New Extracurricular Co-SER Brings Support for Esports and More
From the field to the computer lab, the place where sports are being played is evolving. Esports is an up and coming venture in competitive gaming, expanding from high school to the collegiate arena.
Western New York educators have been interested to learn more about the benefits, costs and stigmas that go along with esports. On June 17, districts that have shown an interest in the Extracurricular Co-SER attended a meeting to hear about the service.
“The Extracurricular Co-SER gives us the ability, in addition to esports, to support extracurriculars districts already have going on, like Odyssey of the Mind or LEGO Leagues. It gives us the ability to offer more services and gives districts the ability to purchase from vendors Erie 1 BOCES has contracts with,” Joseph Roaldi, CSLO/Model Schools supervisor, explained.
In addition to access to software and hardware vendors, Roaldi’s team will be offering professional development to coaches as well.
“It is more than playing games, student roles can translate to careers in marketing or statistics and more,” Roaldi said. “We are developing a whole curriculum that teaches kids ‘soft skills,’ like how to compete, digital literacy and all that goes into a positive and productive esports team.”
For now, the Co-SER will focus on Erie 1 BOCES districts. For information on support for esports and the Extracurricular Co-SER, contact Roaldi at jroaldi@e1b.org or Steven Graser, director of Professional Development and Instructional Technology Resources, at sgraser@e1b.org.