TALKESPORT

In advance of next week’s publication of the European Commission’s updated Digital Education Action Plan, ISFE presents the results of the Games in Schools project. The project includes the new teachers’ handbook, a resource created for teachers, in collaboration with European Schoolnet (the network of 34 Ministries of Education). 

Games in Schools is designed to provide teachers with training on how to use commercial video games as pedagogical support in the classroom to support student engagement and the development of digital competences, boost digital literacy and help fill the digital skills gap in Europe.  More than 4,200 teachers from all over Europe took part.

ISFE CEO Simon Little said: “There is a wealth of evidence that the use of video games in the classroom boosts important 21st-century skills: teamwork, communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, analytical skills, and much more. Video games are central to today’s society, and the European Commission should use the Digital Education Action Plan to encourage all national governments to embrace the opportunity for digital growth and employment in Europe that they represent and to follow the Polish Government’s example by adding them to the school curriculum.“

“Europe’s video games industry is worth €21.6bn and it has grown 55% over the past five years. Europe’s educators need to catch up and prepare our young people for the jobs of the future.”

The European Commission cites the Action Plan as a key instrument in the COVID-19 recovery process. 

A recent Ipsos MORI study commissioned by ISFE found that one in five parents agreed that video games had helped with their children’s education and schooling and a high proportion of parents agreed that playing video games had a positive impact on mental health during the lockdown. Video games were a valuable tool for people to stay connected with friends and family online, for education, fitness, and entertainment during the worst of the pandemic.

European Schoolnet Executive Director Marc Durando said: “The pandemic has shone a light on the importance of supporting teachers to use digital tools in a pedagogically effective way. Video games have the potential to not only engage students in learning but to also turn them from passive consumers of digital media to creators and developers that shape the digital media of tomorrow. The Games in Schools project has provided teachers with training and guidance on how to achieve this shift through pedagogically grounded learning activities that make use of video games in the classroom.’’

The results of Games in Schools, which successfully reached more than 4,200 teachers across Europe in 2019, and the new teachers’ handbook are presented on 29 September at a free online event, “Learning by Playing”, kindly supported by Sabine Verheyen, Chair of the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee with a keynote speech by Antoaneta Angelova-Krasteva (on the covers on this feature), Director for Innovation, International Cooperation & Sport, DG EAC, European Commission.

Among Us can be an intense game, and can often cause heated situations among the participants, which isn’t that surprising considering the fact that it’s primarily a game that directly involves lies and deception.

In the crewmates’ hunt for the hidden impostors in the squad, things can occasionally get controversial when players begin to blame each other. However, since it is a casual game meant to be played for fun, things generally cool down swiftly. This wasn’t the case for the Among Us game played between renowned streamers and YouTubers on September 25th. The stream featured popular names like PewDiePie, Summit1g, xQc, 5up, and many others.

The clip is available here:

Things went south pretty quickly when xQc went into “full drama mode” following an argument where xQc was accused of not being able to control his chat. He then accused other “big YouTubers” of intentionally liking comments slamming xQc on their channels and replying to them.

The situation worsened when xQc accused a player of being an impostor without proper justification. Summit1g expressed his frustration towards xQc as the meeting concluded, “Listen, xQc your convincing skills are fu*king awful I’m asking you and you still can’t convince me,” Summit said. “Just please listen. Stop talking.”

The most heated of all the arguments was perhaps when 5UP called xQc and EasyRod for being impostors in one of the games. Even though 5UP was correct, xQc proceeded to slam him by calling him a “dumb as”, but was ejected from the ship regardless. After the game, he continued to trash talk 5UP by claiming that he was spewing “bullsht” when he called xQc out. The argument got to the point where 5UP decided to leave the lobby, which left the other players in the lobby thoroughly disappointed.

5UP later expressed his dissatisfaction with xQc in his stream. “He’s becoming so overbearing, with the amount of power he thinks he has in the game of Among Us,” he said. “The entire lobby becomes a game where it’s no longer ten streamers coming together and having fun entertaining people. It turns into him controlling a game.”

5UP continued, “If he gets it right, he thinks he’s a god, and if people get him out as an imposter, he calls them dogsh*t trash players who got lucky. That’s not good sportsmanship, that’s not the point of playing this game.”

After our story on Reliance’s intent to ban Twitch on its network ISPs, the company has now unblocked the video-game streaming site. We’ve confirmed reports from dozens of users across India that they are no longer feeling having trouble viewing streams on Amazon-owned Twitch.

Reliance owned companies, JioFiber, Reliance Jio & Hathway had blocked the usage of video-game streaming site. The reason for the ban was because several unauthorized streams were broadcasting IPL games, which is a Hotstar exclusive.

The site, as confirmed by our users, has returned to Hathway, JioFiber, however, the Reliance Jio network is still appeared to be calibration to its fuller efficiency.

TalkEsport’s story on the ISP ban had garnered thousands of views and was trending on social sites for hours, which could be the reason why the service providers have resumed the network’s connectivity to the streaming site.

Ironically, Reliance’s Jio is among the few front-runner mainstream companies in India that are promoting the esports & gaming industry actively. Chairman Mr. Mukesh Ambani in one of their address to shareholders had mentioned their intent to invest in gaming companies in India.

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had also been vocal about the significance of online-gaming in the country.

Mr. Beast is a very well known face of YouTube who is famous for doing insane challenges that no one could ever think of. From giving free items in various ways to completing some whacky challenges, he is known to do things beyond comprehension. He apparently even gave away a whole island a month ago.

Mr. Beast posted a challenge on his gaming channel that involved an impossible parkour run in a custom Minecraft map. Minecraft is a game in which players can build their own entire universe from the scratch. Right from dismantling things to building anything, the game can do it all.

Popular YouTubers like PewDiePie made an entire series based on Minecraft and this time, it is Mr. Beast who is reviving the popularity of this game. In a recent video, Mr. Beast challenged players to complete an impossible map run at the end of which, the winner gets $10,000.

Mr. Beast started the video boasting that it was “the hardest Minecraft parkour map in existence.” He did not inform the players about the grand prize at the start but after a while, he revealed the information which glimmered a new ray of hope into the participants.

Mr. Beast had the map designed in such a way that after every level, the difficulty level rises. The players had to make a cross by jumping over blocks hovering into the air. Mr. Beast and his friends helped as well as destroyed some blocks using the creative mode which added to the difficulty level of the task as well as sprinkled a pinch of fun for the viewers.

After crossing multiple stages, the remaining players traversed through a portal that transported them to another dimension which was the hardest stage amongst them all. The stage was ultra hard according to Mr. Beast himself, and very few players made it till the end.

After a long run through these almost impossible stages, a participant named Kundvagn reached the finishing block. Mr. Beast trolled him for a while stating that he was second to make it and would only get $500 but eventually declared him as the winner.

Also Read: India’s biggest ISP Reliance is apparently blocking Twitch Streams