Attleboro Teacher Wins National Award

The following is an edited press release from the NEA Foundation:

When given a chance to voice their thoughts on how gaming can be used in student learning, educators have an unlimited number of ideas. To highlight some of the best, the NEA Foundation, in partnership with Microsoft Partners in Learning and the U.S. Department of Education, is recognizing Adeline M. Bee, a journalism teacher at , whose idea was selected by her peers and a panel of experts as one of the top 10 posted to receive the NEA Foundation’s Challenge to Innovate (C2i) Gaming Award, and $1,000.

Bee's Crime Scene Reporters would use journalism best practices and game-based learning to visit historical or imaginary crime scenes and act as reporters or investigators. She envisions students interviewing witnesses, victims and police officers in a video game. If they fail to ask enough in-depth questions, they cannot proceed to the next level.

Ultimately, students write up their findings in an article. Whether historical or fiction, each scenario provides students with the inside scoop on events like the John F. Kennedy assassination or literary giants like Edgar Allen Poe.

"Game-based learning and interactive technology like this can help build technological and communication competencies valued in the workplace and the 21st century economy," said Harriet Sanford, president and CEO of the NEA Foundation. "So we asked educators to share, discuss and evaluate ideas about how to use these tools to support classroom instruction."

She continued, "We discovered educators who are using technology in fun, creative ways. By initiating this discussion and knowledge sharing, we hope to help educators better equip their students with the skills they'll need to be successful in college, work and life."

The NEA Foundation uses crowd sourcing on the Department of Education's innovation portal as a way to ensure that educators have a voice in determining new instructional strategies. Continuing a multi-year partnership, the foundation partnered with Microsoft to solicit and share ideas on how gaming could be integrated into the curriculum to meet students where they are highly engaged while improving their learning.

Bee is also a member of the C2i community, more than 1,000 educators and others, that is hosted on the Department of Education's Open Innovation Portal, and who are helping the NEA Foundation and its partners identify and solve education's most pressing classroom problems. Hers was selected from a pool of 157 ideas from 38 states and five countries by their peers and a panel of educational experts.

"By using an interactive video game approach, students learn by playing and enjoy the classroom lessons more," Bee said. "Students want more hands-on materials, teachers want more creative teaching techniques and businesses want more highly skilled graduates. All of this can be achieved if the gaming industry teams up with innovative educators."