Esports and Learning

[Michelle Freeman]

For those who have heard about the esports project that we ran in California this last spring, I wanted to give an update.  For those who have no idea what I am talking about, I hope that I can provide some clarity and context.  By the way, esports is competitive online video games.  😉

 First, we ran a high school league using the game League of Legends this past spring.  It was very popular and turned out to be extremely successful.  In our inaugural season with a quick sign-up period, we ended up with 38 teams countywide.  The league play culminated in a live tournament finale.  All of the relevant information can be found at our website here:  http://www.ochighschoolesports.org

Please note that, since we are moving beyond Orange County with this initiative, we are changing our name.  We will now be known as the North America Scholastic Esports Federation.

Second, the entire goal of this project was to connect STEM learning and workforce development with a very popular and interest-driven initiative like esports.  To that end, we wrote a four year curriculum to replace high school English that infuses esports with the content standards from ELA, NGSS, ISTE tech standards and social emotional learning components.  Our 11th grade version has been approved by the governing body in California and await approval of the other three.  We already have some high schools signed-up to pilot the curriculum in the fall.  

There are other organizations out there pushing esports to our high schools — some are even claiming an affiliation with our group. However, we have not partnered with anyone.  We insist on highlighting the learning that can come from a vehicle like esports while other organizations are seeking to profit from students playing.  That is not our mission.

We would love to put an informational webinar together soon to go over all of these details and how those interested can create a league and join the Federation.  You can email me with interest or just be on the lookout for an announcement as to when it will take place.

 

Thanks!

Tom Turner
Orange County Department of Education
Orange County STEM Initiative
tturner@ocde.us