Is this banana for you?
Let’s assume your classroom isn’t a place where your desks are in rows, you DON’T stand out front holding a wipe board pen, or use your projector to etch content into a plastic board. If you have an open space and team teaching, you probably spend a lot of time rolling your eyes when people drone on about what quality teacher is. You’re probably working with one or more other teachers all the time. You’ll be sharing classroom space, collaborating and in a constant process of cooperation, negotiation, support, and on the spot innovation. If you find yourself at conferences and wondering “why is this news to these people?” then you’re probably an effective team-teacher with an offside hand that can wield technology as well as working an unfamiliar car door handle.
What can you learn from a video game such as Overwatch? Plenty – team wins and losses are a result of team choice, action and effort. If you want to simulate what team teaching feels like to a colleague, get them to play Overwatch. Of course, they won’t know the map or where the health packs are. They won’t be able to pick a dive-team composition or know how to counter a Genji, but that’s the point really. Team teaching is contextual, complex and emerges from a culture of teaching and community of practice, rather than individual actions or behaviours. In Overwatch, a team performance is always the goal, and the odds of winning are usually 50/50 with a random team, but get better with a familiar one. Over time, teams get to know each other so well, they predict each other’s moves. Some people like to play healer and others DPS … just as teachers in open classrooms choose a role and are free to swap out as the lesson develops.
Teachers can learn a lot from Overwatch about how to become a more effective team teacher … and this is a fundamentally different role and experience to those who are ‘using games’. If you want to learn how to design better lessons and be a better colleague … the Summer Games are on now.
Playable 