Business Ed Teacher to eSports Advocate and Instructional Designer in Ag, Mining, & Heavy Equipment

Mike Dahle

From Teaching to Instructional Design

Wait until you hear Mike’s story! He was an innovative business education teacher in Wisconsin teaching graphic, web, and video design. Mike was also involved in starting eSports in Wisconsin. (Have you ever heard of eSports?) I interviewed him to hear his story about his transition from teaching to instructional design in the mining, agriculture, and heavy equipment industry.

High School Classroom Experience

Mike graduated college with a K-12 vocational license to teach Business Education in Wisconsin. After 6-7 interviews with various schools, he decided to take a position where he would be teaching web design and video game design at an area high school.

Why He Left the Classroom

Mike was tired of the stagnant nature of teaching. The content didn’t change to keep up with the standards. He felt ignored. It would take 3-5 years to develop a new course which in technology is way to long. As soon as a new course was developed it was already outdated because of how fast technology changes. At one point, he had applied to an Ed Tech position in the school district but was not selected.

Mike mentioned that leaving the classroom has allowed him to be able to take vacations when he wants. They no longer have to be planned around the school calendar. For example, while teaching, he was unable to attend a friend’s wedding in Vegas. Now, he can do that as he is no longer in the classroom.

Landing His First ID Gig

One of his mottos I found interesting, is that he will always explore other options as they present themselves. He had recruiters reaching out to him so he explored those options and was offered a position as an Instructional Designer.

Agriculture, mining, and heavy equipment firm had been in search of the “right” instructional designer to bring on for the last year. They came across Mike’s resume/profile, interviewed him, and decided to hire him.

“They were reluctant to hire a teacher because of how fast their industry changes compared to school districts. In addition, they were concerned that academia was more tied to pedagogy and proving a competency model is used.”

Mike was able to overcome the objections and they really thought he was a good fit so they hired him after searching the last year for the perfect candidate. Now he is working a dream job with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and holograms.

Advice to Teachers

First and foremost, find a culture that fits you best.
If you enjoy the atmosphere, you will be more engaged, involved, and dedicated.

Mike’s Passion Project: eSports Implementation in Wisconsin

Mike is passionate about providing after-school activities to students who enjoyed gaming. He started an eSports club for kids after school while teaching. Students at one school could compete playing football at the same time virtually with other schools. It would allow students to compete against each other just like any other sport. Students stay after and play sports, online through a gaming platform rather than in person with physical contact.

Mike is working on creating a statewide conference that would allow structure for a school to the school competition. At the time of this post, his organization has over 20 schools committed. He has a goal to get 80 schools in all to commit. The Wisconsin High School eSports Conference is trying to offer this to as many schools as possible. Students would have an opportunity to showcase their skills and abilities on a statewide scale. The game plan is for eSports to be a recognized WIAA sport for all schools in Wisconsin.

Gaming Industry Trends You Should Know

Mike informed me of some trends in the gaming industry that I was not aware of and I think everyone should be aware of. I recently saw a graphic about a lack of interest in sports amongst millennials and what impact that may have on the sporting industry. Is this the new world of sports we are looking at?

eSports appears to be affiliated with ESPN
In 2010, Robert Morris University offers scholarship for competitive gaming.
Connecticut, Illinois, and Orange County in California already have established programs.
League of Legends is an example of a live multiplayer game battle that is popular amongst gamers today.
Twitch is a platform that streams people live playing video games. Twitch is partnered with Amazon. At the time if this blog post, if you have Amazon Prime, you can subscribe to your favorite streamer for free once a month. They get $2,50 for each Amazon Prime subscription. From what I understand, there are people making a decent or even occasionally an amazing living by broadcasting themselves playing video games.
Facebook has reached out to him to discuss the world of eSports.
Engadget has some resources about eSports that may be of interest.

Subscribe to our newsletter

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.