Have you ever wondered what the future of learning holds? We can’t tell you all the answers, but we can guarantee one thing: future-facing skills set up students for future success! As another month comes to a close, we have yet another roundup of resources for you. October was all about future-facing skills, also known as 21st century skills. Throughout the month, we mused over the 4 Cs of 21st century skills, what defines 21st century skills, how esports can lead a gamer to their future career, and much more.
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Check out the list of resources below and let us know what you think on Twitter or Facebook!
Can video games help you tap into your creative potential? Covering James Paul Gee’s principles on gaming, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory, recent studies, and our 2021 FIRST Global RoboCo Challenge, we break down how video games can give players’ creative skills a boost. The creative skills built while playing video games such as Minecraft, RoboCo, and Physics Playground can lead players to a future in creative careers, too. Content creators have all sorts of career options, such as journalist, graphic designer, and videographer, to name a few!
Creatives aren’t the only ones who can benefit from the skill-building power of video games! In this first installment of our “Game Your Way to a Career” series, we discuss how gaming can lead to a future career in data analysis, math, finance, and more. Drawing from the research-based Esports Ecosystem created by the North American Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF), we cover how esports participants can hone their strategic thinking skills and cognitive flexibility while playing games. Strategic thinkers enrich a workplace – and playing the right video games can enrich anyone’s strategic thinking abilities!
The proof is in the pudding! And in this case, the pudding is recent research. Browse the research in this blog to discover how game-based learning can foster imperative 21st century skills in students! Among these skills are problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, and leadership. Learn how a math game helped Irish students develop confidence and problem-solving skills, and game-based learning courses helped a group of students discover their individual leadership styles.
Speaking of leadership, did you know that esports can also improve a participant’s organizational and leadership skills? That’s right! In this sophomore segment of our “Game Your Way to a Career” series, we revisit NASEF’s Esports Ecosystem to uncover how gaming and esports participation can eventually lead to careers in cybersecurity, event planning, general team management, and more. Gaming can help students practice skills as simple as organizing and keeping track of an inventory to more complex skills such as self-control, effective communication, and conflict resolution – all of which are crucial for the well-rounded 21st century learner!
Out with the old, in with the new! To finish off this month’s futuristic focus, we dove into what “21st century skills” means right at this moment – not when the 21st century first started. We’ve come a long way since then, and so have edtech, video games, and game-based learning pedagogy and methodology! In this blog, we take a look at different organizations’ definitions of the term in 2022, and what 21st century skills really are when it comes to 2022 students. At their core, the 4 Cs – critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication- will always be relevant. But future-facing skills are also an ever-evolving set of skills that should be reexamined based on what students need to thrive in the world of tomorrow, not 2001!
That’s it for October 2022, Filafolks! We’re excited about the combination of game-based learning, scholastic esports, and future-facing skills. As the world becomes more digital, games are a great resource for students and adults to keep up their technological literacy and other 21st century literacies so they can thrive and put their best foot forward in all they do.
If you’re interested in creating an educational game to cultivate 21st century learning, what are you waiting for? Reach out to us for a free consultation! As industry leaders in the educational games space, we have 17 years of experience and over 200 projects under our belt. We’re here to help you create playful experiences that improve people’s lives.
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