Learning Through Video Games at Alpha School with Benny

15:19.5
In this episode of Transformative Principal, host Jethro Jones interviews Benny, a 16-year-old sophomore at Alpha School in Austin. Benny discusses his Alpha X project—a YouTube channel explaining how video games are educational.

The conversation explores Alpha School's innovative model, which combines AI-based academics in the morning with passion-driven project work in the afternoon. Benny shares insights on how video games teach critical life skills like problem-solving, resilience, teamwork, and communication through active learning environments.

Jethro challenges Benny to stop perfecting his first video and start publishing immediately, emphasizing that consistent practice beats endless research. They discuss the importance of learning through doing, the value of failure in video games versus traditional education, and how Alpha School's approach helps students develop real-world skills.

• Alpha School academics and workshops. 
• Benny’s youtube channel
• Uploading many videos as opposed to researching to make one video. 
• Active worlds do 1.5x better than kids in traditional learning situations.
• Video games teaching organic skills. 
• Portal 1 and 2 are great for teaching logic
• Professor Layton Franchise - puzzle games.
• What makes you give up? 
• Motivational models - motivating a student for doing a certain task or achievement
• How minecraft raised us better than our schools. 
• Brainlift Google Doc

About Benny

Benny is a 16-year-old sophomore who attends Alpha High School. He enjoys playing video games, playing instruments, and debating a variety of topics. He has lived in Austin, Texas his whole life and has been attending Alpha for three years. At Alpha, students complete an AlphaX project, an individual project based on their passions. When he was in middle school and during his first year at Alpha High School, Benny’s project was based on music therapy. However, as he progressed through high school, he began to change his project to a YouTube channel that explains how video games are educational. This change was inspired by the first thing he does when he gets home from school, which is playing video games.