A Teacher Appreciation Week reflection from dfusion
There is a particular kind of teacher we have been thinking about this week.
Not the teacher of the year. Not the one with the most-pinned classroom on Pinterest. We are thinking about the teacher who, sometime in the last decade, looked at a piece of educational technology — a game, a simulation, an interactive platform — and said yes before anyone told them to. Before the district mandated it. Before the research was fully in. Before their colleagues were convinced.
Those teachers took a risk. And increasingly, the evidence says they were right.
What the early adopters understood
The case against educational technology has always been easy to make. Screens are distracting. Games are not serious. Students need direct instruction, not entertainment. These arguments are not unreasonable — there is plenty of bad edtech in the world, plenty of flashy tools that promised transformation and delivered distraction.
But the early adopters were not naive about this. The best of them were asking a different question: not is this technology? but does this reach my students in a way my current tools do not?
That is a much harder question. And it is the right one.
What these educators understood — often intuitively, before the data confirmed it — is that engagement is not a luxury. A student who is not engaged is not learning, no matter how well-designed the lesson. And for many students, particularly those who have been underserved by traditional classroom formats, engagement is not a nice-to-have. It is the prerequisite.
What it looks like in practice
In Fall 2023, dfusion partnered with three schools to beta-test Fantasy Sports Math League — a game-based learning tool from our STEMPlay Labs division that uses fantasy sports to teach math skills. The teachers who signed up knew exactly what they were getting into: a prototype, a work in progress, something that would require flexibility, backup plans, and a tolerance for the occasional glitch.
They said yes anyway.
Martin Sweet, a 6th grade multi-subject teacher, joined because he sees “teaching as a perpetual journey of innovation, adaptation and staying at the forefront of pedagogical advancements.” For Karen Snedeker, a 6th and 7th grade STEAM teacher, beta-testing was “an opportunity to learn alongside the students.” Both teachers understood something that does not show up in most professional development curricula: that trying something unfinished is itself a form of teaching.
“It’s impactful, fun, and engaging to try something new. It pushes you as a teacher to be more innovative. Trying new things is so important as a teacher. By putting yourself out there to beta-test something, you’re going to grow as an educator because you are going to get more tools. —Martin Sweet”
That is the early adopter mindset. Not reckless optimism — but a deliberate, values-driven choice to keep growing.
What happens when teachers say yes
When teachers bring early-stage technology into their classrooms, something interesting happens beyond the intended learning outcomes. Students watch their teacher navigate something new, troubleshoot something broken, and keep going anyway. That is its own curriculum.
When Fantasy Sports Math League hit technical snags during beta-testing — as prototypes inevitably do — Sweet’s students became problem-solvers. In his words:
“Beta-testing is like being a part of a start-up and you’ve got to problem solve and troubleshoot, collaborate, share your ideas, be a part of the creativity that is involved in making something that is good to be much better. —Martin Sweet”
Students also became something rarer: contributors. As dfusion’s development team received feedback and implemented changes, teachers and students felt the direct impact of their input. Sweet described what that meant for his class:
“It’s empowering for the students to be a part of coming up with something that works and to inspire the people who are making the games. They felt their voice was a part of making something better. —Martin Sweet”
That kind of agency — the sense that one’s perspective actually shapes the world — is not something a textbook can provide.
What the research is now confirming
The teachers who opened their classrooms to Fantasy Sports Math League were part of a longer tradition of educator-driven innovation that dfusion’s research is now helping to document and validate.
Our STEMPlay Labs division recently completed a randomized controlled trial of STEMadium — an NIH-funded baseball-themed mobile game designed to teach middle schoolers math and physics. The results demonstrated significant learning gains, and students engaged with the material in ways that sustained their interest beyond a single session — which is the challenge every educational game designer faces, and the one most fail to solve.
We are now in Phase II development of S3E — Simulation for Environmental Exposure Education — a serious game platform funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences that teaches middle schoolers about indoor air quality and environmental health literacy. This is not a subject that typically captures student attention. A well-designed game can change that.
The pattern across these projects is consistent: when game-based learning is built on a rigorous instructional design foundation — not just fun, but purposeful — it works. And it works in large part because teachers like Sweet and Snedeker are willing to bring it into their classrooms before it is perfect, and to keep showing up even when it is hard.
The teacher in the room still matters
None of this is an argument that technology replaces teachers. Quite the opposite.
As Snedeker noted, the field of education too often keeps its blinders on — focused on students, administration, and community, without making space for the research and development side of the equation. The early adopters are the ones who bridge that gap. They take the prototype into the room, they give the honest feedback, and they trust that the process of trying something new is worth the disruption to their routine.
That trust is not free. It costs time, energy, and the willingness to look uncertain in front of your students. The teachers who offer it anyway are doing something important for the field, not just for their own classrooms.
Thank you for saying yes first
This Teacher Appreciation Week, dfusion wants to name and celebrate the educators who were early — early to see that technology could transform learning, early to try the game before there was an RCT to point to, early to let their students watch them figure something out in real time.
You were right. And the students in your classrooms were lucky.
dfusion’s STEMPlay Labs division develops evidence-based, game-based learning tools for STEM and health education, including Fantasy Sports Math League and STEMadium. dfusion is always looking to develop new school and community partnerships. Learn more at [dfusion website].