Concerns about roles, teams, and HP

S’abonner

I'm considering the premuim version of Classcraft as an LMS to support self-paced, blended instruction and differentiation in my 6th grade math classes next year.

I love the quest map interface for curating resources and presenting assignment options to students. I think they would enjoy developing avatars and training pets. I can envision using XP to reward engagement/participation in quest activities and Gold to reward demonstration of our school values and learner qualities.

However, I have concerns about some other aspects of the game, especially character roles, team dynamics, and the use of HP and sentences. I won't go into detail on each of these, but I'm worried that it would be difficult to align this model with our campus-wide initiatives. I also fear that the whole system is entirely too complicated for my students and may distract from the content at hand. Finally, I live in a very religously conservative community and anticipate that some parents may object to certain aspects of the game, especially if they were emphasized too much.

Is it possible to primarily utilize the quest and analytics features of the platform while minimizing or entirely eliminating all the powers, player roles, and AP/HP aspects of the game? (I would never feel comfortable inflicting or allowing other to inflict "damage" on a child in my classroom, even though I understand that it is meant to be playful and fun.)

Can I customize the game so that all players start with the same stats - allowing them to choose warrior, healer, and mage for aesthetic reasons rather than having to discern between all their attributes (and later decide they'd like to switch their character types)?

I think the big picture of the game is cool, and there are some aspects of gamification that I think will enhance my class, but overall, I feel that the details of the game are too complex for my age group, too difficult to explain to parents/administrators, and potentially too involved to be feasible in my math classroom.

Is it possible to create a "Classcraft Lite" - an interface that is more engaging than Google classroom but without so much RPG-ness?

Thanks!

3 commentaires
Date Votes

Howdy!

 Roy Rodriguez here- Classcraft Ambassador since day 1 :)

 

I totally understand your concern, and yes, you can customize Classcraft to meet all your needs. 

You can set all the characters to have the same stats and even powers, this is all customizable by the teacher. There are a few powers (heal and protect for example) that are specific to the team dynamic and not adjustable, but if you ignore those and put one kiddo per team, you can avoid the team dynamic altogether to achieve your goal.

As for the conservative community, you can get around that by changing the language of the powers. You can even go as far as not to call them powers but privileges.

Classcraft was made for teachers by teachers, you know what works best in your classroom. That is what I love about Classcraft. I am always adjusting and changing how I use it. You may find some things will work and others will not, but that’s okay. In the end, there is a solution to your problem, it just involves a bit of “tweaking” of the system.

 

Hope this helps!

You can always reach out to me via Twitter @royboy and at rrodriguez@csisd.org

 

Best,

 

Roy

I think I have the same issues with Classcraft.  I have been thinking about using it for a couple of years now.  My biggest concern is the names of the Characters - mainly Mage and Healer.  It there a way to change the names of the characters?  

I fell like all of the other concerns I have are customizable. 

I really want to use Classcraft for behavior but mainly for teamwork and collaboration.

I actually just purchased a game that I could model/customize Classcraft after in my classroom.  I hope I can make this work.

Thanks for any advice/information.

 

Hi Edward,

We already discussed on live chat about this subject but I will leave some information in this thread for other teachers that may be in the same situation:

Unfortunately, we only have a fantasy theme to the game at this time and the characters are not something we can change easily. We are always exploring new ways to improve our platform and hope to be able to offer different themes later on our roadmap.

As you mention, almost everything else is customizable in Classcraft but the core mechanics and characters are set in stone.

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