges persist in actual teaching practice. On one hand, some PE teachers exhibit a limited understanding of digital pedagogy; while digital elements are incorporated into lessons, traditional instructional paradigms remain dominant, resulting in scenarios akin to “old wine in a new bottle.” On the other hand, the intelligent features of digital teaching materials are often underutilized, leading to overly simplistic methods and superficial content delivery. In response to these issues, this study employs CiteSpace 6.3.1 to conduct a visualized analysis of the current state and evolving trends of digital-PE integration. The goal is to uncover its underlying value logic, identify research hotspots and critical issues, reveal practical barriers in the integration process, and propose feasible pathways for improvement, thereby offering theoretical and practical insights for the future development of digital physical education in China.