Esports - Leveling Up Education and Engagement with Marcus Howard

For several years now, Esports has been gaining popularity and momentum across the globe. Imagine the impact Esports could make when it’s brought into the classroom and beyond! In this episode, Marcus Howard shares how he’s enabled students, parents, teachers, and business owners to make a positive impact with Esports education.
Esports or “electronic sports,” is gaming on a competitive level. With Esports, there is competition, risk, and reward, and an official tournament has a financial prize available to be won. Playing an Esports experience promotes many of the same values as in traditional sports, such as communication, patience, strategy, and collaboration and also encourages group activity where a player depends on another player's success. Marcus Howard describes how he first became interested in Esports and the process of writing his most recent book INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports, which celebrates innovation in gaming and Esports through a collection of innovation stories.
During the course of the conversation, Howard also talks about Esports when it comes to brand engagement and the opportunity to leverage mobile devices when developing new games. Howard shares his advice for those interested in developing Esports and gaming experiences for education, emphasizing that there is opportunity for Esports to impact the future of EdTech so that a student playing a video game can be fully immersed in that educational experience. He says: 
“97% of kids 12 to 17 are playing video games. So why not meet them where they are and leverage something they have an innate interest in, and then that way they stay more engaged, and it's more meaningful and hopefully more memorable to them.” 
Recommended Resources from the Interview:INNOVATE® Gaming & EsportsMetArenaVessel