The IT Nerd

The world is changing. The way students learn has to change along with that. Otherwise students will be left behind. To that end, there is a company that is based in Montreal and New York that is aiming to ensure that students are prepared for the jobs of the 21st century. That company is Classcraft.

Classcraft is a online service for educators that uses storytelling, and games along with tech to achieve this. It’s designed to encourage participation, good behavior, and 21st-century skills like collaboration. Increasing engagement with whatever lessons that students have. The actual lessons do not change. But what has changed is the way these students learn. The company has been making news lately, and most recently they’ve teamed up the University Of Montreal to Research and Advance Responsible Use of AI in K-12 learning environments. That’s an interesting tie up and one that is very much worth keeping an eye on.

Now all of this sounds interesting, but there are a few reasons why you need to keep an eye on this company. First of all the founders Shawn Young, Devin Young, and Lauren Young are in this because they really care and are passionate about making sure that today’s students are ready for tomorrow’s jobs. In fact when I spoke to Devin about Classcraft, that came through loud and clear. That’s different from some of the people I speak to who tend to speak about money, market share and the like. Another thing that jumped out at me is that they are not only trying to use their product to engage students, but they’re also stop bullying in schools which is a major problem. And they are having positive impacts on that front. Kudos to them for doing that. As for being a Canadian company, that can be a challenge for them according to Devin Young as that makes Americans in particular take a step back. But having an office in New York addressed that issue. But it does speak to the challenges that Canadian companies sometimes have when they try to expand to international markets in general, and the USA specifically.

Classcraft is a company that is very much worth keeping an eye on as they are clearly going places. I predict that beyond making a lot of money, they are going to make a massive positive social impact which in a lot of ways is more important than anything else such as making a lot of money.

UPDATE: I have a photo from the AI announcement. From left to right:

• Thierry Karsenti, University of Montreal professor and Canada Research Chair on information and communication technologies (ICTs),
• Quebec Minister of Education, Jean-Francois Roberge
• Shawn Young, Co-Founder and CEO of Classcraft

This entry was posted on April 27, 2019 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Classcraft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.