Suscitating motivation will always remain a key issue in teaching. It's a tricky exercise, and so many theorists have written about it... encouraging struggling students to hang in there, while keeping the interest of others who can quickly feel like they're wasting their time in class when the teacher has to frequently re-explain concepts they already understand.
That's what was happening with Shawn Young, a Sherbrooke teacher and former top student who was often bored during class time. As a result, the young physics teacher and computer scientist at Salesian Seminary designed a platform in early 2013 that helps keep or spark motivation in the whole class. This one is called Classcraft, an obvious reference to the online role-playing game World of Warcraft, which we've told you about a few times before.
The classroom as a huge role-playing game
Still an online classroom gaming platform? Yes and no. Sure, the site is essential so that teachers can manage the " game ", but the adventure takes place in the classroom. The principle of Classcraft is to create small groups of students. These have avatars represented online and character sheets that include hit points, levels, action points, and even classes.
So, like in paper or video role-playing games, students want to get the highest levels to receive powers related to their role. Collecting these experience points will require meeting objectives chosen by the teacher. For example, the student will get 50 for each mistake found in the class notes, 75 for helping a classmate, etc. For every 1000 XP, the student gains a rank in his class. On the other hand, the character can lose life points if he arrives late, if he talks during class or argues too much with the game master (the teacher), if he doesn't do his homework, etc. If he dies, the student must roll the death die and suffer a penalty such as a detention, copy text, etc.
The advantage of classes is that they have, especially at high levels, very practical powers over the flow of the game/course. For example, healers can obviously heal their injured companions, but may possibly have the right to listen to their iPod during a work period or have the ability to ask the teacher once if the answer they marked on an exam is correct or not. Warriors will be able to, have a lot of action points, postpone their homework a day later or eat in class. Mages will be able to arrive a few minutes late or get a little more time to finish their exam.
Many of these abilities, those that do not affect hit points or action points will be able to be modified by the teacher. Nevertheless, the principle is to keep the spirit of it in order to arouse the motivation of the learners.
Besides, the teacher,or game master in Classcraft, has to manage the use of his or her powers, the gain of experience or the loss of life points through the interface of the game that is online. Thus, the teacher has access to the list of the students of the group and can click on it to modify its card which can even be displayed in class (provided that you have a digital projector). While Classcraft is free, freemium versions (with paid exchanges) and subscriptions offer additional customization options for avatars and the ability to receive additional rewards such as gold coins to purchase pets for one's character.
One thing is for sure, the young initiative available to the entire planet since late 2013, is of interest to many people all over the world. For Shawn Young, it's difficult to note the game's effect on students from grades. However, he quickly noticed that the motivation in his class was greatly increased, both for the boys and the girls. All embark on this attractive and original project.
For Young, the interest of Classcraft is that the game applies to all school subjects without distinction and all classes. So there's no reason for teachers not to get into it.
References :
Classcraft. "Classcraft - Making learning an adventure." Accessed July 31, 2014. http://www.classcraft.com/fr/.
Pion, Isabelle. "Learning made fun." La Presse. Last updated January 28, 2014. http://www.lapresse.ca/la-tribune/merite-estrien/201401/28/01-4733013-lapprentissage-rendu-ludique.php.
Ward, Mark. "How to use games to teach physics." BBC News. Last updated March 24, 2013. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-21898927.
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