Designing an Interest-Based Integrated Curriculum Around Esports
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Abstract
A crisis of literacy has emerged among high school students in the United States. In order to encourage students’ engagement with literacy education, there is a need for an integrated curriculum of English Language Arts (ELA). An integrated language arts curriculum would allow students to learn literacy and reading skills while engaging with a motivating context. Meanwhile, esports has grown as a worldwide culture, expanding to more than just players and spectators to include a whole ecosystem of stakeholders. As esports grow in popularity and acceptance, educators have looked to connect the skills developed in esports with academic and career opportunities. We found esports to be a viable content area for the integrated curriculum because esports is favored among many students and involves reading activity as an essential part of participation.
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Je Seok Lee, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine
Je Seok Lee is a Ph.D. candidate studying the player experience of esports players. He is investigating how emotional engagement and deviance during gameplay affect esports players’ performance and experience. He is currently working with Dr. Constance Steinkuehler at UC Irvine in the Connected Learning Lab.
Minerva Wu, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine
Minerva Wu is a Ph.D. student interested in social-emotional learning in game contexts. She is currently working with Dr. Kurt Squire and Dr. Constance Steinkuehler at UC Irvine in the Connected Learning Lab.
Diana Lee
Diana Lee is an educational content strategist, writer, and qualitative researcher passionate about storytelling for
transformative learning and social change. She leads collaborative efforts to design and produce dynamic learning resources for diverse learners and educators.
Lee Fleming, Samueli Academy
Lee Fleming has been in education for over 20 years and is very passionate about helping young people grow and learn from their experiences. Lee earned both her BA in History and her M.Ed. in Educational Leadership at Brigham Young University.
Lindsay Ruben, Anaheim Union High School District
Lindsay Ruben is an English teacher at Anaheim Union High School District.
Tom Turner, Orange County Department of Education
Tom Turner has been involved in education for 19 years in education. During that time, his roles varied from classroom teacher to high school administrator to elementary school principal to the member of the Superintendent’s cabinet. Common threads in his work history are an innovative use of technology and progressive practices —no matter the position.
Constance Steinkuehler, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine
Constance Steinkuehler is a Professor at the University of California, Irvine where she researches videogames and learning. She formerly served as Senior Policy Analyst in the Obama White House, founder of the Higher Education Video Games Alliance (HEVGA), and has published over 100 academic articles and chapters.
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