I’m Ben Lawless. I am a dad, educator and game designer (and other things).
I have been lucky enough to win a few awards:
- I have sold over 35,000 books
- My textbook “Good Humanities” won best textbook from the Australian Geography Teachers’ Assocation
- The legendary John Hunter, creator of the World Peace Game made me one of his “Elders” (there’s just 16 of us worldwide)
- I got on the Educator Hot List in 2020
- My game EarthCraft was in the Top 20 in Australia at the HundrED Teaching Innovation Competition
- The fantastic folks at the HTAV gave me an ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of History’ award
- Sustainability Victoria made me a Finalist in the ResourceSmart Teacher of the Year awards for my game Planetology
- Hume City Council anointed me Graduate Teacher of the Year
I’ve also been lucky enough to have people say nice things about my approach to education.
I’m currently a teacher and researcher at a large K-12 school in Melbourne. I also train teachers at Melbourne University.
At school I mostly teach humanities. At university I mostly teach assessment.
I have a YouTube channel devoted to education. Some of my original playlists include assessment, learning games, and even whole courses on Year 7 Geography, Year 8 Geography, Year 9 History, Year 10 History, Year 10 Geography and Year 12 Sociology (Community, Ethnicity and Social Movements).
I worked with Patrick Griffin at the Assessment Research Centre, which ignited my love for K-12 education and developmental thinking.
I do quite a lot of conferences and presentations.
In 2017 I started “Lawless Learning”. Originally it was just to put my teaching resources online and sell a few history card games, but I now also consult with schools and education institutions across Australia. My specialist area is developmental assessment and using student evidence to inform teaching.
I love working with schools for extended periods to see real improvement in their pedagogy, teacher knowledge and student results.
I’d love to hear from you!