MONROE, Wash., Dec. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The market conditions for Mobile Learning Game developers competing in the US could not be more favorable. There is very high demand, a wave of intense investment and M&A activity, and significant revenue opportunities in all eight buying segments according to a new Metariverse report called “The 2022-2027 US Mobile Learning Game Market”. Consumers are the largest buying segment throughout the forecast period and will be spending $2.5 billion on Mobile Learning Games by 2027.
The five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for Mobile Learning Games in the US is a healthy 18.2{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} and the revenues will more than double to over $9.2 billion by 2027. Content accounts for just under 70{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of all revenues throughout the forecast period. The most significant catalyst is the massive rollout of blazingly fast 5G networks across the US.
The Serious Play Conference (SPC) is the exclusive reseller of both Metaari and Metariverse reports. The new market report can be purchased at:
The 2022-2027 US Mobile Learning Game Market report has 320 pages, 28 market forecast tables, and 14 charts. There are four sections in this report: an executive overview with a brief discussion of the primary catalysts, a detailed analysis of the catalysts, a demand-side analysis by eight buying segments, and a supply-side analysis for three Mobile Learning Game products and services. Additionally, there are revenue breakouts for ten distinct types of Mobile Learning Games. Situational games will have the highest revenues reaching over $1.4 billion by 2027.
“Fundamentally new types of Mobile Learning Games have come on the market in the last two years,” reports Adkins.. “They are called prescription digital therapeutics (PDT) games if they require a prescription and are called digital therapeutics (DTx) games if a prescription is not required. The growth rate is a healthy 16.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} and revenues will climb to $1.0 billion by 2027.”
Over 1,270 developers competing in the US are cited in this report. This will help international and domestic suppliers identify partners, distributors, resellers, and potential merger and acquisition (M&A) targets.
“One interesting new trend is the launch of incubators by game developers,” adds Adkins. “In 2021. BYJU’S, Roblox, and Spin Master launched incubators designed to fund third-party learning game developers that make games for kids. Roblox initially funded $10.0 million, and Spin Master launched their $100.0 million Spin Master Ventures (SMV) fund in October 2021. Epic Games launched their $100.0 million MegaGrants program in early 2019. It funds developers “working with its game engine, 3D graphics tools, and open-source software.”
About Metariverse
Metariverse (formerly Metaari) is an ethics-based quantitative market research firm that identifies revenue opportunities for advanced learning technology suppliers. We track the learning technology markets in 126 countries. We have the most complete view of the international learning technology market in the industry. Metariverse focusses solely on advanced learning technology research on products that utilize psychometrics, neuroscience, location intelligence, game mechanics, robotics, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality. For more information about our research, email [email protected].
NORTHFIELD — Based on requests from both elementary schools and the interim superintendent’s recommendation, the Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee voted Thursday to close the district’s open School Choice seats at Bernardston and Northfield elementary schools.
Interim Superintendent Patricia Kinsella said the principals at both schools have raised concerns about their school’s abilities to take on more students as short staffing and the pandemic’s continued impact add increased stress to the schools.
“Both of the elementary principals are requesting, because of social-emotional needs, because of academic needs and because of space concerns with COVID in their buildings,” Kinsella said, “they are requesting the School Committee consider closing all of the open School Choice seats” in both schools.
The vote closed six seats at Bernardston Elementary School and 20 seats at Northfield Elementary. Two seats in the senior class at Pioneer Valley Regional School were also closed, but only because graduation requirements can get messy if a student transfers this late into the year, according to Kinsella.
Warwick member David Young asked how much potential revenue the district could lose out on by closing the School Choice seats, which each provide $5,000.
“Theoretically those are worth $5,000 apiece,” Young said. “It’s $150,000 of potential income we’re walking away from. I’ll still vote for it though.”
Kinsella noted the district doesn’t typically receive that many School Choice applications this late into the school year, and any help the teachers and administrators can get would be helpful. She said she is normally “an open-arms person,” but welcoming any additional students could be detrimental to the schools.
“There are some significant behavioral needs,” Kinsella said. “I know that in one of the buildings the principal spent yesterday in meetings with the teachers at each grade level reviewing data about the students both in terms of their behavior and their learning.”
School Committee Chair Julie Burke said she felt similarly to Young in that the district might be losing out on revenue, but the concerns of administrators cannot be ignored.
“I feel the same with David’s sentiments that of course, with declining enrollment, it’s so exciting that more kids want to come, so my knee-jerk reaction is with open arms,” Burke said. “However, I need to defer to the experts and the experts are the building principals, the teachers and our superintendent.”
The School Committee voted unanimously to close the recommended seats to any students not currently in the application process.
In other business, the committee voted to continue meeting in a hybrid format and reduced the maximum meeting time from two and a half hours to two hours. Any meeting that exceeds the time limit will reconvene the next week, which is also the current policy.
“I really feel there is a huge benefit to meeting in person,” Burke said. “We often have audio difficulties with folks at home. … I’m not placing blame, it is what it is.”
Other committee members disagreed in the name of safety and time management.
“I agree, meeting in person is ideal,” Warwick member Nathan Swartz said. “Right now, that’s not always an option. The last meeting we had, a couple of our kids had fellow students who were in COVID protocols, so I didn’t feel like it was appropriate for me to go to the meeting in person.”
Bernardston member Jeanne Milton said hybrid allows each town’s representatives the most opportunity to attend the meeting.
“There are only two of us from Bernardston,” Milton said. “Under doctor’s orders I could not attend tonight, that would only leave us with one person if we couldn’t do Google Meet.”
Northfield member Stephanie Winslow said in-person meetings are the best way to conduct business, especially in executive session.
“I’ve always known a School Committee to be in person,” Winslow said. “If the kids are in school, then we can be here.”
The committee opted to remain in a hybrid format with a 7-3 vote, and will reconvene Thursday, Dec. 16, at 7 p.m. to continue discussion on the use of private vehicles for transportation to school activities.
A tiny school district in California is setting up a separate in-person instructional program for its unvaccinated students, courting a showdown with the biggest state in the country and a tussle over the legal limits of how schools can respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Alpine Union school district’s plan, the first of its kind in the country, is designed to save its unvaccinated students from losing face-to-face instruction when the state’s K-12 vaccine mandate—also the only one of its kind in the nation—goes into effect, for some grades as early as July.
In this small K-8 district, in the foothills east of San Diego, where “choice” is a rallying cry that dominates the COVID vaccine debate, district leaders estimate that 40 percent or more of the 1,500 students aren’t inoculated against the virus.
“I’m not opposed to vaccines. I got the vaccine and the booster, too,” said Alpine’s superintendent, Rich Newman. “But I feel I should represent my community, and overwhelmingly, they’re believers in choice. I don’t want some students falling through the cracks because of the state’s vaccine mandate.”
Alpine’s dilemma reflects a question district leaders across the country are facing, said Dan Domenech, the executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents’ Association: What kind of education should they provide for children whose parents won’t get them vaccinated?
California is the only state so far to add COVID-19 inoculations to the longstanding list of other vaccinations required for in-person school attendance, such as measles, mumps and rubella. The mandate will take effect in phases, when federal officials grant full approval for the vaccine’s use in each age group. Currently, COVID vaccines are fully approved only for those 16 and older. Younger children can receive them under an emergency-use authorization.
Once California’s requirement kicks in, families of unvaccinated students—other than those with state-approved exemptions—will have three choices: private school, home schooling, or “independent study,” a learn-from-home option offered by the state.
The predicament Alpine faces is likely to arise nationwide. Louisiana announced this week that it will require the COVID vaccine for school attendance. Five districts in California already require it. And at least a dozen districts around the country require the vaccine for some students, typically student-athletes.
Some districts have conducted short-lived experiments aimed at serving both masked and unmasked students by teaching them in separate rooms, but they quickly abandoned those practices. No district has yet tried a separate program for unvaccinated students.
In-person program for unvaccinated students could violate law
The California governor’s office signaled that any district that sets up separate in-person instruction for unvaccinated students would run afoul of its orders.
“If you do in-person instruction, you need to abide by the vaccine mandate,” said Alex Stack, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
County health departments will be tasked with enforcing the vaccine mandate, Stack said. Legal experts said the state also has the authority to seek a court order to shut down school programs that violate state law.
“I don’t think California will allow a school district to create a separate program for unvaccinated students. If it violates state law, a judge is going to shut that down,” said James Hodge, a professor of law at Arizona State University and director of its Center for Public Health Law.
Courts have upheld challenges to vaccine mandates in higher education, and last weekend marked a key ruling for such requirements in K-12. On Dec. 5, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld San Diego Unified school district’s vaccine requirement. Hodge said that would buttress other California districts that enact such rules.
Parents drove creation of new program
Alpine’s planned “choice academy” is drawing both applause and condemnation locally. The district’s Facebook page became a hotbed of disagreement when Newman, the superintendent, posted a letter announcing the academy on Nov. 22. He returned to work after Thanksgiving to find voicemails accusing him of being a Nazi and a segregationist.
But many parents and district staff members are cheering the academy. They commend the district for respecting all viewpoints in this predominantly conservative community and trying to ensure unvaccinated students get a quality education.
“I’m grateful we have a superintendent who wants to work alongside us parents instead of against us,” said Jalissa Hukee, whose two children have all their required vaccines except COVID. “Without the academy, I’d pull my kids out and home-school.”
Hukee is one of a group of parents helping Newman design the program. This fall, after Newsom announced the coming vaccine mandate, Newman invited their ideas. The parents gathered around a friend’s kitchen table and brainstormed an early outline.
There is still a lot to figure out. The district is working with its teachers’ and classified employees’ unions on how to staff the programs, and what safety protocols will be required. They don’t yet know whether they’ll mix the age groups, one-room-schoolhouse style, or divvy children up into grade bands. They have to find ways to preserve the district’s vaunted engineering and dual-language programs, and how to meet the needs of special education students in the new, separate setting.
Home schooling isn’t an option for some working parents
And they’re still looking for a good location: parents have eagerly offered living rooms and garages, but Newman is leaning toward keeping students together in a larger space, such as a community center or office building. But even an unfinished plan is finding a hero’s welcome among some parents.
“Thank God for the academy, because we can’t home-school,” said Jessica Dombroski, whose four children attend Alpine schools while she runs a dog-grooming business and her husband works as a paramedic. She and her children are unvaccinated, and she’s been scrambling to create a home-school pod with other families. Instead, she’ll opt for the choice academy.
Beacon Grayson has vaccinated her two daughters against COVID, and is eager for the state vaccine mandate to go into effect. But she’s happy the district is working to provide an alternative for parents who have not vaccinated their children.
“The district is doing what it can to straddle the divide between parents like me and parents who are ‘no vaccine,’” she said. “It’s caught in a really tough situation.”
Nearly 90 percent of Alpine’s staff is vaccinated for COVID; the rest undergo weekly testing. Yvette Maier, the district’s director of human resources, said many teachers have expressed an interest in teaching in the new academy, especially those who are unvaccinated. The district aims to iron out all details of the program by June, when families begin registering for fall 2021, she said.
New program is ‘asking for a COVID outbreak’
Lauren Weinberg, a 5th grade teacher who’s in her second year in Alpine, thinks the new program is an “incredibly unsafe” option, both for students and staff members.
“Putting a bunch of unvaccinated people in one area, it’s asking for a COVID outbreak,” she said. “You won’t catch me stepping foot on that campus.”
Weinberg worries that the choice academy will enable more families to forgo vaccination. But for others, that’s precisely the point.
“Without this academy, a lot of families will be forced to get the vaccine when they don’t want to,” said Erica Lyle, the dean of students at Alpine’s Shadow Hills Elementary. “We want to let families make their own choices.”
Districts risk legal challenges if they set up such programs, however, legal experts said.
In addition to possible shutdown by the state or by county health departments, they could face lawsuits for breaching a key legal standard: their duties to protect students from foreseeable danger, and to provide a safe and healthy workplace for staff, said Meredith Karasch, senior counsel at Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, a Los Angeles-based law firm that advises school districts.
“I’d tell districts to think very carefully about the issues before putting something like this into place,” she said.
Rochester-area public school students will create social change using video games at the AT&T & RIT ROCtheChange Game Jam held Jan. 15—the first free youth game jam in the region.
At the event, local students in grades 8-12 will learn about programming and get hands-on experience creating functional digital video games. With the event taking place on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, students will be challenged to create games with the theme of social change and social good.
To eliminate economic barriers, the game jam is free. All technology and meals will be provided. Additionally, students are not required to have any previous experience with computer coding or digital game design.
The game jam is a collaboration between RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media and AT&T. It aims to expand digital literacy skills and coding and game development opportunities for Rochester-area students—especially those from underrepresented schools and communities. The program seeks to help youth from all backgrounds and economic situations consider careers in the growing technology job market, an industry that is known for its lack of diversity.
The AT&T & RIT ROCtheChange Game Jam will take place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Jan. 15, in RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences building. Parents can register their children on the Eventbrite page by Dec. 31, 2021. The event is limited to 65 students.
Throughout the day, professors and students from RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media will help participants learn the basic technology and digital skills needed to create digital games. Additionally, game makers will be there to talk about what it’s like to have a career in game design and development.
When creating the games, students will incorporate ideas of social change into the themes and actions of the gameplay. Topics can include Go Green, Stand Up, Speak Up, Equality for All, and Mental Health Awareness/Support. The projects will then be scored by a panel of judges made up of game developers, local tech experts, community leaders, education experts, and elected officials.
AT&T’s partnership with RIT to develop and offer the free game jam aligns with AT&T’s legacy of supporting the digital divide and educational programs focused on digital literacy and STEM disciplines in New York, through the AT&T Aspire initiative. Aspire is one of the nation’s largest corporate commitments focused on advancing education, creating opportunities, strengthening communities, and improving lives, particularly amongst historically underserved populations, by creating new learning environments and educational delivery systems that promote racial equity in academic and economic achievement.
RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media offers some of the best programs for aspiring game developers in the world, according to international rankings from The Princeton Review.
Nashville, TN – The American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, the National Football League (NFL) and the Tennessee Titans are doubling down on kids physically active through NFL PLAY 60 as students return to the classroom following remote, distant and hybrid learning due to COVID-19 Coronavirus.
Now in its 15th year, the NFL PLAY 60 program establishes healthy habits and reduces sedentary behaviors in kids, which is key to immediate and long-term health benefits that can play a role in the classroom experience.
“Now that school is back in session, moving more is even more important following more than a year at home away from physical education classes, team sports, and daily recess,” Annie Thornhill, Executive Director of the Middle Tennessee American Heart Association. “Research has shown healthy behaviors are important in the classroom as active kids learn better. When kids are active, they focus more, think more clearly, react to stress more calmly, and perform and behave better in the classroom.”
In a recent scientific statement released by the American Heart Association, data continues to show poor cardiorespiratory fitness in youth, which includes cognitive and academic functions. As children return to the classroom, it is important for parents and educators to prioritize physical activity for immediate and long-term health.
Rooted in science, NFL PLAY 60, helps children to develop healthy physical and mental health habits for a better chance of a healthy adulthood. The program encourages kids to get a minimum of 60 minutes of vigorous physical activity each day to meet the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (Department of Health and Human Services, Physical Activity Guidelines, page 14. Available for download here).
The American Heart Association and the NFL will continue to provide free resources to support parents and educators in making physical activity fun and engaging.
Resources available now:
Powered by GoNoodle, a landing page of videos and activities to help kids get 60 minutes of movement each day along side fun animated characters.
NFL PLAY 60 App– The free NFL PLAY 60 app helps kids get more movement throughout the day. The PLAY 60 app allows users to control personalized avatars onscreen with their own physical movement. The app is available for iOS and Android devices.
NFL PLAY 60 Exercise Library– In collaboration with the 32 NFL clubs, the first-ever NFL PLAY 60 library features kid-friendly exercises to help kids to get their recommended 60-minutes of daily physical activity.
The NFL and the American Heart Association have teamed up since 2006 to inspire kids through a fun and engaging way to get physically active. The impact of physical activity on overall mental and physical wellness is essential to help children grow to reach their full potential.
Additional NFL PLAY 60 resources can be found online at heart.org/nflplay60.
About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public’s health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century.
NFL PLAY 60 is the League’s national youth health and wellness campaign to encourage kids to get physically active for at least 60 minutes a day. Since PLAY 60 launched in 2007, the NFL has committed more than $352 million to youth health and fitness through PLAY 60 programming, grants, and media time for public service announcements. Over the past decade, the NFL has partnered with leading academic, scientific, and nonprofit organizations to help children of all abilities lead healthier, active lives.
The NFL and its clubs have supported programs in over 73,000 schools and constructed more than 265 youth fitness zones nationwide—giving more than 38 million children an opportunity to boost their physical activity levels. NFL PLAY 60 is also implemented locally, as part of the NFL’s in-school, after-school and team-based programs.
The Friends of Rectortown, a nonprofit created in 2003, has created an endowment fund to benefit Claude Thompson Elementary School. Organization President Henry Lavine is spearheading the effort.
“The principal and teachers use personal funds to help with students’ emergencies,” he said. “Perhaps a child needs a warm coat. Dad has no gas in the car to take a child to the doctor … the list goes on and on. Our teachers are underpaid, and this is a recurring hardship. The fund initially will provide the principal with a modest fund to deal with this. As the fund grows, there will be other benefits for the school.”
Lavine has already collected $20,000 for the endowment fund. The goal for this year is to have $30,000 to $40,000 for this year; over the next few years Lavine would like to raise $100,000 or more. The principle would remain intact; the interest would be used for students’ needs.
Claude Thompson Principal Mary Pat Warter said she — along with her team of administrators and the school’s guidance counselor — will decide how best to utilize the funding. “Students and families have needs that don’t fit into a line in a budget … shoes, backpacks, gas for a trip to the dentist.” She said at least one teacher has driven to Front Royal to pay for and pick up a pair of eyeglasses for a student.
Warter insists, “It’s not just us. I think all teachers are superheroes.”
She said, “We keep track of the expenses, for accountability, but not to judge.” Warter said that a high number of her students come from families that may be economically disadvantaged. “Before COVID, more than 60{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of our students were eligible for reduced lunches. I can’t imagine that it hasn’t gotten worse.”
The pandemic has caused challenges for her students in particular, she said. Last year was so difficult because “the technology is inconsistent. We are all learning new things every single day, but it’s like flying a plane and building it at the same time. There is an academic deficit, and we find ourselves trying to catch up,” she said.
Warter said that the school does some limited fundraising. “We don’t make much from fundraising. Five hundred dollars from an event would be an amazing success. And we don’t like to ask more of our families,” she said.
Friends of Rectortown has contributed in myriad ways to the school, said Warter. “They have helped with weekend meal packs and with our food garden – they and some garden clubs helped us create that.”
Warter remembered when Henry Lavine and his wife Ronda McCrea moved to Rectortown. “We got phone call from this couple that had just moved to the area and wanted to help the school. We thought, ‘Oh, they’ll read to the kids,’ but he said, ‘Ah … no. We want to do more. We want to have people write checks.’”
Warter said, “Hank has a tremendous passion for community. He and his wife have made us a better school, helping us create strong partnerships with our community that have lasted for years.”
Warter has been principal at Claude Thompson for 20 years. “I feel better about everything now because of the community’s involvement.”
Donations to the endowment fund may be made out to Friends of Rectortown, Inc. with the notation: Claude Thompson Endowment Fund. They can be mailed to Friends of Rectortown, c/o Henry Lavine, P.O. Box 333, Rectortown, Virginia 20140.
Donors committed before the end of the year will be listed as “founding sponsors” on a plaque at the school.
No administrative fees will be incurred, said Lavine, “Every nickel will go to the endowment fund.”
Nashville, TN – The 