In a semester-long contest, civics class students were invited to do research and pick countries likely to make the news. They scored points based on mentions in the New York Times. Nelson created a Hall of Fame and the winner got a T-shirt that read “Kickin’ Djibouti” as a joking reference to some of the more obscure countries students learned to pinpoint on a map.“This sort of made my students the teachers. Once we kicked off the game and they got into it, they were sort of coming into my classroom saying, ‘Hey Nelson, have you heard about what’s happening in Syria?’ and telling their classmates about these things too. It became a different kind of experience, and I became a little obsolete by choice, which I loved.” (Teaching Geopolitics: Fantasy Football as a Learning Game)Encouraged by students’ positive response, in 2014 Eric Nelson proceeded with a successful Kickstarter campaign and developed FanSchool with the mission to provide teachers with a social learning game platform that helps “turn students into fans of learning”. The website now offers an Election Challenge game in addition to FanGeopolitics.
Source: Gamified Geopolitics and the Fantasy Sports Model | Megamification