eSports has caught fire across college campus and K-12 classrooms across the country. As of the 2022 school year, 175 colleges and universities have joined the National Association of College eSports (NACE), which officially recognizes varsity eSports programs. Perhaps not at quite the same speed, K-12 educators are also adding eSports to their programming.
Integrating eSports and gaming into the classroom can enhance students’ learning experiences and foster various skills, including teamwork, strategic thinking, and problem-solving.
Here are our recommended top 5 eSports and gaming classroom equipment investments:
1. Gaming PCs or Consoles and Gaming Peripherals
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Investing in high-performance gaming PCs or consoles is essential for running popular educational games and eSports titles. Ensure that the hardware specifications are suitable for the games you plan to incorporate into the curriculum. Consider PCs with powerful graphics cards, sufficient RAM, and fast processors.
It’s also important to keep things quiet with strategically placed high-efficiency fans and keep things cool with the right thermal cooling technology.
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Quality gaming peripherals, including gaming keyboards, mice, and controllers, are designed for precision and responsiveness so as to enhance the gaming experience. Wireless options can also offer flexibility in the classroom setup. (Alternately, custom cabinetry to hide wires is a great option to consider.)
2. Game Capture and Streaming Equipment
Introduce students to the world of game capture and streaming by investing in capture cards, microphones, and webcams. This equipment allows students to create and share their gaming experiences, fostering creativity and communication skills. It also provides an opportunity for students to showcase their work to a broader audience.
3. Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets
VR can offer immersive educational experiences and enhance certain types of gaming content. Consider investing in VR headsets to explore educational applications and games that provide students with a more interactive and engaging learning environment.
Ultimately, you want to align your gaming content with your educational objectives. One option to ensure this would be to collaborate with other teachers and professionals experienced in both education and gaming to develop a curriculum that integrates gaming seamlessly into the classroom.
Your selected games should promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork, and monitor students’ gaming activities to maintain a healthy and productive learning environment.
4. High-Quality Monitors or Projectors
Choose high-resolution monitors or projectors to display games and educational content clearly. Large screens or projectors can make it easier for the entire class to follow the gaming experience. Additionally, consider monitors with fast refresh rates to reduce motion blur during fast-paced gaming.
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5. Collaborative Gaming Spaces
Designate an area in the classroom for collaborative gaming experiences. This could include gaming desks, comfortable chairs, and a well-organized cable management system.
If your budget allows, you can add spectator seating judges panels and even War Rooms. Ultimately, the goal is to create a dedicated space helps promote teamwork, communication, and social interactions among students.
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With or without those add-on’s, a gaming space should create a cross-disciplinary collaborative environment that spans across fields of study. For example, West Virginia University recently launched an eSports major to help provide workforce for expanding industry. The major includes courses like business, governance, marketing, communications and event management. The four-year program boasts skills-based and experiential learning plus engaging students inside and outside of classrooms. The goal of the program is to open doors for students to industry experience.
There’s no doubt that eSports programs can engage students in extracurricular pursuits, and channel their energy into STEM fields, media and other career paths.
We can build entire eSports labs from the ground up or help you augment your lab with new technologies. You can view our eSports Labs brochure here.
