An Atlanta-based non-profit organisation is dedicated to developing a global community of educators who blend play and learning by building a Network of Academic & Scholastic Esports Federations (NASEF). Founded seven years ago, NASEF’s emphasis is on its interest-driven learning ethos and skill development beyond just competition from esports and education.
It’s a tall order, but NASEF hopes to extend its programmes internationally, spreading its progress in improving youth STEAM-based skill development through gaming and esports. A step in the right direction is establishing sistent school esports programmes, NASEF Chief Advancement Officer Claire LaBeaux told Esports Insider.
The world of esports itself isn’t as unified as it may appear. Fitting this into school settings in incredibly varied educational systems is one of the organisation’s strengths. Equipping educators in multiple nations and frameworks is its greatest motivator.
There’s new wind in NASEF’s sails, as it has established two US to Japan sister school esports programmes this year. The first connection was built between Risshō Daishōnan High School in Shimane Prefecture and Forsyth Virtual Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, with leaders from both schools visiting the other.
The second was recently launched when a delegation from the Risshukan Junior-Senior Technical High School in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, visited Villa Park High School in southern California. Japanese delegates toured the Villa Park campus, visiting the esports areas and clubs to glean from the US scholastic esports approach to translate back in Japan. NASEF’s recent expansion into Europe suggests its efforts are gaining momentum.
“We do a lot of education around our project-based and immersive learning programmes,” LaBeaux said. It’s a process where students collaborate in an esports club or class as though they were working in a company with varying responsibilities. NASEF also offers a video-based academy on how to be a general manager or coach. “Our approach is to teach students to develop in a club atmosphere and not just a competitive team.”
Esports and gaming still stand on uneven grounds of acceptance, especially in an educational environment, across locales. Programmes must battle being grouped into the misconceptions that all gaming is addicting or detrimental to studies. On the contrary, according to LaBeaux, 100% of parental feedback in research from UC Irvine reported seeing a benefit to their children’s involvement in the programmes.
Part of this may be due to the classroom course curriculum, ranging from a four-year series certified to meet California standards in English Language Arts, several Career & Technical Education courses, and a vast Community Library developed by NASEF Scholastic Fellows. Part of it is due to the positive impacts on students’ Social Emotional health. Part of it may be the years of empirical research on NASEF’s scholastic esports approach performed by UC Irvine’s Connected Learning Lab. The result is a real feeling of being part of a student community.
While esports is the focus area, LaBeaux knows that it’s a niche activity within the larger area of social gaming. In order to involve the most participants, broader casual gaming needs to have a place within NASEF clubs, because “for many students the fact that their school sees gaming as a sanctioned activity, matters to them,” she said.
Not every school has access to the same technology resources, so NASEF’s semesterly international challenges focus on accessibility and cooperative competition to involve as many participants as possible. Over the years NASEF has learned that not every student that enjoys playing games socially is interested in competitive aspects of gaming, but its Worldwide Mario Kart 8 Time Trials Competition or the flagship Farmcraft challenges allow for competition between clubs while avoiding operational hurdles like navigating ping or tournament structures.
For example, Farmcraft educational programmes use Minecraft to enhance youth’s understanding of the agricultural industry and its impact on global food security. More than 60 schools across the globe participated in this year’s challenge, the winner’s circle dominated by Taiwan and Bangladesh. The UN even highlighted Farmcraft as a valuable means for teaching youth about food security and modern agriculture at its recent World Food Forum.
That isn’t to say that NASEF isn’t involved in titles typically recognised by the esports industry, In partnership with PlayVS, NASEF operates the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Esports Initiative, facilitating scholastic esports competitions across school appropriate titles like League of Legends, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, NBA2K25 and others.
Many schools start gaming or esports club initiatives independently of one another, piecing together infrastructure from its faculty’s experience and networks. For some, this might be the only way to get it off the ground, but results in its standards, resources and processes being incompatible with other systems in the region. The NASEF framework helps to establish baselines for partners to follow and adapt to, ensuring that each can best benefit from a united network.
Many schools start gaming or esports club initiatives independently of one another, piecing together infrastructure from its faculty’s experience and networks. For some, this might be the only way to get it off the ground, but results in its standards, resources and processes being incompatible with other systems in the region. The NASEF framework helps to establish baselines for partners to follow and adapt to, ensuring that each can best benefit from a united network.
LaBeaux acknowledged that while esports has been around for a quarter decade, teachers are using esports in the classroom on the cutting-edge. “It’s becoming more mainstream, but it’s still valuable for educators to be connected to each other on the NASEF platform, to build community and bounce ideas off one another of what’s working.”
As a young and global community, esports has always relied on the network effects of information sharing and adopting best practices. The Scholastic Fellowship programme is one example of this community; with these leaders, NASEF creates its Community Library curriculums, which are freely available on its website
In the especially nascent education and esports integration, there’s a great need for knowledge sharing, not just for scholarly research on the subject, but practical crowd-sourced playbooks to help solve common issues and offer unique cultural perspectives to approaches.
