It’s hard to remember a time when video games weren’t a major part of our lives. Even going back to the early days of gaming when home consoles like Atari and Intellivision were first appearing in family living rooms and kids’ allowances were mostly spent pumping quarters into games at the local arcade, video games were almost always synonymous with recreation and fun but rarely, if ever, with learning. Even the word ‘game’ itself couldn’t possibly tie into meaningful teaching and learning outcomes in school, could it?

In recent years, games did find their way into schools through things such as game-based learning and gamification. But video games could never make the leap into the classroom in quite the same way. Oh sure, you’d see students designing their own games as part of a computer programming course perhaps but that was just a way to engage students in something widely accepted to be a useful and marketable skill. But video games themselves as a vehicle for learning never seemed to be able to find a home in traditional school.

And then something interesting happened. Esports, or competitive video gaming, became a dominant force around the globe capturing audiences unheard of even for some of the most popular sports in the world. Colleges and universities started to create esports teams and even began offering scholarships to some of the best players out there. This led to K-12 educators finding opportunities in their schools to create esports teams and/or clubs to empower and engage their students. But something fascinating happened along the way. Esports ceased being about the games but, instead, has become something even more incredibly powerful and inspiring.

A former principal of mine used to have this activity he would do with our entire high school staff once a year. We would walk into the faculty meeting to find the walls covered with index cards. On each index card was the name of a student in the building. He would start the meeting by asking us to take a few minutes to walk around and look at the names on the walls. If we saw a name and felt we had a connection to that student, we’d pull the card down. This would go on for several minutes until everyone had had a chance to review all of the names. Usually there would be maybe a dozen or so names left on the walls. And if you’re thinking to yourself that you could probably guess who those names would be in your school, you’re wrong. It was never the students you’d think it would be. I remember one year seeing the name of a lovely, polite, studious girl from one of my classes and being shocked that not one teacher felt they had a connection with her.

Students sometimes struggle to find a way to connect to our school communities. High achieving students will typically get the resources and support they need for continued success within their schools. Athletes can find their way through their coaches and teams. Struggling students can often make connections through the educators who try to provide interventions to support them. But others require an outlet for their interests and passions in order to achieve that sense of belonging.

Esports has become that outlet for many students. That way to be part of the school community and achieve success they would not have had otherwise. But the power of esports even goes so far beyond that. It provides every student with the opportunity to be part of a team regardless of their innate physical ability, their socioeconomic background, or their gender to compete in a traditional athletic program. And even further, students don’t have to even be good at video games to be a meaningful contributor to an esports club or team! There are literally dozens of roles from manager to broadcaster to content creator that a student could engage it that would not only allow them to be a valued member of the team but to develop skills that will help them well beyond their years in school.

Our book, The Esports Education Playbook: Empowering Every Learner Through Inclusive Gaming, is an ideal entry point for anyone interested in learning about the world of scholastic esports. My co-authors, Chris Aviles. Steve Isaacs, Christine Lion-Bailey, and I are career educators who each have extensive experience getting successful school and district-wide programs off the ground and understand the challenges, concerns, and potential pitfalls that you may encounter. To provide the most valuable resource for educators, we broke our book up into four sections, each one with a powerful set of tips and stories from educators and practitioners out in the field of esports.

• ‘The Why of Esports in Schools’ examines the many benefits that an esports program confers on participants through the lens of social and emotional learning (SEL). It both describes typical approaches and outcomes of SEL, and details what an SEL curriculum for esports should entail, cataloging the overall benefits of esports for students.
• ‘Changing Perceptions about Esports’ lays out common objections to the formation of esports teams at public schools (such as excessive screen time, toxic gaming culture, and violence in gaming) and offers a range of responses that organizers can offer naysayers.
• ‘Working with Stakeholders’ explains how esports organizers should advocate for the sport when approaching stakeholders and offer a number of helpful talking points.
• ‘Designing an Esports Program’ describes best practices for setting up, managing, and running an esports program, with particular attention to differences between club and varsity teams.

Along with an inspiring foreword from James O’Hagan, an esports history lesson from Mike Washburn, and a glimpse into the future of scholastic esports with our friends from the North American Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF), we think you’ll find that The Esports Education Playbook has something for everyone and is the perfect addition to your education library.

As a special launch promotion, we are running a LIMITED-TIME launch promotion where you will receive not one but TWO digital resource kits to help you launch and support your own esports program including starter and curriculum kits! For full details, check out the link here: http://bit.ly/esportsplaybookpromo

We believe that esports programs will prove to play an important role in how we meet our students where they are and provide them with the opportunities they want and need to succeed. Whether you are completely new to esports, looking to start your own program, seeking out ways to make your existing program even better, or just curious, this is the book for you. So even if you’ve never played a game before in your life, join us on a journey that may not only prove to change the lives of your students, but yours as well.

-Jesse Lubinsky, Chief Learning Officer, Ready Learner One, Co-author, The Esports Education Playbook: Empowering Every Learner Through Inclusive Gaming