Future of EdTech: Game-based Learning
In our first virtual Power Meal hosted by Jesse Lindsley, CEO and Founder of Thrust Interactive, we explored how to leverage game-based learning to improve education.
With a lively group of parents, educators, gamers, and students we unpacked the following questions:
What is your experience with game-based learning?
For some, it began early-childhood:
“I was a terrible speller growing up and almost failed third grade because of it. My parents introduced me to Scrabble and I fell in love with the bluffing and the competition.
Scrabble helped me spell and gave me that motivation that I wasn’t getting [from school]”
-Jesse Lindsley, Thrust Interactive
As we shared more stories, we discovered how the gaming world can lead to unexpected growth of confidence:
“I started playing saxophone in the fourth grade. At that time, I had a ton of social anxiety. As you can imagine my stage fright was horrible. Luckily I had instructors that helped me build my confidence. When I started my company, Crescendo [an AI-powered interactive music training app] our goal was ‘how do we help people become more confident when learning music?’ Over time, we learned that people feel more comfortable learning through a device that does not judge you but still gives you accurate feedback- like your phone.”
-Seth Radman, Crescendo
“My son has learning differences. He’s also a gamer. He loves Minecraft, and when he is playing games it’s not like he’s disconnected from humanity. There is a level of self-confidence that he is able to breakthrough in the virtual world. He’s really in a space where he feels completely confident. He feels fearless and boundless, and he’s able to challenge himself.”
- Le’Kiesha French, Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute
What components do you consider when evaluating tech tools for education?
In a world of thousands of gaming applications it’s hard to decipher which one is worth using. For the parents, there was a concern over what apps were teaching their kids.
“There’s a great app called Homer that’s perfect for my two and five year old. I like that it gives me feedback and progress reports on what my how my child is doing. It made me realize that I need to be looking for the reports in other apps on what my children are learning.”
-Rebekah Snyder, Collaborative Real Estate
What’s an audience, that is sometimes overlooked, that could use gaming to impact learning?
“I think of seniors. As they are approaching their eighties and going into nursing homes, what are some games that can keep them comforted and occupy their mind?’
-Jamie Darcy, Collaborative Real Estate
In response to this Jesse validated that seniors are a demographic that is underestimated when it comes to gaming:
“That’s going to be an area of focus for us going forward. There’s a real opportunity to have an impact- especially around health education.”
-Jesse Lindsley, Thrust Interactive
What are some of your predictions for the future of EdTech? Let us know in the comments!