Last month I had a chance to go to a technology conference in Raleigh, NC. While I was there, I talked with some representatives from Classcraft.com. They showed me their behavior and engagement management tool and I immediately fell in love!
I went and made a free account with them that very evening!
Classcraft is a fantasy based gamification tool. Basically students create an avatar that represents them. They can choose to be warriors, mages, or healers. Actions that they complete in real life impact the strength and powers of their characters.
Teachers take on the role of "Gamemaster," letting the teacher control the most important parts of the game. Positive and negative point values are assigned to common actions in the classroom. For example, when my students help me by passing out papers, they are rewarded with Experience points, just like in a video game. As their experience points increase, the character is able to level up. Leveling up means students are able to get stronger and unlock better gear and pets.
On the flip side, students loose health points for negative behaviors. If one of my students is being rude to another student, they can lose health points. Just like a video game, when all of the health points are gone, your character dies. When a character dies, the student is unable to play the game until they complete a "sentence" or some sort of punishment. The Gamemaster (that's you!) sets the list of sentences. So I set up mine so that there are some serious punishments (like silent lunch, or phone calls home) or some less serious (like showing off an epic dance move or giving everyone in the class a high five). It is a game, after all!
Other features of the game include quests, messaging (with parents and students) and pets for avatars. The quests are probably my favorite feature. The quests allow students to progress through learning objectives and activities at their own pace. As students complete different tasks in the quest line, they earn experience points. As simple as this sounds, it is a huge motivator for many of my students. I didn't create brand new activities to use in my quests - I just dropped in the same activities we would have normally done into the quest. Suddenly some of my stereotypical gamer slackers were suddenly interested and motivated to complete classwork.
Of course, as with most educational tools online, there is a free version and a paid version. I spent about a month on the free version before upgrading to the paid version. The paid version unlocked several new gamification features, including challenges and longer quests for higher levels of differentiation.
Interested in starting our own Classcraft account for your classes? I made a video series that shows how to set up a teacher account. Check it out on Youtube below!
I don't want you thinking that Classcraft is the perfect solution to classroom management, or that I'm so naive that I would believe that. In the interest of full disclosure, I have about 2 kids per class period that could honestly care less. Though in fairness, that's a higher participation rate than I get for most programs I introduce. And the kids that are engaged LOVE it.
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