Why Video Games?

This week was William Penn's 2022 Senior Graduation Ceremony. I also experienced my first ever Harrisburg University Graduation Ceremony. I enjoy seeing my students showcasing their success, and watching the speeches they get to make. But as I have been reflecting a lot lately, and looking back on my teaching career, I go back to why I think video games are useful tools, and where could I find inspiration to hook students with the content I link to gaming. There is one story in particular that helped me realize the power that gaming with students had. 

WP Graduation Speeches C/O 2022

Knockout City Team Spring 2022 - Honorary Polo Given to Me!

As Graduation of 2015 was ending, we all processed out of the auditorium and deposited our caps and gowns back into the rental pile. It was the first one I volunteered to attend and help as a teacher, volunteering, to direct the aisle of students who sat next to me. As I was dropping off my own cap and gown used in the commencement I heard a student calling my name, "Mr. Gibson, Mr. Gibson! I really want you to come to meet my mom!" Of course, I couldn't say no to the excitement in the voice, of this one student, with having me meet his mother. As we both navigated the sea of parents, friends, and family in the lobby, we finally stood in front of his mother, the student promptly said, "Mom! This is Mr. Gibson, the teacher I have been telling you about!" His mother began sobbing and reached out to embrace me, and through her tears of joy I heard her say, "Thank you so much for helping my son Graduate!"

In the Library ready fo C/O 2015 Graduation!

After a long embrace I looked at my student and had a puzzled look on my face, he responded with, "Man, I was going through some rough times in the middle of this school year, and you pushed me to do better!" I had this student the year before, and when I saw his report card in my class, I just said "Come on man, I know you are smarter than this!" We also had another shared connection, in comparing characters and progress in the mobile version of Injustice. We shared a connection through gaming, he would also stay after for game club sometimes to talk video games or ask for help in another class. This rapport led me to be able to say something when he wasn't performing at a level that I knew he could. I knew he could do better and I believed in him. That was what he needed to push through and get his diploma. I had no idea he was in need, but I was able to help regardless. 

Video Game Club circa 2019!

Throughout my entire career I know I have helped numerous students and made connections with gaming, but this moment is one that will always stick with me. I was amazed by the connection this student had with me, and how much one little act of caring could stick with a student. He and I are still in communication to this day, and I couldn't be prouder of the young man he became! Video games are more than entertainment, they are a way to connect with other human beings, and I have also researched and developed, ways to learn from video games. 

Finding Inspiration in the Gaming Industry

Reasoning

Ever wonder what's out there in the gaming industry? What about esports? Where are the people who look like you? How many women or BIPOC or LGBTQ+ people are represented in the industry? If you look you may see, much like other white-collar professions in the U.S., the industry of video games is dominated by white men, but they aren't the only ones playing games! Demographics for gamers are much more diverse than the professionals who are making the games. So where do we look for diverse student inspiration?

In the book, The Esports Education Playbook: Empowering Every Learner Through Inclusive Gaming, Bradford Harris, a NASEF Fellow, is quoted as saying, "I am really big on making sure I expose as many Black and brown children to esports as possible because it's not being seen. That's the reason I jumped into it (esports in education). So every time I go somewhere, I start asking those hard questions." 

The demographics of the esports and gaming realm are not what I see on a day-to-day basis as an educator. I see many BIPOC students and want them to see themselves in a growing future with technology. So I had to go searching and find inspiration, representation, and career options for the gaming industry.

How can this help others?

Educators have to dig, sift, and vet content with BIPOC, female and LGBTQ+ representation. Here is what I have used as career exploration tools, that help showcase their students represented in the medium. Many of the videos I found were accompanied by a Google Form or a Google Doc as a journal, to reflect on the learning and opportunities in the gaming industry. 

With 53% of my high school population in the Latinx demographics, I really wanted to help my students learn about the industry and where they can find room for themselves. Use the following links to help showcase panels and people in the Latinx community working in games:

Latinx in Gaming GDC 2018

Learn more about the panels’ work!

Edgar Serrano: Lienzo Studios

Daniel Monastero: Garage 227 Studios

Andro Miralrio: Keywords Studios

Gracie Arena Strittmatter: EA Gracie Intro

In the Know: Latinas in Gaming

Our African American population is 35% and they deserve to see themselves represented as well. Find BIPOC representation with these links:

1st Black Owner of Game Development Company

Gaming for Everyone: Blacks in Gaming GDC Feature

Other demographics are important too! Asian representation in gaming links:

NASEF: Careers in Esports - Team Manager, Andrew Kim

Where are the women? The number of girls in any program is much lower than some demographics, and they deserve a spot at the PC. Not just as support either! Women in gaming links: (Also look at the Latinx community!)

Esports Explore - Esports Journalist Women in Gaming

Gaming can make a better world | Jane McGonigal

Studying Esports in the UK

Some great interviews for more learning. We need to inspire, and share stories and successes of those who came before: 

Esports Explore - Content Creators

Esports Explore - Game Designer

BIPOC Entrepreneurs   

While driving, I listened to some podcasts and found The Toys & Tech of the Trade Episode 35, which highlighted an interview with Sebastian "Chosen1" Burton. The interview led to an interesting conversation with Sebastian about his work in esports since the age of 19. I was enthralled by his story and reached out to him after looking up his esports company, Gold Standard Gaming. Through a lot of conversations with my principal, I finally got Sebastian to Zoom into our school and speak to students in the Cybercats and my Exploration of Game Design courses. Finding BIPOC Entrepreneurs was a dream come true, and having students chat with Sebastian was an amazing experience. Mr. Burton spoke about his experiences in the industry, gave some life lessons in perseverance, and then discussed actionable steps students could take today to leverage their social media and graphic design skills to help launch a career in anything!

Final Thoughts

Finding inspiration and diversity in the gaming field can be daunting, and searching through hours of footage is a must if you want your students to feel represented. I know I am lacking in some demographics, as I only have one video showcasing a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and I welcome any advice in the comments. My students, our students, deserve to see themselves in the game industry!

Infusing Learning with Among Us!

 Using Games in the Classroom

With over 350 million copies downloaded worldwide, it's no wonder Among Us has become popular in the education realm. Educators have created engaging Google Slides to incorporate everyone's favorite cooperative game! Knowing this, I just had to try it in my classroom. I would like to say this game may not be appropriate for all levels, as it has an ESRB Rating of 10+, because of cartoon violence and in-chat messaging. 

After being inspired by another NASEF Fellow, Angelique Giana (Edutopia Article), and her lesson on persuasive arguments in the classroom while using Among Us!, I thought I can do this in my SAT Prep Course! And of course, carving out time in my Exploration of Game Design course was a no-brainer. Using Ms. Gianas' slide show I talked about persuasive arguments and framed the game as a learning and practicing guide. For SAT Prep, we used SAT words instead of the common names for places in the game. The Med-Bay became the Infirmary, Weapons became the Armory, a corner in the walkway became a Juxtapoint. 

Ideas for other Classes: 

Spanish, French, or any Foreign Language Class - Introduce Colors in Espanol have players play while speaking only in Spanish or French or any other foreign language, create prompts and questions to type or speak out loud if virtual on Zoom. 

EL Class - Engage your English language learners to create a safe space to practice asking questions for certain experiences, "Where is the cafeteria?" etc. 

Computer Science: Build the game around the Imposter being a bug in a game. And the crewmates are the coders who need to fix the bug. Once the game is introduced and the map decided upon, students can draft pseudocode to communicate where the imposter has struck and then all communication in the game has to be written in the pseudocode, until the coders lose or the bug is fixed. Another fun practice is to have students create their own pseudocode for communicating in the app during gameplay. Students could collaboratively create a pseudocode list, to figure out how to ask simple questions, like locate(body) and locate(color) to ask where a character who had died was found.  

CS: This could also include working out a UML chart for a character. Then dive into the characteristics of each student's player creation. Then play out the game for some in-class fun. Build mods in this CS Lesson by Jeffrey Wile, and have students practice coding!

The Plan

The game is played with 10 players at a time, so in large classes, student leaders will have to be chosen to create a lobby and share the code with students in their group. While in a remote learning setting, sending students into break-out rooms can help create a private discussion area while students play. You can have them chat in the game or un-mute and discuss who they think is the Imposter during the game. 

In Hybrid online students can set up a lobby and play while in class students can do the same. If you have an off-number students in the class can play with those online as well to keep all engaged.

In-person you can break students into teams of 10 to play with a student leader. 

Make sure all students agree on the stage settings and have downloaded the game on their mobile devices. If there is a lag between games, remember that some students will and should opt for the free version download on mobile platforms, which requires a video to play between each game.

Reflection

With using Among Us during a remote learning setting I had more participation than I could have ever asked for! Students were attending those days in record numbers and playing together and with me. The gameplay was engaging and gave us all a good laugh. It connected us and bonded us as a class in the virtual environment. Many times students would come in and ask if we could play again, so I would say it was a hit! It was just like Heads-Up 7-Up, from my elementary days!

Epic Educator Math Breakdown

I have the privilege to be given an Epic Support a Creator Code! What am I going to do with it?

The Idea!

A lesson in finances, percentages, and goal setting! I’m sure I could break this into a 4-5 part task problem set for my students and there would be some fun in that! To be honest I am working hard to find funding for my class and club. So when the Epic Creator Code Sign-Up happened I was more than thrilled that I qualified! Using my Creator Account I can host private matches in Fortnite for my students, and I am also learning from the best (Mr. Steven Isaacs) on how to implement Fortnite Creative in my Game Design classroom. I just finished up the free 2-hour course on Epic's Learning Website this past week! (Link Below!)

This “Epic” Photo made by the 1 and only NASEF Fellow Mr. Larios!!  (@ArtifOLO)

The creator account status lets me do a lot! But it also allows my friends, family, and followers to help support the important work I am doing. For every 10,000 V-Bucks Purchased my creator account is funded $5.00. Once I have $100 within my account I can “cash-out”. I also can receive 5% of all sales in the Epic Games Launch Store! So for games purchased for the PC through Epic Games, I get credit as well. 

If I reach $100 or more all of those funds will be donated back to the William Penn Cybercats Club.

What can be learned? 

A. So as a math teacher I thought how can we learn from this?
B. How many users need to purchase in-store currency for me to get to $100?
C. How many games need to be purchased for me to earn $100?
D. How many followers on my accounts can I count on to help me get to this fund?

A: This has real-world marketing skills and mathematical breakdowns for goal setting in funding! We can also add in some linear optimization if there is an algebra extension on this problem!

B: This has a few answers so let’s look at 2 different scenarios, the extremes!

Scenario 1:
10,000 V-Bucks (Plus 3,500 Bonus) on the Fortnite Store is $79.99.
If I get $5 per 10,000 V-Bucks and I need to reach $100 to cash out, that means:

20 people need to purchase 10,000 V-Bucks.
$1,599.80 in profits for Epic Games and I get $100 of that, so I’m making 6.25% of those sales.

Scenario 2:
1,000 V-Bucks on the Fortnite store is $7.99
10,000/1,000 = 10 people for 1k each

200 people need to purchase 1,000 V-Bucks.
$1,598.00 in profits for Epic Games and I get $100 of that, so I’m making 6.26% of those sales.

C: Games are purchased online through the Epic Games on PC range from small indie games at $4.99 to regular big-name games at $59.99. So if we go by the middle cost of $29.99 per game, if I get 5% back as a creator, how many of these games would need to sell before I could cash-out?

D: I am social media savvy in my book, so I’d say if 10% of my followers on Facebook use my creator code that would be about 150 users, and if Twitter uses it, then 230 users, TikTok 100 users, and Instagram 35 users. (Yes I am mildly popular, with no reason as to why.)

I feel 515 people could be counted on to make the purchase and help support our club!

Total I only need between 20-200 people in my life to purchase a game from Epic Games Launcher or purchase V-Bucks in Fortnite! That would get my students $100 for gaming equipment and maintaining the club! Who can I count on to help us?


For educators interested in using Fortnite Creative, take the free online course at Online Learning - Unreal Engines and earn the "Teaching with Fortnite Creative" Badge!

Also, keep an eye open for the awesome Teaching with Fornite Creative Workshops through the Games 4 Change Professional Programs!

How Family Saved My Career

I am far from a perfect human being and far from a perfect teacher.

I never wanted to go above and beyond what I considered my job until I met my wife.

The year, 2011 was the start of something special, my wife went on a first date with me, and that was the start of our amazing little family.

Three houses, three energetic dogs and two remarkable daughters later I have found myself wanting to make sure I am pushing myself to be the teacher that my daughters deserve in my own classroom.  It is funny how having your own children can change your perspective on teaching.  My family gave me the confidence to step-up to more leadership roles, go for the master's degree I wanted and become an educator that my students deserve.

My Girls 

After starting courses on Technology in Education, I brought up my Twitter account and started following more educators, growing an awesome #PLN (Professional Learning Network).  I found the Math-Twitter Blog-o-Sphere (#MTBoS) and followed more like-minded math teachers which in turn helped me find fun, engaging activities for my students. While researching and finding more information during my second master's, I dove headfirst into video games in the classroom and exploring the ever-growing eSports in education movement. I also found the #eSportsEDU and #games4ed hashtag followings on Twitter.  Growing my #PLN to include more technology education and game-based learning in the classroom.

Search Twitter for #MTBoS

Finding support in my family, both in my home, in my Bearcat Family and also with my Twitter Family, has given me more confidence in my teaching, pushed me to find meaning and challenges in education, and ultimately saved my career.

Search Twitter for #esportsEDU

Constant Change

As I started my 13th year, I was naive and hopeful.  Yet again I was starting with a mostly new group of students, and adding another course to my repertoire, AP Computer Science A.  I also finished up my second master's, a MsEd in Instructional Technology Specialist, which added to my PA State Certification.  I have always wanted to teach students about computers, it was originally my reason to go into teaching, now I am living that dream.

2nd Master's Degree

IT Specialist Certification

Having added the AP CSP course in the 2018-2019 school year, helped our school achieve the 10th Annual AP District Honor Roll, which also shocked our surrounding community.  (See the Article here: Surprising Results for York County AP Honor Roll)  But I did not want to just stop with computer science.  I grew up playing video games, and as an avid gamer, a lot of my graduate work incorporated gaming to learn, gamification and video games in the classroom.  Through this research and willingness to learn, I found help from some amazing places.

AP CSP Added last year to increase
our student AP experiences

My co-worker, Nicholas, and I decided it was time to do more, and we became Class Advisers for the incoming freshmen, the Bearcat Class of 2023.  We also are still co-advising the Video Game Club.  Over the summer we attended the CS For All PA Summitt, which helped us discover the great program, NASEF, which started the process to become a part of a sanctioned High School eSports League.   Though we have some hiccups in setting up our online games, there has been a lot of interest in the club and eSports team.  Check out the William Penn Cybercat's Facebook Page for more info on what the students are doing.

The new Cybercat Student Leaders.

My PIC, Nicholas Naugle and I
on Twin Day.

Some other projects I am excited about working on include partnerships in my community and abroad have brought on new opportunities. The biggest one involves helping build a former student's student-driven eSports and Video Game community, the BEAST Initiative Push.  Through this partnership, students will have more opportunities to build and be a voice in the eSports community in York. 

Cybercats playing on the Occulus!

I also have a good idea of what to do next with students who are not going to compete in the eSports competitions, and just want to game with friends at school.  Finding the organization VGC USA and it's founders right in South Central PA have opened up the possibility for more gaming learning, volunteer experiences, and career exploration for the Cybercats. 

Cybercats Gaming Together.

Finally, I would like to share where I have been finding more inspiration in gamification, and gaming to learn in everyday life from the Podcast, Professor Game.  I have ideas galore and studies to back-up my desire to game and play games in the classroom.  I am thinking to start by creating a new card game for my students to play when we learn about congruent triangles.

My Gaming Information Folder.

All of these great resources have just fallen into my lap and I wanted to make sure I shared them with others who are looking for similar information.  This blog started as a way for me to share mathematical experiences, but now is morphing into my entire educational experience including my push of educational boundaries to include video games.

Blog #4 ESL 509 - Learning English through Gaming

This past week I had the pleasure to attend the PaTTAN conference, #CSForAllPA.  Throughout the two days of keynotes and workshops, I attended some on building diversity in the computer science classroom.  I recently started teaching AP Computer Science Principles this past year and had a few students who were not native English speakers.  One such student came from Puerto Rico, and although he had an excellent education including English, speaking the language was not a fully acquired skill.  At the beginning of the year even with his limited English, he and I did bond over our shared interest in computers and video games.  This got me thinking about the wide range of "gamers" that are in our world.  During the workshops, one that I attended was called, "Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through Esports."  The presenter had some interesting data and a great anecdote that described one English Learner's journey to learning English by becoming engaged in Esports at his high school.  He developed a sense of belonging and had a personal reason for learning English when he became a member of their team, playing video games.

Video Game Club

For the past 12 years of advising students participating in William Penn's Video Game Club, that I and a few other teachers have run, I have bonded with more students who had this common interest with me and have met a lot of great students who I would not have had in class.  One young man, LaQuinn Thompson, has taken this passion and is helping it drive him to create an esports team within York City itself, with his BEAST Initiative Push.   He describes video games as the way he and his family bonded when he was younger and hopes to help other young people bond with gaming.  The Esports phenomenon has been growing very steady, and the US has a lot of catching up to do with the rest of the world in this venue, but our very own Harrisburg University team, The Storm, has brought some regional publicity.  They won the Collegiate Esports Championship in Overwatch this past spring on ESPN. 

William Penn Video Game Club

From the Esports workshop I attended, I hope to also bring more of a competitive nature to our weekly Video Game Club meetings, and help establish an Esports team to compete and bond students.  The North American Scholastic Esports Federation, helps bring teens and curriculum to High Schools with esports.  There are designated roles and beyond the gaming challenges that can bring multiple youths together to create a mindset of community and establish a guide of career paths for their future.  My hope is that we diversify and have some English Language Learners who want to join and enhance their educational career at William Penn through Esports.  

Video Games for the English Language

In a recent article on, The Conversation, the question was asked, "Can You Learn a Language Playing Video Games?", and the author looked at several Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) video games and described how players, both young and old, had to communicate in real-time with little time to be self-conscious of how the language was spoken, meaning the player was more likely to just communicate freely and not worry if they were muddling their language.  This freedom is likely to build student self-esteem and the use of another language.  The high levels of extrinsic motivation to level up a character or find rare equipment for the character, make a player strive to work well with others to do obtain these in-game rewards.  

Another blog, 3 Reasons Playing Video Games Helps You Learn English Faster, described the process similarly and said games helped alleviate stress in learning.  They also help develop cognitive skills, linguistic skills and provide in-game context to learning.  While playing a video game, a developer often makes the player start small and learn all of the mechanics of how a character can move, advance their effectiveness in the game and use their environment.  All of the learning is scaffolded to help the player achieve a better in-game character while also learning about their in-game surroundings.  The levels grow progressively harder to pass, and in-game puzzles or riddles help challenge the player in learning the environment or obtaining their next goal.  Learning happens all through video games and creates a safe place for a student to fail and try again to pass to the next level.  English is used in most games, and reading and responding to the passage in context to move to another level is a must for any player and would aid English acquisition by an EL student.  Players also can play collaboratively giving them time to practice their speaking and listening skills in English.  

Some downfalls to gaming would be that not all games are designed to provide the basics of grammar or vocabulary, and the structure is not progressive.  Meaning, the grammar, and vocabulary are not taught in a way that would build upon itself, and would not be used to help students decipher the building blocks of the sentence and decipher a verb or noun in the context.  This is where the teacher would have to step, and scaffold to help English Language Learners with some mini-lessons on the vocabulary, or take a break and help students break down a sentence to identify its structure.  Then return to the game for more fun and learning. 

Through Esports and Video Games, students can learn English, find career paths, develop a sense of community, build trust in learning even at the expense of failure, and all in the safety of a controlled environment.  This week has me thinking a lot about how to use these tools with English Language Learners and students of all backgrounds in my school.  It is my hope to push the boundaries of my student's education and help them find common ground in the games they enjoy.  

CS Education

I started my Undergraduate work, at Saint Vincent College, in Computer Science and Business to teach high school students about computers.  After a round with C+ Programming, I decided that it was not for me, I did, however, enjoy my Calculus class immensely and decided to change to Mathematics Education as my Major.  Upon college graduation, I started teaching at an urban high school in 2007 and taught all Algebra 1 courses during my first three years, then Geometry, then Algebra again, Algebra 2, and now Geometry for the past 4 years.  While creating course material that I felt was relevant for my students I came upon some teaching material involving Scratch Coding.  From there I have found a love for computers and computer education again.

Saint Vincent College,
Latrobe, PA

I recently just finished coursework to complete my Plus 30 to advance the tier placement in my career, I had my Masters in 21st Century Teaching and Learning, through Wilkes University, completed in 2011, and did not realize the potential to having more credits under my belt.  I have been working hard to update my learning, and personal style to teaching, through courses in multiple ways, first through Learner's Edge where I completed a set of courses that gave me a certification (from their own personal certifications, not a PA State Cert.) in the area of Information Technology Specialist.  Through this set of courses, I decided it would be wise to get the state certification work on my Plus 30 and my eventual Plus 60 while adding more weight to my own personal learning with a second Masters in Informational Technology Specialist.

Bearcat in College

I am currently re-enrolled and going through Wilkes University where I have found the professors and learning modules very inspirational in my own teaching.  I have taken lesson plans and re-created them through use of more online and computer-based learning.   I have used Desmos, Geogebra and even Google Apps to enhance the learning in my classroom.  Through my journey, I have figured out that Computer Science is definitely going to take my own teaching and my students farther than I could have imagined.

Bearcat Teacher

I am starting this school year teaching AP Computer Science Principles and went through a training to learn how to process through the new course.  This will be a big step for me to take towards my goal of implementing more computer science in my school and will make for a huge learning opportunity for not only my students but myself.  In our building, we also created another new course using the text, Where Will I Ever Use This? Volume 1: Algebraic Modeling, using Excel to teach Algebraic Concepts.  The overall goal for our high school is to start creating learning academies within our building.  We have a Freshmen Academy, Performing Arts Academy and a Safety (First Responders) Academy, the academy I would like to start, you guessed it, Computer Science.

I would like to incorporate more courses in gaming, video game development, (since I am one of the Video Game Club advisors for my school) coding language, and possibly the AP Computer Science A one day.  I never thought that switching majors in 2004, would afford me the opportunity to still end up teaching and learning more about the passions I have in my life, computers and technology.

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