Last month, we posted the first of our Featured App blog posts, giving an overview of Bloganywhere, our new blogging app.
This month, we’re going to take a look at School Merits, another app from the Jotter Suite – which is available now to all schools for free.
Gamification has become a buzzword in education technology in recent years, and School Merits was created to make use of gamification’s key benefits – to engage pupils, and to inspire them.
School Merits gives each pupil an avatar – a character that represents them online and forms the central part of how the app incentivises learning. When a pupil behaves well in class, completes outstanding work or reaches a milestone achievement (you as the teacher can set the criteria and goals) they can be awarded points – known as ‘merits’ within the system.
Over time, the pupil can save up these merits and use them to purchase accessories for their avatar.
School Merits also acts as a behaviour management tool. Teachers can build a record of when a child has behaved, when they haven’t been so good, and how they compare with the rest of the class or school. Their progress through the school year can be tracked via the statistics that School Merits generates, based on when they have received merits and what for.
Parents can engage more with their child’s learning, too – as School Merits is part of the Jotter Suite, it’s available anytime, anywhere, and also integrates with other apps. For example, a child’s avatar forms their profile picture when they’re using the Bloganywhere app.
To get School Merits for your school for free, complete the short form here.
