What started simply as competitions among lifelong gamers has ballooned to this billion-dollar industry with professional video game players squaring off in tournaments around the world, students earning scholarships to play in college, and learning how to make money. Esports has even permeated high schools and it’s providing brand-new opportunities for development.
The appeal of esports in education is not declining in all likelihood. Beyond the opportunities esports participation creates for students, they also have new chances to compete, experience being part of a team, and even work on developing genuine career skills. They can also develop soft skills while competing, which commonly accelerates social-emotional development.
Educational leaders can leverage esports to help create lots of worthwhile experiences for students, including on both the social and academic sides of things. Since it’s now a varsity sport in many high schools, students can combine their interests and skills in team-centered competitions, find their place in school communities, and maybe even earn a college scholarship.
Aside from the likely guarantee that both parents and administrators will be skeptical, there could be a handful of possible issues with starting a school esports program. Ultimately, however, there truly are a long list of positives associated with interscholastic esports, like students building career skills, becoming part of a community, and fostering new relationships with peers.
Besides opportunities to participate in something they are truly passionate about, kids can also learn more about things like how esports has become this popular and some of its potential benefits and drawbacks. Also, some of the cons of esports in schools might be fairly obvious but in connecting them to their own personal experiences, students can learn a lot.
Just as they would participate in traditional school sports, like football and basketball, establishing school esports programs has become much more common with students even leading the charges in many cases. Similar to receiving athletic scholarships to play sports in college, students can now also do the same with esports—just one of the benefits it provides.
So much goes into creating a school esports program, especially if you are trying to quickly start competing against other teams. If you’re interested in jumping in to interscholastic gaming competitions as opposed to students just playing with their classmates, the High School Esports League serves as a great resource for athletic directors, tech directors, and even coaches.
The esports industry, beyond the high school and college levels, has been popularized via a number of different outlets. One of those is certainly live streaming top matches on platforms like YouTube or Twitch. And, while this excitement may seem unnecessary to casual observers, there are actually millions of people who follow these gamers, including the next generation.
Just under two years ago, Logan and his family learned that he’d inherited a rare genetic condition known as TANC2 Syndrome. Quickly, his whole life changed—with hospital visits, medical tests, and physical struggles—but his passion for gaming remained, leading his mother to contact us to learn how he could build an entire high-powered gaming system from scratch.
As learning initiatives evolve and adapt to better serve students in the 21st century or, in recent months, to allow for effective learning at home, rest assured we’re always doing our best to gauge how we can help. We’ve even created a bunch of helpful content for district leaders, classroom teachers, librarians, and various education professionals.
