Zynga.org's Game-Based Learning Accelerator Pairs Newbies With Experienced Players

Zynga.org's Game-Based Learning Accelerator Pairs Newbies With Experienced Players Co.lab is a start-up accelerator that focuses on learning games. A partnership between Zynga.org and the New School Venture Fund, co.lab “works with startups leveraging the power of digital games to build transformative educational technologies for PK-12 students and teachers.” Their third cohort was just announced. It includes seven start-ups “founded by a talented and diverse set of entrepreneurs including educators, technologists, game developers, school founders, researchers from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the University of California - Berkeley, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans and even recent college graduates.” I visited their offices last week and spoke to Esteban Sosnick (Executive Director) and Cameron White (Associate Director). They emphasized a commitment to creating an interdisciplinary space where companies with differing strengths and weaknesses can help one another thrive. It is an exciting time for game-based learning . Schools around the world are beginning to use video games in their classrooms. A recent study that aimed to understand how educational games are being adopted, showed that 55% of teachers surveyed use games at least weekly. But education technology remains a complex market to navigate. Whether selling games and apps directly to consumers or to institutions, there are unique challenges. Sosnick and White find that most developers have great ideas but they are missing one (if not more) pieces of the puzzle. Perhaps they don’t know how to include assessments mapped to standards. Perhaps they don’t understand how to bring an app to scale. Perhaps they struggle with marketing, or engagement, or user interface. Co.lab has designed a program “tailored to the specific needs of games-based learning startups” that brings together “NewSchools Venture Fund’s educational and edtech expertise and Zynga.org’s access to best-in-class talent and resources from the world of commercial games.”