Trends & Resources

Esports events

Esports events used to be limited to personal computers, however, the advent of mobile smartphones has been expanding the boundaries of esports. The concept or premise of esports can easily be applied, using apps like Quizizz or Kahoot which support team mode, to multi-section grades in a certain subject, for example, to teach healthy competition and engage students who are into esports. It also makes for an innovative assessment method, one that alleviates anxiety and stress resulting from traditional assessments thus promoting life-long meaningful learning. 

Twitch streaming

The famous gaming broadcasting platform has been creatively utilized to run classes. One educator, Eddie Cheung, shares the story of how he employed the affordances of this platform to capture students’ attention and increase engagement. Cheung uses widgets to track and visualize class goals. Where streamers usually visibly track new subscribers in an attempt to encourage more people to sign up, Cheung started an “attendance goal” for his class. You can view the feedback of some social media users to Cheung’s initiative by checking this video. 

Cross-platform play

Cross-platform game development means creating a video game that players can play on multiple gaming platforms at once. So whether it is an Xbox, PlayStation, or mobile phone, players can play the same game together anywhere, anytime. White its benefits might not be directly related to education, if applied in educational contexts, cross-platform play can allow learners in different parts of the world to come together to establish a community of learners through games. It is a great opportunity for social learning. Moreover, affinity groups and DTAL systems (Gee, 2017 ) are easily formed and expanded thanks to this new feature. 

User-generated content

Games such as Roblox, the Minecraft marketplace, and Rec Room, allow players to use tools provided by developers to make, trade, and even sell in-game items with one another. User-created content in current games can include cosmetic items, such as Minecraft’s “Skin Packs” that offer a new look for in-game characters; the Steam Workshop for Valve’s Team Fortress 2, where players submit content for possible official inclusion in the full game; or entirely new minigames like Rec Room’s Western set.

In addition to the lucrative benefits of UGC, it is a quintessential application for the Constructionism Theory of Learning. As Seymour Papert, pioneer of constructionist learning, wrote:

''Constructionism—the N word as opposed to the V word—shares constructivism’s connotation of learning as 'building knowledge structures'  irrespective of the circumstances of the learning. It then adds the idea that this happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it’s a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe.'' (1991, p. 1)