An English language arts teacher has become the director for esports at his high school and kicked off a state-wide initiative to link up other Indiana schools interested in esports as well. John Robertson, who teaches at Tipton High, has launched the Indiana High School Esports Network, which currently has 13 members — all high schools (although middle schools are also invited to join).
The Colorado High School Activities Association is testing esports in schools this year to figure out whether to add it to the athletics fold.
A California school district is launching a joint STEAM career program with an esports tournament. The Compton Unified School District esports program is intended to help students develop STEAM skills, especially in computer programming, and develop their abilities in collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking and problem-solving.
The content covers learning standards in areas such as careers in gaming, maintaining healthy practices, self-management and interpersonal communications, as well as an overview of esports gaming and complete lesson plans.
Microsoft has released an update to Minecraft: Education Edition. The latest back-to-school release (version 1.12) offers several enhancements, including improved multiplayer support, including support for join codes.
Kahoot! is revamping its game creator with new features to make it faster and easier for teachers to use the platform.
The High School Esports League, which claims a membership of 1,500 high schools, is offering the "HSEL Esports Equipment Bundle" for $4,000 per year.
A new report finds that game-based learning revenues will quadruple over the next five years, to reach over $24 billion by 2020.
At ISTE 2019 this week in Philadelphia, ed tech company Classcraft is launching a new "Story Mode" series, which uses storytelling to help teachers engage and motivate students.
While traditional personal computers and tablets are continuing to lose their luster worldwide, other types of computing devices are holding strong.