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Kahoot!’s 7 Acquisitions Fuel Game-Based Learning Market Consolidation

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Image credit: Kahoot!   Kahoot! , the publicly traded, game-based learning company announced last week the acquisition of Clever Inc. , a privately held, San Francisco-based company that is one of the most widely used digital learning platforms by U.S. K-12 schools. The partnership between two of the most popular platforms in education, with distinct and complementary offerings, is expected to accelerate Kahoot! ’s global consolidation and expansion.   Kahoot! will acquire 100pc of Clever for an enterprise value (EV) between $435m and $500m, dependent on targets. The acquisition – Kahoot!’s seventh in two years - will unite two major players in education technology.  Founded in 2012, Clever claims to have served half of all U.S. students in 2020, with a footprint in 89,000 schools, representing 65 percent of the nation’s 13,000 school districts.   The deal provides a significant pathway for Kahoot! to bolster its presence in the US market.   In the last 12 month
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EarlyBird Raises Funding For Game-Based Pre-Literacy Assessment App

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Image credit: EarlyBird Education The game that can spot preschoolers at risk for reading deficits   EarlyBird Education is a startup company that has developed a game-based app aimed at detecting early literacy challenges, such as dyslexia in children as young as four years old and pointing educators to the right interventions, thus shifting a deficit model to a preventive support model. The company created a 20-minute tablet-based game to assess children’s literacy levels as they play. Additionally, the tablet provides screening process, dashboard and analytics, customized resources, and evidence-based tools to help translate information to teachers, parents, and pediatricians so that they can implement a customized course of action. In a Business Wire press release, the company announced last week it raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Amplify Capital, Flare Capital Partners, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Solve Innovation Future are all investors in this roun
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Serious Game To Experience Leading A Country In Political Turmoil Wins German Award

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Image credit: Suzerain by Torpor Games   Founded in 2017, Torpor Games is an indie video game company based in Berlin that focuses on creating thought-provoking entertainment.   The company’s first title, Suzerain , has recently won the Best Expert Game at the German Game Awards 2021 . It is a Serious Game that allows players to experience leading a country in political turmoil. The publisher, Fellow Traveller , is an indie games label exploring the possibility space of narrative games. They seek out and partner with pioneering game developers working on unusual games with narrative at their core.   Suzerain is a text-based RPG where you play as President Anton Rayne, managing the country of Sordland in your first term. Sordland has been under the leadership of Colonel Soll for the past 20 years, after he ended a bloody civil war. A military dictator, he eventually lost the support of his party, and decided to resign, albeit maintaining a controversial position as a Member of Honor.
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How Serious Games Are Changing Air Medical Education

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Image credit: Yorkshire Air Ambulance   Air Medical Services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and critical care to all types of patients during aeromedical evacuation or rescue operations aboard helicopter and propeller aircraft or jet aircraft.   AirMed&Rescue Magazine , Issue 116, May Edition, is out now with a must-read article titled Using The Sixth Sense To Escape The Monotony , covering how Serious Games are changing medical education.   The authors are William Belk, whose professional interests include high-risk obstetrics, serious gaming, 3D printing, and all aspects of healthcare simulation. He serves as the Technical Chair for the AMTC (Aviation & Missile Technology Consortium) Sim Cup alongside an international team of flight clinicians and educators; and Jennifer Noce, a Critical Care Flight Paramedic an
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SGS&C to Resume Challenge in 2021

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  Image credit: Serious Games Showcase & Challenge   We Look Forward to Welcoming Our Finalists at I/ITSEC 2020 was a quite different year – for everyone. For the Serious Games Showcase and Challenge (SGS&C), the year was marked by a pause of our traditional Serious Games competition and exhibition. Luckily, vIITSEC presented an unanticipated opportunity to reflect on the past 15 years in Serious Games, through an on-demand, video-based commemoration.   For 2021, we are happy to announce that the Serious Games Showcase and Challenge is back! We are looking forward to our best event yet under the leadership of Meagan French of BetterLesson and LCDR Devin Corrigan of USN Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD)!   Since 2006, the SGS&C has helped foster creativity and innovation in Serious Games as part of NTSA’s I/ITSEC, and it is with great anticipation and excitement that we announce the return of our challenge in 2021! We can’t wait t
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New & Upcoming “Make Your Training More Playful” Online Event

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Image credit: World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD)   Make Your Training More Playful: Understanding Gamification Online Workshop Part 1 of GAMIFICATION SERIES Date: Saturday 22nd May 2021  (17:00 – 20:00 BST or 12:00 – 15:00 EDT)   Dr. Michael Sutton, Chief Gamification Officer, FUNIFICATION, USA, co-author with Kevin Allen of Emotify! The Power of the Human Element in Game-Based Learning, Serious Games and Experiential Education , a pragmatic book on the dynamics of successful Game-Based Learning experiences, and Joe Bisz, Professor of English, City University of New York, USA, co-author with Dr. Victoria Mondelli of the forthcoming book: The Allure of Play , an educator’s guide to Game-Based Learning, are offering a half-day GBL workshop through the World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD): Make Your Training More Playful: Understanding Gamification This will be the first of two online events on the topic, starting with an introduction-level workshop of h
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Recap On My 2018 Post: ‘Does the Future Need Schools?’

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Image credit: Future Learning Spaces by Kadima Mada - Educating for Life   In March 2018, John Moravec at Education Futures conducted a survey asking Does the Future Need Schools? John reached out to a select, diverse group of contacts from around the world to help bring some insight to the subject, aiming to generate an ecology of ideas for future research.   “As the future of work seems to become increasingly uncertain, schools charged with creating future-ready workers have changed very little over the past few centuries,” said Moravec. “A school from 2018 looks and functions little different than a school in 1918 would have operated. As we look 10, 20, or 50 years into the future, will ‘school’ be relevant?”   Revisiting My Personal Stand Back in March 2018, I believed school settings would experience disruptive changes, similar to the radical changes observed over the last three decades in creative companies’ workspaces.   Image credit: Google Workspaces Google h
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