Joint presentation by Elizabeth Newbury of the Wilson Center's Serious Games Initiative and James Collins of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology on eSports and its use within classrooms. Serious Play Conference, 2017

1. ESPORTS &
EDUCATION
Why eSports is
Impacting Classrooms
Elizabeth Newbury
Serious Games Initiative,
Wilson Center &
PhD Candidate,
Cornell University
@enewb
@WilsonSTIP
Photo credit: British eSports Association

2. Agenda
Background About eSports K12 Context

3. • The Serious Games Initiative is part of the
Science andTechnology Innovation Program
at theWoodrowWilson International Center
for Scholars, one of the top 10 think tanks in
the world
• We produce games to communicate leading
policy research to the public
• We aim to make research accessible,
engaging & fun to increase dialogue around
critical policy issues
– Current Games:The Fiscal Ship (www.fiscalship.org) created
with 1st Playable and the Brookings Institute to help
audiences learn about the federal budget
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context

4. About me
• PhD Candidate at Cornell University
• Dissertation in aTweet: “Why do people watch other
people play video games?”
• Mixed method exploration of eSports fans
– Content analysis of eSports broadcast
– Field observation of eSports in semi-public spaces
– Interviews with eSports fans
• Key literatures: sociology of sport, audience studies,
fan studies, game studies, gender studies
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context

5. WHAT IS
ESPORTS?

6. What is
eSports?
• Definition of “serious play”
• eSports is competitive video game
play, where video games are played
like a sport
• Consists of increasingly
professionalized leagues, teams,
players
• Estimated $696M market*
• Audience of 385 million worldwide*
Sport
Infrastructure
& Culture
eSports
Video Games
& Gaming
culture
*NewZoo (Feb 2017), Global eSports Market Report 2017
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context

7. Is eSports a
sport?
• eSports exhibits many of the characteristics of sport
(c.f. Jenny, Manning, Keiper & Olrich, 2017)
– Organized play (leagues)
– Professionalization of play
– Dedicated following (fans)
• My research:Yes….and no
• eSports fans watch, socialize,
consume, learn from watching but also
play, which has long been divided in
“sport fandom” (supportingTaylor,
2012)
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context

8. Does it
matter if
eSports is a
sport?
Depends?
• Socially: being a sport provides
legitimization for eSports fans to
non-eSports fans
• Economically: eSports is doing well
as it stands – unless you are a player
• Legally: Visas (e.g. Forbes, 2013, 2017);
Ethical treatment of players, player
health; Ramifications for cheating, drug
use; Gambling – now legal in LasVegas;
Title IX
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context
Photo credit: High School StarLeague

9. Issues in
eSports:
Gender
parity
• Currently masculine dominated space
– Gamer masculinity + Sports masculinity = No space for
women (e.g. Connell’s Masculinities)
• Particularly true when it comes to professional and
casual play; less with spectating
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context
*See Casselman, 2015 on ESPN

10. Ageism in
eSports
• Ageism is alive and well in eSports
• “Prime” age to be an eSports player is
pre-college; Professional players
frequently “retire” somewhere in the
early 20’s
 Why? Journalists claim it is due to
reaction time, dexterity, etc.
 Fans: “I had to become an adult”
 What’s critical here is this is in terms of
competitive playing -- the audience for
eSports (those who watch & play casually) is
much more flexible
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context
Photo credit: Mousesports

11. ESPORTS & K12
CLASSROOMS

12. What does
an eSports
fan do?
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context

13. Applications
for K12
Play
• Integration of competitive video gaming in terms of play
would provide many of the same benefits as organized sport:
teaching fair play, giving kids a sense of agency and self-
esteem
• Added benefit: pathways to STEM
Watching
• Understanding that watching contributes to play
eSports is critical
• Form of experiential learning: students are harnessing
what they watch and applying it to their own
experience; also evaluating what they watch
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context
Photo credit:UCI (which now offers scholarships!)

14. Skills from
eSports
• Social engagement: eSports is a space where young
people can make friends, that they can engage in a
diversity of play, watching, and social identity
construction practices both online and offline
• Need for: awareness of cyberbullying; internet safety;
time management
• Research & Strategic thinking: fans often become
eSports fans as a result of researching how to play their
favorite game; they continue this research about the
game throughout their experience, tying both to
watching (critique of plays) and playing (developing
strategy)
• Ties to: evaluating data and sources; improved
statistical & logical reasoning; game theory; engaged
learning
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context
Photo credit: Riot Games

15. Pro-Social
Skills in
eSports
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context
Photo credit: Don’t feed theTrolls podcast (disclaimer: not endorsing)

16. Future Directions:
Care in
Consumptive
Practices
In-Game
Platforms like STEAM and in-game purchasing make supporting the
industry easy, giving fans a sense of agency
At the same time, purchases need to have some in-game value to be
effective – seeThe International
Out-Game
Fans buy mostly game-related merchandise (not like a sports fan)
but design spaces for watching, playing, and socializing around
eSports
May not be buying jerseys, but will buy mice if has value for gaming
FANS ARE NOT SPORTS CONSUMERS; THE TENSIONS BETWEEN BEING A
SPECTATOR AND PLAYER ARE SEEN IN THEIR CONSUMPTION
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context

17. Future Directions:
Spaces for
eSports
eSports
Space
Spectating
Knowledge
Acquisition
Socializing
Playing
• K12 audience need physical
spaces to gather
• History of arcades, LANs*
• Increasingly, the spectatorship
experience is being geared towards 21+
• K12: Need a physical space to gather,
with supportive instructors
• Ways to encourage diversity?
*Which are male-dominated spacesBackground
About
eSports
K12 Context

18. Future Directions:
Design
Implications
• It starts with the game: successful eSports games
have been changed to easily encourage spectator
mode
• Need to incorporate more diversity in gaming
characters to encourage wider audience
• Low skill floor, high skill ceiling – fans want to see
games that are easy to get into, but can be played at
increasingly complex levels
Background
About
eSports
K12 Context
Photo Credit: NYTimes

19. ELIZABETH NEWBURY
SERIOUS GAMES INITIATIVE
WILSON CENTER
@enewb
@WilsonSTIP
facebook.com/WilsonSTIP
Elizabeth.Newbury@wilsoncenter.org
wilsoncenter.org/program/science-and-technology-
innovation-program

20. @OfficeOfEdTech
Education & Competitive Gaming
Why Esports is Impacting Classrooms
James Collins, Liaison
Office of Educational Technology •
US Department of Education

21. Office of Educational Technology
tech.ed.gov
● provide leadership at the Federal level, through the Department of
Education, by developing a national vision and strategy
● provide leadership to the Nation in the use of technology to
promote achievement and to increase opportunities for all
students
● to infuse technology and technology planning into all educational
programs carried out within school systems at the State and
local level

22. Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education
https://tech.ed.gov/netp

23. ● Learning
● Teaching
● Leadership
● Assessment
● Infrastructure

32. “We observed that participants who scored higher
on a number processing task had greater
improvements in MOBA skill and that this link
depended on the social context of the gameplay.
Specifically, numerical skill was linked to player
rankings generated from matches where they were
paired with random individuals...”

36. Further Research Needed
● Skill/Play connections
● Data Collection
● Data Interpretation
● Case Studies

37. Connect with us online:
@OfficeOfEdTech
tech.ed.gov
https://www.facebook.com/officeofedtech
https://medium.com/OfficeofEdTech
Web:
Blog:
tech@ed.govEmail: