I have been looking into a way to "gamify" my future classroom and I feel like this is the program that I would like to use to do so (with school permission first of course). Classcraft mirrors the hugely popular MMO game Warcraft, but designed for the classroom. The website allows students to select and build a character of their interest with certain powers and abilities specific to each. The character can gain points, XP, and even gold pieces by accomplishing task within the classroom such as answering questions in class or handing in homework on time. As more XP is earned students level their character up. Levelling up unlocks new privileges like listening to ipods or bringing food to class. on the flipside, they can lose points for negative behaviours thus losing privileges. This system I believe would make classroom management a breeze. Parents can join in too!
Also, if you upgrade to the premium, there are extra options that sound incredibly useful like online discussion panels and ability to upload resources. By uploading resources, students can work together to complete "as" and "for" assessments in the form of a "Boss Battle" to gain huge rewards. In a world where most students are playing games daily that provide instantaneous reinforcement, Classcraft seems like a good way to bring that into the classroom. The premium upgrades I think are worth the modest 8$ a month fee (free to teachers if the school decides they want to subscribe).
The Classcraft support is very helpful and thorough. There are weekly training webinars, community forums, and online support too.
I'd be very interested to hear of possible negative feedback on using this application or negative feedback on classroom gamification in general.
Thanks for sharing - and bringing up gaming - I will have to add this to the course I think!
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