The COVID-19 pandemic saw the global video game market grow by 39%, as lockdowns and social distancing confined millions of South Africans to their homes. And even as the world emerges from the pandemic to some degree, the growth persists. In South Africa, it is expected that there will be more than 11 million gamers by 2026.
A 2021 report by Casablanca and Boston Consulting Group revealed that, although Africa currently trails other regions in terms of digital adoption and maturity, the pace of adoption and infrastructure buildout is happening faster on the continent than any other region in the world. Generation-Z, in particular – those born between 1997 and 2012 – have widely adopted gaming and esports as social and recreational pastimes.
While many learners in South Africa are comfortable with digital transformation, many schools argue that limited resources and funds are barriers to adopting digital learning resources.
Zuan Campbell-Wilson, Branch Manager at ScadCo offers a different perspective: “There is often a stigma associated with digital learning tools in our market. There is a perception that adoption and implementation costs are prohibitive.”
This needn’t be the case, as edutech IT solutions provider ScadCo demonstrated during the 2022 Bryandale Primary Annual High School Expo. The Expo helps parents and learners make more informed decisions about their children’s choice of school for grades eight to 12.
Hosted in partnership with ScadCo, Buzzbotics and Microsoft Education, the Expo
features video presentations from educational experts, leading schools, highlights of new edutech developments within the educational industry and information about esports integration into new curricula.
Among the tools used to facilitate the Expo were Minecraft Education Edition and Microsoft Power Automate. These enabled hybrid functionality for the live event and allowed parents and learners who were not able to attend to interact in real-time with representatives from the high schools that participated. The hybrid functionality means the expo is still available for parents who would like to explore their children’s educational options.
“The technology is accessible to all types of schools, even those with budget constraints,” says Campbell-Wilson. “The Microsoft Education Suite, for example, has an affordable license per faculty member approach.”
Campbell-Wilson continues, “With Minecraft Education Edition, teachers can use esports as educational tools. As many of this generation’s learners are already familiar with the gaming space, they already have developed an ingrained approach to mastering a desired outcome.
“In gaming, children are offered a more interactive way to understand content, whereas in the traditional classroom environment, educators are often left feeding as much information as possible to children without a contextual framework.”
The building blocks of learning
The building blocks game, Minecraft, had approximately 141 million monthly active players in August 2021. The game is a three-dimensional world-building game that allows users to create their own experiences and worlds within the virtual environment.
Minecraft Education Edition is focused on using a combination of creativity and critical thinking to foster learning. Campbell-Wilson adds, “The application is designed with teaching in mind, offering pre-built lesson plans, build challenges, immersive worlds, educational features, tutorials and classroom settings.
“Within the immersive Minecraft Education Edition space, subjects include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), Coding, SEL (Social Emotional Learning), History, Language Arts and 21st Century Skills.”
Campbell-Wilson concludes, “Microsoft Education and Minecraft Education Edition are about teaching skills as opposed to content, whereas the current education system can be very content-heavy. It helps increase engagement and work efficiency for teachers through immersive gaming, where learning is achieved more organically.
“Even if these tools just serve as a secondary backbone to support your educational initiatives, the learning experience is enhanced for both educators and students.”
