Classcraft turns school lessons into a huge role-playing game - with a shareware model.
Shawn Young's class consists of warriors, mages, and healers. Warriors can eat in the classroom, magicians are able to teleport from lectures, and doctors ask if the answer is correct on the exam. This is not a fantasy in the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons. Right now more than 7,000 children study in 25 countries of the world. Yang, a high-school physics teacher, has been developing and improving the Classcraft role-playing game for three years, which, he says, can help lagging students.
While Classcraft is free, but in the fall it will be introduced a shareware payment system, reminiscent of many mobile games and projects like League of Legends or Runescape. This should attract the attention of an educational system accustomed to strict budgets and user pay for educational programs, especially when its employees are aware that students will buy armor and pets for their Classcraft avatars on iTunes
Classcraft is updated right in the classroom as students use their abilities.
Playing in the classroom
')
If you're a player, then what's happening in the physics lesson of Sean Yang will seem like a revelation to you. At the beginning of the lesson, all students check their settings on the screen in the center of the room. After the call, a random event occurs that can affect one or more players. It can be a disaster like the death of one of the characters or something strange, for example, someone will start singing.
“It helps students to focus,” said Young GamesBeat during a video call, “as they enter the class they already want to know what will happen this time.”
During the lesson, Young gives out experience points for good work and helping others or units of damage to those who cannot concentrate or behave badly. Increasing their level, students receive abilities depending on the chosen class and can use them to help their friends (or themselves) by activating directly during the lesson.
The teacher can keep track of everything that happens in Classcraft, and in the case of Yang, children can use laptops for real-time interaction. From September, they will be able to use smartphones, as the application for iOS will be released, followed by the Android version.
Different classes are balanced to encourage teamwork.
Cutting lessons and eating chocolate
Young's students play by his rules, but they always have the opportunity to use them to their advantage. Some abilities have very powerful personal or collective effects and students can be very creative when using them.
“One possibility is a teleport that allows you to leave the class for two minutes,” says Young. “They accumulate a few pieces and leave for 10 minutes. This is annoying, but at the same time it is part of the game. ”
Some children use the warrior's ability to eat in the classroom to bring chocolate fondue to class.
Young admits that Classcraft awards often go beyond normal school rules, but he says that this is what makes them so attractive. “It makes you feel cool — and very funny,” says Young. “And it works both ways. As a master of the game, I agree with this, but they agree with the unpleasant consequences of death. ”
“For them, real life comes to school. Classcraft is so successful precisely because rewards and punishments are important to them. ”
“Having lost all units of life, a student dies and faces a punishment that is determined randomly — this may be a requirement to stay after class or rewrite five pages of text.”
“Usually they register as follows:“ You are bad, you are trying to leave me after lessons, ”and they are trying with all their might to avoid it,” says Young. “Now they say,“ This is a game, this is cool, I will come. ” There is no need even to check whether they will come or not. They will definitely come. "
Usually students are not happy with the punishments But now happy. This is very unusual.
Students will be able to buy things to change their avatar
Changing lessons through collaboration
Before taking action, Young was thinking about the idea of ​​Classcraft for several years.
Before its creation, he tried various ways to get children to cooperate in the classroom, as he considers it extremely important in the 21st century, which demonstrated the explosive growth of joint activities and social networks.
“Before that, I organized other experiments, for example, the children worked in teams of four and everyone got the marks of the worst member of the group,” says Young, “But it turned out to be too harsh. (laughs) Too tough with assessments that seemed unfair to them. ”
Developing a team spirit seems to Jang extremely important, he believes that the modern educational system underestimates this aspect of learning. “Our entire rating system is based on individual achievements,” he says, “and is not very useful for them. It is really useful to see the value of the victory of your team versus personal success, to work together to raise the overall level. ”
Young notes that when someone dies in Classcraft, the whole team is punished by losing lives. “In the game, rewards and risks are very carefully balanced,” he says. “On the one hand there is a collective risk of dying, on the other hand cooperation is strongly encouraged. It completely transforms the lessons. ”
Teacher of history
Ricardo Higuera teaches the history of seventh graders in a rural corner of Southern California called Thermal. Almost all students in his high school get free breakfasts. Higuera has been using Classcraft for the past 4 months and is delighted with how he encourages students to take care of their grades.
Academically, I noticed an increase in grades in control and enthusiasm in lessons, ”Higuero told me by e-mail.“ Previously, some of the apathetic students were not at all bothered by a failed control. Now, they are much more worried because of their teams.
Classcraft also helped to inspire children with lessons. “I was proud of the smooth, fascinating lessons before Classcraft, but after starting the game I noticed a sharp increase in interest,” said Higuera, “Since we have fairly short changes, I always had some minor problems with being late — especially in some groups — but now the children hurry to classes. ”
At the moment, Higuer remains the only teacher in his school using Classcraft. The rest are not very well understand its meaning and are not sure that it should be used in the classroom. This is largely due to the need to be a master of the game.
“This game, like everything else in education, is very dependent on the teacher,” says Higuero. “Like desktop role-playing games, the game is curled from the game master. He or she controls the capabilities of the game and animates it.
Higuera has already decided that he will use Classcraft in the coming years.
I think Classcraft is perfect for my age group and subject matter, ”he said,“ Middle school, medieval history ... can you imagine how cool it is to play World of Warcraft like studying samurai, knights and Aztecs? I myself feel like a child, playing over and over with friends in Dungeons & Dragons.
Pupils Ricardo Higuera create their characters
Seeing results
Young still has no quantitative results, but many teachers using Classcraft talk about success. “We are given very surprising statistics,” says Young. “Some teachers say that a couple of months after the introduction of Classcraft, the average ratings increased by 20-25%."
He attributes this to increased engagement caused by three factors: important rewards, continuous feedback and encouragement of collaboration in the classroom. "
“The first time I started the game in the middle of the school year,” says Young, “I had two guys who didn't work at all, they were seriously behind. As soon as Classcraft started their lessons, they began to work like crazy. A lot - abnormally a lot - because they wanted to pump. It was surprising, because the ratings didn’t worry them, unlike the success in the game. ”
Despite the terrible start, these children have successfully completed the school year.
“Some children have never talked to each other, but now they help each other after lessons.” Says Young, highlighting the teamwork that Classcraft encourages. “The game encourages exactly what makes you a good student. Active participation in the lessons, assignments, cooperation. She really rewards it. This is how you pump in the game. ”
Classcraft covers all aspects of the school life of young students. They get experience for sporting success and helping each other after school. They even remove the class to pump faster. “They become obsessed with learning,” says Young. “They just don't notice it.”
Classcraft improved grades and attitudes in many schools
Carrot on a string
Not everyone is sure that Classcraft should be used for motivation to study. I talked with Frank Noschese, a high-school physics teacher from Cross River, New York (Cross River, NY), who looks at gamifying lessons differently.
“I don’t find competition a useful element of the lessons,” Nochez told me on Skype. At least not when children try to get rewards in the game. “You do not work for the sake of learning, but for the sake of advancement in the game,” he says. “It sends the wrong message that the game is more important than school.”
This is very behaviourist (behaviourist) - teaching children to do something for the sake of reward. "
About children who are not interested in good grades, Nochez says that “something different is happening here. And I don't think that putting a game on top of a lesson will really fix that. ”
“There are children who simply cannot stay in the building all day, for six hours to sit at the desk in nine different lessons. They just need to be taught differently. ”
Nochez believes that teachers can make the lessons “much more exciting” without turning them into a game. He says that his subject, physics, is “cool in itself,” and describes the use of sports star videos jumping over a snake pool , as they began laboratory work in which students try to answer the question “Is this a real video or a fake?”.
Despite all his concerns about Classcraft, Nochez did not want to condemn Young for trying to try something new: "Any teacher who tries to try something new and improve his skills is a great fellow."
Shareware model
“Now our team is drawing a thousand pieces of equipment,” says Young, outlining a shareware model that will be one of three options for paying for the game in the fall. "Boots, magical shields, potions." As you level up, students will receive gold coins as part of the awards. They can use them to change the appearance of their character.
What's more interesting, they will be able to buy these coins through the iOS app or iTunes.
Young realizes that this is a very bold decision for an educational product. “This is a very, very innovative move,” he says. “I don’t know a single product that implements a similar model in an educational environment.”
I asked Yang if there would be any restriction on student spending. “They will not be able to spend a lot,” he says. “There is not much point in spending more than 5 or 6 dollars.
But the very idea that children will pay for their education causes a certain surprise. “This puts some teachers in an ethical dilemma: should we use a product in class that encourages children to spend money?” Admits Young.
Therefore, for those who disagree with such an approach, teachers and schools will offer a paid version of Classcraft, which will cost $ 4 per year for each student. In this case, students will also have access to customizable opportunities, but the distribution of gold will be controlled by the teacher.
A completely free version of Classcraft will remain, but many features will be unavailable in it - there will be no customized avatars, pets, iOS apps and interactive forums for each class. But the game will fully retain its core functionality.
The shareware model is a challenge for the traditional school financing model. According to Yang, she makes Classcraft available to everyone.
“I have been working as a teacher for seven years,” he says, “and the bureaucratic restrictions on innovations in the spirit of“ Yes, of course, we will budget this for next year, ”even more annoying me, even if you can realize your great idea right now.
“It is extremely important for me that the teachers could join the game at any time It was for these reasons that the shareware model was born. We have teachers [playing Classcraft] in China, India and Namibia, and most paid educational products are available only in the USA and Canada. It is very important that we are available for these poor countries. So that a teacher who wants to participate can do this. ”
Shareware reality
For the Higuera, the shareware or fully free model is the only way to continue using Classcraft.
“I would be happy to say that my director will buy a paid version,” he told us, “but he will not do that. Too few of our teachers will use it to make a purchase worthwhile. And I doubt that I have enough money to pay it out of my pocket. ”
Higuera is sure that his students will love the opportunity to customize their avatars, but he doubts that many will really do it. “Some, but not all,” he said to me, “And I am afraid that many who wish to do this will not be able to do this because of the harsh economic reality of poverty.”
“But Classcraft is still cool,” said Higuera, “and I hope to continue using it next year and in the more distant future. As long as I do not, we can afford it. ”
Big September
This autumn is very important for Yang and Classcraft. The game was launched in February - not the best time to launch new educational initiatives.
The iOS application coming out in September will allow the entire system to work on the teacher’s iPad and will give students the opportunity to interact more closely with the game. German and Spanish translations will add to the global appeal of the system, which Young wanted to see international from the very beginning.
Pupils from 8 to 20 years old are already participating in the game, with the improvement of the system their number will only increase. The shareware model will allow any teacher from any country to join the game, regardless of the school’s budget.
And although the game does not offer a comprehensive solution to all the problems of children's hobby for learning, it provides an innovative and unique way to captivate those children who otherwise would simply ignore the school.
“In a very short time, computer games have become a well-known cultural phenomenon,” says Young. “Everyone plays games, everyone loves games.”
I think Classcraft can make a big difference for those students who get poor grades due to lack of interest or dedication. "
Classcraft makes it a role-playing game
Classcraft - official site
Classcraft - character classes and powers
While Classcraft is free, but in the fall it will be introduced a shareware payment system, reminiscent of many mobile games and projects like League of Legends or Runescape. This should attract the attention of an educational system accustomed to strict budgets and user pay for educational programs, especially when its employees are aware that students will buy armor and pets for their Classcraft avatars on iTunes
Classcraft is updated right in the classroom as students use their abilities.
Playing in the classroom
')
If you're a player, then what's happening in the physics lesson of Sean Yang will seem like a revelation to you. At the beginning of the lesson, all students check their settings on the screen in the center of the room. After the call, a random event occurs that can affect one or more players. It can be a disaster like the death of one of the characters or something strange, for example, someone will start singing.
“It helps students to focus,” said Young GamesBeat during a video call, “as they enter the class they already want to know what will happen this time.”
During the lesson, Young gives out experience points for good work and helping others or units of damage to those who cannot concentrate or behave badly. Increasing their level, students receive abilities depending on the chosen class and can use them to help their friends (or themselves) by activating directly during the lesson.
The teacher can keep track of everything that happens in Classcraft, and in the case of Yang, children can use laptops for real-time interaction. From September, they will be able to use smartphones, as the application for iOS will be released, followed by the Android version.
Different classes are balanced to encourage teamwork.
Cutting lessons and eating chocolate
Young's students play by his rules, but they always have the opportunity to use them to their advantage. Some abilities have very powerful personal or collective effects and students can be very creative when using them.
“One possibility is a teleport that allows you to leave the class for two minutes,” says Young. “They accumulate a few pieces and leave for 10 minutes. This is annoying, but at the same time it is part of the game. ”
Some children use the warrior's ability to eat in the classroom to bring chocolate fondue to class.
Young admits that Classcraft awards often go beyond normal school rules, but he says that this is what makes them so attractive. “It makes you feel cool — and very funny,” says Young. “And it works both ways. As a master of the game, I agree with this, but they agree with the unpleasant consequences of death. ”
“For them, real life comes to school. Classcraft is so successful precisely because rewards and punishments are important to them. ”
“Having lost all units of life, a student dies and faces a punishment that is determined randomly — this may be a requirement to stay after class or rewrite five pages of text.”
“Usually they register as follows:“ You are bad, you are trying to leave me after lessons, ”and they are trying with all their might to avoid it,” says Young. “Now they say,“ This is a game, this is cool, I will come. ” There is no need even to check whether they will come or not. They will definitely come. "
Usually students are not happy with the punishments But now happy. This is very unusual.
Students will be able to buy things to change their avatar
Changing lessons through collaboration
Before taking action, Young was thinking about the idea of ​​Classcraft for several years.
Before its creation, he tried various ways to get children to cooperate in the classroom, as he considers it extremely important in the 21st century, which demonstrated the explosive growth of joint activities and social networks.
“Before that, I organized other experiments, for example, the children worked in teams of four and everyone got the marks of the worst member of the group,” says Young, “But it turned out to be too harsh. (laughs) Too tough with assessments that seemed unfair to them. ”
Developing a team spirit seems to Jang extremely important, he believes that the modern educational system underestimates this aspect of learning. “Our entire rating system is based on individual achievements,” he says, “and is not very useful for them. It is really useful to see the value of the victory of your team versus personal success, to work together to raise the overall level. ”
Young notes that when someone dies in Classcraft, the whole team is punished by losing lives. “In the game, rewards and risks are very carefully balanced,” he says. “On the one hand there is a collective risk of dying, on the other hand cooperation is strongly encouraged. It completely transforms the lessons. ”
Teacher of history
Ricardo Higuera teaches the history of seventh graders in a rural corner of Southern California called Thermal. Almost all students in his high school get free breakfasts. Higuera has been using Classcraft for the past 4 months and is delighted with how he encourages students to take care of their grades.
Academically, I noticed an increase in grades in control and enthusiasm in lessons, ”Higuero told me by e-mail.“ Previously, some of the apathetic students were not at all bothered by a failed control. Now, they are much more worried because of their teams.
Classcraft also helped to inspire children with lessons. “I was proud of the smooth, fascinating lessons before Classcraft, but after starting the game I noticed a sharp increase in interest,” said Higuera, “Since we have fairly short changes, I always had some minor problems with being late — especially in some groups — but now the children hurry to classes. ”
At the moment, Higuer remains the only teacher in his school using Classcraft. The rest are not very well understand its meaning and are not sure that it should be used in the classroom. This is largely due to the need to be a master of the game.
“This game, like everything else in education, is very dependent on the teacher,” says Higuero. “Like desktop role-playing games, the game is curled from the game master. He or she controls the capabilities of the game and animates it.
Higuera has already decided that he will use Classcraft in the coming years.
I think Classcraft is perfect for my age group and subject matter, ”he said,“ Middle school, medieval history ... can you imagine how cool it is to play World of Warcraft like studying samurai, knights and Aztecs? I myself feel like a child, playing over and over with friends in Dungeons & Dragons.
Pupils Ricardo Higuera create their characters
Seeing results
Young still has no quantitative results, but many teachers using Classcraft talk about success. “We are given very surprising statistics,” says Young. “Some teachers say that a couple of months after the introduction of Classcraft, the average ratings increased by 20-25%."
He attributes this to increased engagement caused by three factors: important rewards, continuous feedback and encouragement of collaboration in the classroom. "
“The first time I started the game in the middle of the school year,” says Young, “I had two guys who didn't work at all, they were seriously behind. As soon as Classcraft started their lessons, they began to work like crazy. A lot - abnormally a lot - because they wanted to pump. It was surprising, because the ratings didn’t worry them, unlike the success in the game. ”
Despite the terrible start, these children have successfully completed the school year.
“Some children have never talked to each other, but now they help each other after lessons.” Says Young, highlighting the teamwork that Classcraft encourages. “The game encourages exactly what makes you a good student. Active participation in the lessons, assignments, cooperation. She really rewards it. This is how you pump in the game. ”
Classcraft covers all aspects of the school life of young students. They get experience for sporting success and helping each other after school. They even remove the class to pump faster. “They become obsessed with learning,” says Young. “They just don't notice it.”
Classcraft improved grades and attitudes in many schools
Carrot on a string
Not everyone is sure that Classcraft should be used for motivation to study. I talked with Frank Noschese, a high-school physics teacher from Cross River, New York (Cross River, NY), who looks at gamifying lessons differently.
“I don’t find competition a useful element of the lessons,” Nochez told me on Skype. At least not when children try to get rewards in the game. “You do not work for the sake of learning, but for the sake of advancement in the game,” he says. “It sends the wrong message that the game is more important than school.”
This is very behaviourist (behaviourist) - teaching children to do something for the sake of reward. "
About children who are not interested in good grades, Nochez says that “something different is happening here. And I don't think that putting a game on top of a lesson will really fix that. ”
“There are children who simply cannot stay in the building all day, for six hours to sit at the desk in nine different lessons. They just need to be taught differently. ”
Nochez believes that teachers can make the lessons “much more exciting” without turning them into a game. He says that his subject, physics, is “cool in itself,” and describes the use of sports star videos jumping over a snake pool , as they began laboratory work in which students try to answer the question “Is this a real video or a fake?”.
Despite all his concerns about Classcraft, Nochez did not want to condemn Young for trying to try something new: "Any teacher who tries to try something new and improve his skills is a great fellow."
Shareware model
“Now our team is drawing a thousand pieces of equipment,” says Young, outlining a shareware model that will be one of three options for paying for the game in the fall. "Boots, magical shields, potions." As you level up, students will receive gold coins as part of the awards. They can use them to change the appearance of their character.
What's more interesting, they will be able to buy these coins through the iOS app or iTunes.
Young realizes that this is a very bold decision for an educational product. “This is a very, very innovative move,” he says. “I don’t know a single product that implements a similar model in an educational environment.”
I asked Yang if there would be any restriction on student spending. “They will not be able to spend a lot,” he says. “There is not much point in spending more than 5 or 6 dollars.
But the very idea that children will pay for their education causes a certain surprise. “This puts some teachers in an ethical dilemma: should we use a product in class that encourages children to spend money?” Admits Young.
Therefore, for those who disagree with such an approach, teachers and schools will offer a paid version of Classcraft, which will cost $ 4 per year for each student. In this case, students will also have access to customizable opportunities, but the distribution of gold will be controlled by the teacher.
A completely free version of Classcraft will remain, but many features will be unavailable in it - there will be no customized avatars, pets, iOS apps and interactive forums for each class. But the game will fully retain its core functionality.
The shareware model is a challenge for the traditional school financing model. According to Yang, she makes Classcraft available to everyone.
“I have been working as a teacher for seven years,” he says, “and the bureaucratic restrictions on innovations in the spirit of“ Yes, of course, we will budget this for next year, ”even more annoying me, even if you can realize your great idea right now.
“It is extremely important for me that the teachers could join the game at any time It was for these reasons that the shareware model was born. We have teachers [playing Classcraft] in China, India and Namibia, and most paid educational products are available only in the USA and Canada. It is very important that we are available for these poor countries. So that a teacher who wants to participate can do this. ”
Shareware reality
For the Higuera, the shareware or fully free model is the only way to continue using Classcraft.
“I would be happy to say that my director will buy a paid version,” he told us, “but he will not do that. Too few of our teachers will use it to make a purchase worthwhile. And I doubt that I have enough money to pay it out of my pocket. ”
Higuera is sure that his students will love the opportunity to customize their avatars, but he doubts that many will really do it. “Some, but not all,” he said to me, “And I am afraid that many who wish to do this will not be able to do this because of the harsh economic reality of poverty.”
“But Classcraft is still cool,” said Higuera, “and I hope to continue using it next year and in the more distant future. As long as I do not, we can afford it. ”
Big September
This autumn is very important for Yang and Classcraft. The game was launched in February - not the best time to launch new educational initiatives.
The iOS application coming out in September will allow the entire system to work on the teacher’s iPad and will give students the opportunity to interact more closely with the game. German and Spanish translations will add to the global appeal of the system, which Young wanted to see international from the very beginning.
Pupils from 8 to 20 years old are already participating in the game, with the improvement of the system their number will only increase. The shareware model will allow any teacher from any country to join the game, regardless of the school’s budget.
And although the game does not offer a comprehensive solution to all the problems of children's hobby for learning, it provides an innovative and unique way to captivate those children who otherwise would simply ignore the school.
“In a very short time, computer games have become a well-known cultural phenomenon,” says Young. “Everyone plays games, everyone loves games.”
I think Classcraft can make a big difference for those students who get poor grades due to lack of interest or dedication. "
Classcraft makes it a role-playing game
Classcraft - official site
Classcraft - character classes and powers
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/225463/
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