CITE 2022: Where Should Schools Start When Building an Esports Program?

Cecilia D’Anastasio / Bloomberg:
The hype around esports is fading, as teams and organizations shrink due to a weak sponsorship and ad market, falling VC investment, and the crypto meltdown  —  The once-thriving esports industry has fallen on hard times as funding sources dwindle and signs abound that athletic competition via video games …

In the expo hall of the Future of Education Technology Conference, there’s an esports theater. It’s surrounded by esports-adjacent vendors, such as CDW and Spectrum Industries, and it’s almost always bustling with curious conferencegoers.
Beyond the theater, conference organizers lined up roundtable discussions on esports leadership, Intel-sponsored esports sessions and a “meet the author” experience with the education program manager for Epic Games. The emphasis on esports reflects the interest of the K–12 community.
Attendance was high at CDW Education Strategist Corey Gordon’s Tuesday…

Yousef Saba / Reuters:
Chainalysis: MENA was the fastest-growing crypto market between July 2021 and June 2022, with transaction volume up 48% YoY to $566B; North America grew 36%  —  The Middle East and North Africa are the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets, with the volume of crypto received …

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
BMW and Amazon partner to let BMW use Alexa’s technology to build its own voice assistant, coming to cars launching within the next two years  —  Amazon Alexa will be the foundation of BMW’s next-generation voice assistant, the companies announced Wednesday at Amazon’s annual Devices and Services launch event.

Diane Bartz / Reuters:
A US Senate committee votes 15-7 to pass the Journalism Competition and Protection Act letting news organizations band together to negotiate with tech platforms  —  The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to approve a bill aimed at allowing news organizations to band together …