Physics Teacher Turned Edtech Innovator to Speak At CIX 2018 Startup Investment Conference

School Gamification Co-founder Shawn Young to Announce Classcraft Studio’s 2018 Progress Including Reaching Milestone of 5 Million Users in 75 Countries Worldwide

TORONTO, ONTARIO, October 22, 2018 - Classcraft co-founder Shawn Young will be a featured presenter at this year’s Canadian Innovations Exchange (CIX), Canada’s largest technology investment conference to be held October 22-23, 2018 in Toronto.

Young will be a guest speaker in a session dedicated to “Rocket Pitches” on Tuesday, October 23, 9:00-10:00 AM at the Marriott Downtown at CF Toronto Eaton Centre, Trinity IV room.

Classcraft is an award-winning, teacher-friendly gamification tool used in more than 20,000 classrooms across 75 countries and in 11 languages. The platform is designed to utilize gaming principles in new ways to drive social emotional development and personalized learning: enabling educators to adapt curriculum and teaching style to an individual student’s needs. Highly customizable, this new educational approach can be adapted to any subject and has been proven to be very effective at improving student motivation, creating a positive classroom community by fostering strong team building, and increasing student engagement.

For schools and districts, Classcraft’s Engagement Management System (EMS) connects behavioral and academic data (captured in the classroom from real-life interactions between teachers and students) with traditional school data systems (grades, content, attendance, disciplinary referrals, etc.). The resulting insights help administrators to better manage their schools in real time.

During the CIX conference, Young will announce Classcraft's recent achievements, including:

The launch of Classcraft’s “Engagement Management System” (EMS), which gives school leaders completely new proprietary insights into students’ progress and well-being by measuring social emotional development and school climate in real time.
Development of Classcraft Quests, a new authoring tool to create personalized, self-paced lessons for students, and the accompanying Marketplace, resulting in thousands of teachers collaborating on gamified and personalized lessons.
Rutgers University analysis and positive assessment of Classcraft as a SEL (social emotional learning) and PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) teaching tool.
Awarded American Association of School Librarians 2018 Winner for Teaching and Learning, selected as EdTech Digest’s 2018 Games for Learning Solution, CODiE Awards 2018 Finalist for Best Game Based Curriculum Solution, and Common Sense Media’s Top Pick for Learning (Best Classroom-Management Apps and Best Student-Collaboration Tool).
Reaching a milestone of 5 million users in 75 countries worldwide.

In 2018, in order to expand its partnerships, Classcraft launched “Quests Marketplace,” a community-based, Netflix-style center where teachers can share lessons they’ve created, which transforms a teacher’s existing lesson plans into self-paced, interactive learning adventures for students. The Marketplace also includes free curriculum content from partners such as Google Classroom, LRNG, Discovery Educator Network, and Newsela. To date, teachers have produced and shared 125,000 lessons.

The education technology startup, Classcraft, announced in August 2017 that it had closed a round of early-stage venture capital funding, securing $3.5 million to scale the platform.

About Classcraft

Founded in 2013 by brothers Shawn and Devin Young and their father Lauren Young, Classcraft is a Quebec- and New York City-based education technology company that uses gaming principles to address student motivation. By blending students’ physical and virtual learning, the platform reframes their progress in school as a game they play together. Using collaboration and play to build more empathetic and fun classroom culture, the game rewires existing social dynamics and facilitates a supportive environment where students thrive.

Media Interviews by phone or in person

Classcraft co-founder Shawn Young will be available for interviews at the CIX conference, Tuesday, October 23, 2018, or in advance by phone. To interview Shawn Young, Classcraft co-founder Devin Young, or a teacher who utilizes Classcraft, see contact info below.