Level Up – Pathways in Schools

One size has never fit all; not in the free shirt you receive at a conference or in options for learning. 

Similarly, young people vary widely in interest and passion, and campuses often have to facilitate opportunities for students to connect and find their people. One option that not only provides connection, but also provides an environment for skill development, and prepares students for life beyond school is esports. While the world of esports was once considered ancillary to other programs, districts and campuses that have embraced this new pathway for students have found it to be vital.  

According to a student engagement survey, only 65% of students agreed with the statement, “I go to school because of what I learn in classes.” and 54% participate in 4 hours or more of school-sponsored activities. Esports is a great way for students to become engaged and connected during and after school. 

Stackable – Skills Development

No. Students aren’t just wasting their time gaming. 

As scholars put on their headsets, turn on their game, and spend countless hours rising through the ranks, they are forming teams, creating strategies, and persevering against some of the best players globally. Through gaming, students gain durable skills (as defined by America Succeeds) which are high demand skills that allow youth to demonstrate their knowledge and stretch their character. Esports (competitions, challenges, tournaments) allows participants to strengthen leadership, collaboration, critical thinking, and fortitude skills. Relying on teammates, developing strategy plans, and persevering against the odds are a few of the ways players develop transferable skills through gameplay and why esports teams are essential on any campus.

As with the competitive side of esports, operations are primarily fueled by technology. Esposure4All, a summer internship program,  trains high school students with limited incoming experience to run esports events focusing on the software incorporated into these experiences. Over the course of two months, students are introduced to the Adobe Suite, Obsidian, Blackmagic’s ATEM software, VMIX, and professional photography and videography skills. One intern said the experience “opened up new doors and opportunities that I wouldn’t have by learning to use these new software”. 

During the internship, students learned the importance of professional communication, proactively managing client scope, and event management and execution. Interns also learned the value of professional branding by creating their LinkedIn profiles, headshots, and portfolios as well as the elements of self-directed learning and critical thinking skills as they were provided access to the resources and were challenged to learn the necessary information to execute their goals. One intern stated the process forced him to “dig deep into [his] brain and find ways to solve the simplest tasks.”  If this progress occurred during two months of esports training, what level of impact would this provide over a school year or more?

Ready Player One – Future Career Options

Not a gamer, not a problem. 

While the obvious career option in esports may be professional gamer, that only accounts for a fraction of the jobs in the billion-dollar industry and provides an average salary of $60,000/year. A robust esports program can introduce young people to almost 200 careers in the esports industry according to Hitmarker, a job recruitment platform specifically for the video gaming world. From research to art design to event planning, the possibilities are abundant for those involved. As career exploration continues to expand and commence earlier than high school, the options in esports can’t be neglected. A recent study conducted by America Student Assistance showed over two-thirds of high school students would have benefited from career exploration: the time is now to view esports programs as an additional avenue to lucrative jobs before it’s game over. There are robust esports programs budding across the country on college universities and campuses like Full Sail that are fully committed to careers in the gaming industry. 

Additionally, there are paths to entrepreneurship that esports carves out as was the case for Ryan ‘Dayfri’ Conger who moved from college baseball player to gamer to professional gamer to esports intern to entrepreneur.  Conger once had his eyes on becoming a pro baseball player until his college career was sidetracked due to an injury. Once he shifted his focus to gaming and continued to learn about potential career opportunities he pivoted to gaming and, eventually, esports coaching. He is now the coach for the Dallas Mavericks esports team which also allowed him to support his parents’ pathway to entrepreneurship. 

Teamwork + Community = Belonging

Squad up!

Yes, most campuses have a football, basketball, band, cheerleading and dance team_, but is there a student demographic these organizations are missing? Perhaps, esports is the perfect solution to provide a community for a group of young people who may be overlooked by traditional sports programming. The world of esports is an accessible platform for students to gain recognition for their level of gameplay. The need to belong is ingrained in young people and is tied to student academic performance in school as well. Regardless of the console or video game, esports allows students to make connections, build community, feel seen and share experiences with other students with similar interests. A study from 2019 noted that while the majority of middle and high school students feel a sense of belonging, close to 30% are missing the vital aspect of belonging that could be solved through esports.  

As Epulze COO, Frank Sliwka stated, “With the rise of scholastic esports, educators now have a unique opportunity to validate their students’ interests, support their social-emotional learning, and connect them with future workforce aspirations.” It’s imperative that campuses and out-of-school opportunities expand offerings that include esports and the countless students who may find their crew through gaming.

Project-Based Learning 

Esports is the embodiment of project-based learning.

Through esports programs, students are finding and following their passions as Videographers, Photographers, Production Technicians, Production Managers, Light & AV Technicians, Discord Engineers, Stream Moderators, Graphic Designers, Animators, and many other roles. As students learn about different pathways, they are consistently facing challenges and troubleshooting to succeed in their job. 

As students take on their roles, they are learning how to “own” their positions and gain self-agency to grow within those roles. A simplified version of this is Esposure’s Esports Business Pitch Competition. Through this experience, Esposure works with schools physically or virtually to break students into teams of five and provides them with a mock budget to produce the best esports event out of their class. Each of the team members lead the divisions of Management, Marketing, Production, Technology, and Competition. These roles include the following responsibilities:

• Manager – Ensures the team is moving with a unified vision and within the given timeline 
• Marketer – Creates social media campaign and pages in addition to analyzing marketing spend
• Production – Creates reels from the stream of a simulated tournament
• Technology – Creates the company’s website
• Competition – Creates brackets and uses the budget to determine players to be selected for the mock draft.

Opportunities such as this give students the opportunity to learn independently while contributing to a larger group. This culminates in a “Shark-Tank” style pitch competition where teams are provided with 5 minutes to pitch their event, with the best one being crowned the winner.

This is just one example of how esports can bring students together. On a grander scale, esports programs can recruit from and contribute to a variety of other programs and clubs with the various soft and hard skills learned providing your campus with a student-run community of innovative leaders. 

As the education system embraces scholastic esports, it empowers educators to support students’ emotional growth, align their passions with their future aspirations, and facilitate project-based learning that mirrors real-world challenges. The story of esports in schools is a testament to the power of innovation, inclusion, and adaptable learning, shaping the next generation of agile, skilled, and self-assured leaders ready to excel in any field they choose to pursue.

The post Stop Playing: Your Campus Needs an Esports Program   appeared first on Getting Smart.

In beautiful San Diego, at the 10th anniversary Deeper Learning Conference, attendees were welcomed with an open-air pop-up shop where student entrepreneurs sold carefully crafted goods (shoutout to Quinn’s Creations for clay earrings) and shared their varied stories of design and learning.

It was evident from the onset that this conference, hosted by High Tech High Graduate School Education, would spotlight three core elements of authentic learning: vulnerability, flexibility, community and connection.

Vulnerability

Over the course of the conference, there were several opportunities to move to the jams and demonstrate radical vulnerability with strangers from around the world. Attendees were encouraged to embrace discomfort in sessions and to lean into ways vulnerability can teach. The Inclusive Design for More Equitable Learning Environments session led by the Henry Ford Institute named discomfort as a norm as participants labeled identities core to them such as mother, educator, Latina, husband, and how these identifiers impact the development of learning spaces for adults and young people. The identities inherently will influence decisions and will often shape who is seen and who is heard.

Throughout the sessions, young people sat shoulder-to-shoulder with adult learners establishing a space of both vulnerability and power. The conversations that took place encouraged attendees to rethink their relationship with learners and to see everyone in the space as equals with something of value to share.

Using Comics to Drive Difficult Conversations about Race and History led by Stephane Manuel of TruFikton was a great opportunity to learn from colleagues. It is not uncommon for presenters to acknowledge the brilliance in the room, aside from their own. At Deeper Learning, this went beyond a canned remark at the top of the session. These facilitators allowed for voices to be heard and experiences to be shared for an inclusive learning environment.

Flexibility

Deeper Learning is built in a way that truly supports flexible and variable learning experiences. For example, a conference-goer might attend Den Talks, an informal conversation led by two hosts on a particular topic like school leadership or community support. The beauty is that no two Den Talks are the same in topic or flow.

One conversation centered around school transformation led by Kaleb Rashad, the interim Chief Executive Officer at High Tech High and Eric Chagala the founding principal from Vista Innovation & Design Academy (VIDA), kicked off by gathering questions from the audience. These questions ranged from how to galvanize around school change to what to do when the school environment is reluctant to change and innovate. The hosts shared how Liberating Structures and the Thinking Collaborative shaped their leadership as a response. Listen to their podcast episode of their Den Talk on HTH UnBoxed!

Another Den Talk featured San Diego Met alumna Karla Cruz Godoy and current San Diego Met senior, Sofia Ervin where they engaged in a conversation about the relationship between advisors and students which is a core component of the Big Picture Schools learning model. Each shared how essential and impactful advisory time is to student success. “There have been times when my advisor needed to lean on us more than we needed to lean on him,” Sofia explained to the audience members.

Deeper Learning also facilitates Deep Dives, three-hour immersive blocks to delve into a range of educational topics. Peeling the layers back in sessions related to unlocking fear through art and literacy, education as a practice of freedom, and the power podcasts provide student voices, allows ample time to forge strong bonds with colleagues that last beyond the conference.

Deeper Learning creates an environment that supports learning through freedom of space and time.

Community and Connection

At Deeper Learning, relationship is key. All participants are assigned advisory groups with the sole purpose of making new connections. This advisory time occurred throughout the conference, always with the same advisory leader who facilitates activities for collaboration such as Exquisite Corpse which requires small groups to draw a body without seeing what the precious person drew. This activity drew up flexibility and vulnerability as many participants did not self-identify as “artists.” Guards were down and laughs were up when the final results were revealed and shared.

Finally, as the sun started to set the first evening, attendees sampled food truck offerings key to the west coast from Bar-B-Que to lobster rolls to vegetarian-East African food.

A key component of Deeper Learning is time to share knowledge gained and all learners were offered the opportunity during the exhibition of learning. During this time, participants were able to witness artifacts of Deep Dives from other attendees such as dance routines, art displays, and interactive exhibits.

Transformational learning occurs when these three components are used consistently in learning spaces to inspire and cultivate genuine learning opportunities. All learning experiences can contain vulnerability, flexibility, community and connection to allow rich and meaningful learning to occur.

If you are interested in growing with an innovative and international learning community, register for the Deeper Learning 2024 conference from March 26th -28th.

The post Getting Deep at Deeper Learning appeared first on Getting Smart.

On any given day articles related to teacher burnout, retention of educators, and staff dissatisfaction are overflowing on any media outlet. Rarely are solutions shared or silver linings highlighted, which is why the online Equity for Wellness Summit is essential. Over the course of three days, teachers, administrators, researchers, and practitioners shared perspectives and resources tailored to schools and their staff addressing those in the space of education and their wellness. Acknowledging the varied schedules and demands of attendees, the entire conference was online and recorded, demonstrating a true commitment to accessibility and equity. 

Origins of Equity in Wellness Summit 

Many recent efforts and initiatives connected to educator well-being were a direct result of the global pandemic, but Wellness for Educators planted its seed in 2018. A direct result of Wellness for Educators’ founder and executive director Kathryn Kennedy’s mental health and well-being journey the nonprofit organization started as a small effort by Kathryn and her sisters Mary and Liz who created short videos, podcasts, and articles for educators. When the pandemic hit, Kathryn knew the next few years would be vital for those in the education space to have resources that centered on mental health and well-being, so in December of 2020 Wellness for Educators expanded their offerings and started serving the field more intentionally. Members of the organization include licensed mental health practitioners, educators, and certified somatic and mind-body coaches and practitioners who embody diversity and champion the use of equitable wellness practices for the field of education.

Recently, Wellness for Educators hosted its first conference, the Equity in Wellness Summit, which served as a collaborative effort between organizations invested in the growth, development, and sustainability of healthy individuals who work in any capacity of education. The summit was co-sponsored by other advocates in the equity in education wellness space, including the University of Redlands’ Center for Educational Justice and Voice4Equity. 

The Equity for Wellness Summit was a three-day, virtual event that brought together inspiring educators, licensed mental health professionals, researchers, somatic professionals, and other experts who are engaging at the intersection of equity, mental health and wellbeing, and education. The summit was intentionally structured to be a collection of panel discussions, experiential wellness sessions, and community-based reflection and shared spaces. The summit also included interactive mind-body sessions, webinars, and additional informational videos for reference. All attendees were given access to recordings of each session once the summit ended.

Session Summarization/ Key Findings 

Anyone who’s attended a conference knows the keynote sets the tone. When Dr. Dena Simmons, the founder of LiberatED, embeds student voice, love, joy, and liberation in her powerful opening remarks, it’s clear the following days will contain the same notes of community, collaboration, healing, and support. Simmons launched the summit by sharing what makes her feel free and the importance of creating spaces for students to feel the same by incorporating clips of students personally expressing what makes them feel free. She then shifted to talk about social-emotional learning and wellness and even provided a caution that “If we are not careful SEL, can be white supremacy with a hug.” She reiterated that the conference focused on wellness to allow for a more inclusive definition for educators and students. Simmons concluded her message with a charge by asking participants, “How will you be an educator that fights for freedom?” 

Following the dynamic keynote from Simmons were several session offerings with themes connected to equity, community, and accountability. Defining Wellness in Equitable Ways with Shomari Jones, Dr. Rebecca Itow, Jonathan Santos Silva, and Alejandra Ramos Gomez dissected layered topics countless educators face, such as how to maintain personal values in a professional system built against them and why it’s essential to have a personal board of directors as a sense of accountability. Jones and Santos Silva reminded participants that small coalitions matter, and finding just one coconspirator is beneficial for personal wellness in the work as an educator. 

The summit continued with powerful discussions examining exactly how to create spaces for wellness. In these sessions, panelists gave perspective to the idea that wellness can be achieved by building community through courageous conversations. Vanee Smith-Matsalia, Islah Tauheed, and Sophie Teitelbaum led a thoughtful conversation about why Building Your “Homeplace” as an Educator and a Disruptor is so important to overall wellness. Sophie Teitelbaum describes the homeplace for educators through an equitable lens as being a soft place to land [stressing] “for all people, not just those that look like me.” Panelists further described how during the pandemic, people across the globe rallied to create homeplaces for their wellness. Vanee Smith-Matsalia explained how it has been soul-crushing to have done the work of humanizing [through SEL initiatives], during the pandemic, just to be erased after returning to school.

Shomari Jones, Dr. Paul Sutton, Aaron Schorn, and Dr. Kathryn Kennedy continued this discussion in a session on Building the Bridge through Courageous Conversations where panelists discussed the guidelines of how to have conversations about wellness and equity with the intention to gain wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. When teachers feel heard, understood, and respected, it can have a positive impact on their overall well-being. Aaron Schorn described how being courageous in equity conversations can look different for everyone; for him, “it is to listen more than I talk.” Panelists continued their discussion by offering examples of how to care for themselves and others in those spaces. Dr. Paul Sutton explained that the definition of care changes depending on what a person is going through and how “care is not an endpoint, it’s continual and ever-changing depending on the situation.”

Discussing equity and wellness within education can be emotionally taxing to those who are in the thick of it. This is why the creators of the summit were intentional about providing wellness breaks in between sessions. These “breaks” were still considered sessions, as they offered skills and techniques to center oneself as a way to achieve wellness. In the session Bringing Back Play with Stephanie McGary, attendees were challenged to make room for play and invited to engage in a short game. Alejandro Ramos Gomez facilitated a session on Dance Therapy where she briefly discussed its benefits and then guided attendees through 15 minutes of stretches and embodied movement of the body. Additionally, Antonia Small contributed by leading a Somatic Session of mindful movement and yoga. By design, these sessions were healing, engaging, and interactive, yet informative, leaving attendees feeling recharged and ready to dive into critical conversations. 

To dive deeper into a few of the supports mentioned, consider visiting a few of the links below: 

• The Importance of Play by Michael Forman 
• Mindfulness First – organization to support students and teachers using trauma-informed practices
• LiberatED – resources for a liberatory approach to SEL, racial justice, and healing
• The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effect of Childhood Trauma and Adversity by Nadie Burke Harris 
• Good Inside – Dr. Becky Kennedy

The post Empowering Educators: The Equity for Wellness Summit appeared first on Getting Smart.

You know how sometimes you are super excited about a session, but you’re also super excited about a conversation you’re having and then you accidentally miss the session… yeah. Same. Fortunately, DLAC has designed a solution.

DLAC has strands of sessions, meaning people will often show up on the programming multiple times and in multiple formats. That way, instead of getting down on yourself for taking a longer lunch break with a crew you just met from Colorado (while ordering your tacos), you discover the presenters have another session with a core theme related to the previously missed session.

This conference has been designed for differentiation. When you think about typical conferences it can follow a formula of a) Establish an organization, b) Run the organization for a few years, c) Members of the organization demand a conference, d) The organization creates the conference for members and e) Start to invite other organizations to the conference. However, when we look at the origin story of the Digital Learning Annual Conference (DLAC), it’s a different story.

The story of DLAC. Back in the pre-COVID world of 2017, the Digital Learning Collaborative (DLC), a group of people and organizations focused on online and hybrid learning, noticed there wasn’t a space for them to call their own. Many of the members were administrators or teachers in the digital learning community and engaged with students online years before the rest of the world rushed to do so. Fast forward to April 2019 when the DLC kicked off the first conference with over 500 attendees in Austin, Texas. Gathering everyone in February of 2020, and with the global shutdown looming, attendance almost doubled.

Much of the increase was due to attendees from the previous year bringing their entire teams to the conference because there was such a need for community and learning in the digital landscape. When many learning opportunities needed to be closed, reduced, or just available online, DLAC was able to keep its events open by providing creative options. In 2021, DLAC provided the first truly hybrid conference with 500 attendees in person (which was limited by the hotel) and supported 700 attendees online. In 2022, DLAC offered a change of scenery by hosting the conference in Atlanta, Georgia where 1600 virtual and in-person participants gathered to learn and share. In response, DLAC carved its own path as a conference. Since that time, DLAC has grown to about 2000 participants in person and online in 2023. As the digital learning landscape continues to grow, DLAC continues to evolve to meet the needs of all learners.

DLAC 2023. This year, the event’s Call for Proposals was organized around Blended Learning, Digital Learning, Hybrid Learning, and Online Learning. The themes utilized for selection:

• Accountability
• Communications/Marketing
• Continuity of Learning
• Design/Refine Your School/Program
• Digital Content
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
• Funding/Policy
• Innovation
• Professional Development
• Quality
• Research
• Teaching Strategies
• Technology

In addition to the pre-conference online options to start building momentum, there were also invitations for state affiliations to meet and build a network. We were able to talk with Allison Powell, a co-founder of DLAC, about the design of the conference, which is intentionally designed to support varying needs and interests as well as to accommodate different styles of participant learning. A topic may be linked across different formats, while some sessions are also meant to link or flow together over the course of three days. From short conversations to larger block workshops – there is a menu of selections.  Each session structure is described below

Shorter Formats:

• Contributed talks are 20-minute segments [15 minutes of presentation, 5 minutes discussion], grouped into three talks, and make up a session. Some of these sessions are coordinated together and link to a shared focus, while others may not have any connection. The short setup has more discussion and sharing time while inviting participants to follow up for more detail with the presenter.
• Table talks are short discussions with very light facilitation. The arrangement of tables can vary by the moderator. The topics are selected to evoke timely and engaged conversations with participants.
• Book Studies are similar to table talks in structure (around 35 minutes) around a book that is focused on digital learning that the presenter selects.
• PechaKucha talks are 20 slides that auto-advance every 20 seconds. These are similar to other short presentations in terms of informational sharing around a concept, except shorter. The structure has an automated functionality that keeps the presentation tight in terms of time and information shared.  
• Posters sessions occur in the exhibit hall and are held later in the day. These are led by exhibitor presenters as well as DLAC attendees sharing research and ideas. Attendees are invited to attend and participate in conversations while enjoying appetizers and drinks.

Longer Formats:

• Workshops and panel discussions are around 75 minutes for sharing a focused topic in more depth. The workshop format is designed with a hands-on opportunity to design and leave with a product. The panels are structured as facilitated discussions and may also turn into lively debates.
• Community-Based Sets of Sessions are structured to be aligned learning opportunities that can be across a series of venues and formats. Attendees are invited to form a community by finding these opportunities that can then extend long after the conference.

The community sessions and experiences were around these six threads:

• Hybrid Schools in Action: A Community-Based Set of Sessions
• Supporting Elementary Students in Becoming Engaged and Independent Online Learners
• Wellness in Education: A Community-Based Approach
• Partnerships to Support Rural Districts and Communities: Roadmaps for Success
• The Curriculum Conundrum: Creating/Selecting Quality Content.
• Historical Traumas, Present Pedagogies, and the Road Toward Future Healing

A personal account of experiencing the community threads. On the second day, we attended “What Does Decolonization look like? How Does it Feel?” led by two practitioners from the Wellness for Educators organization, Shomari Jones and Rebecca Itow. The session laid the groundwork for conversations surrounding what decolonization means, what current practices exist in school systems, and how trauma impacts our physical bodies.

The session was not the only one led by this crew. Later in the day, the same presenters held a Table Talk around the five anchors discussed in My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Reesma Menakem.  This session was followed by an invitation to a food truck park to continue the conversation with others (which made for a great Valentine’s Day gathering). Kathryn Kennedy joined the team on the final morning of the conference as they guided participants through yoga and continued conversions from the previous days. 

Building in a thematic strand with familiar facilitators allows communities to form, encourages a safe place for connection, builds varying entry points for learners, and eliminates the one-and-done approach to gaining knowledge at a conference. It’s differentiation at its finest.

Join the Digital Learning Collective. There’s no need to wait a year to connect with colleagues in the digital learning community. The DLC has a wealth of resources and has various memberships to meet the needs of individuals, teams of teachers, districts, and states. Within the DLC membership, there are 3 established communities.

• Design & Refine: This is mainly for administrators and some teaching practices)
• Policy Protectors: A focus on all things policy
• Research Community: This focus is on connecting research and practice

In addition to memberships, DLC offers guidance for schools and states related to online learning policies and time to connect with others during virtual happy hours.

The post We Are All Digital Learners: Why DLAC is Perfect for You appeared first on Getting Smart.