Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to consider a new resource: Classcraft, an app that fosters social emotional development and personalized learning through gaming principles. The resource specialist assigned to help you with this task is Shawn Young, co-founder and CEO. 

In this episode we discussed:

• Shawn’s journey of taking Classcraft from his own classroom to 160 countries worldwide

• The ways SEL (Social-Emotional Learning), PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports), and gamification are incorporated into Classcraft’s framework

• Different ways to use Classcraft: “There are three levels: the introductory of level of just give kids digital high-fives, then there’s engage with them more using all the different tools, and then there’s bring in your curriculum and, in effect, completely run your classroom as a game”

• Shawn’s responses to possible concerns educators might have about incorporating a digital game into their classrooms

Research mentioned in the episode introduction: PBIS has numerous studies showing positive improvements for school culture, as well as evidence it may decrease racially disproportionate discipline, though the conclusions around increased academic achievement are mixed. For their part, Classcraft’s website addresses how they believe their product improves on traditional problematic implementations of PBIS, as well as how Classcraft itself has itself been used in several studies measuring motivation, participation and academic success in students with positive results. The use of gamification in schools is a comparatively new field of research, but a survey of the current literature shows strong support for it improving students’ engagement in their learning.