Fortnite a problem in your class? Here’s the solution.

If you haven’t heard of Fortnite by now, welcome back to 2018. Fortnite’s recent raging popularity has propelled it to 125 million users and hundreds of millions in revenue every month. That’s more than a third of the US in population and more money than Snapchat is making in a quarter. Everyone from A level celebrities like Drake and basketball stars like Kyle Kuzma have jumped on the craze, spreading it like wildfire on social media.
And it just happens so that Fortnite is wildly popular with students. Actually, popular would be an understatement. Parents, teachers and schools are now genuinely considering banning the game entirely. And it’s not even a ban at school — an Australian school recently strongly advocated for parents to ban Fortnite at home.
Reese Public Schools in Michigan made headlines on Friday by calling for a ‘fortnite detox’. A petition (now removed) even popped up on Change.org calling for the ban of Fortnite.
Growing concern is highlighted by the fact that Fortnite isn’t specific to one age group; it’s permeated all levels of school from elementary to high school. The addiction of Fortnite combined with the inherent violence and ‘killing’ opponents at a young age has made it quite unpopular with many educators and teachers.
This is a serious issue for teachers. Imagine teaching a class of students whose only desire in school is for the 3pm bell to ring so that they can rush home to play Fortnite. Every second of downtime is devoted to strategizing their next 1st place battle royale win. Ok - maybe this is an exaggeration, but I vividly remember my own intense love affair with Minecraft. In my elementary school days, I was drowned in different Minecraft servers and games. My parents would have to tear me away from the screen. They even tried enticing me with playing time if I got good grades, but I always found a way back to the screen. If my 11 year old adolescent brain went all in on Minecraft then, I can’t imagine it being too different today with the millions of students mired in Fortnite maps.
Intense Fortnite addiction can (and most likely will) affect learning and test scores in class. Students will daydream away to Fortnite land during class, reviewing film on why they lost their last battle royale. Even worse, the internet community and violence of the game can lead to cyber bullying, inappropriate language, and abuse. Dr. Marcus Carter, professor in gaming and digital culture at the University of Syndey, stated that concern at times are “excessive”.
The Solution
So what’s the solution? Fight fire with fire. If you can’t sway students from Fortnite at school, use an equivalent. A similar Fortnite style 3D platform, just for education.
And that’s what we’ve developed here at Realism. We’ve created a 3D inquiry based gamified science platform that simulates science labs. It functions similar to games, but teaching and experiencing core science concepts is the main focus. Your students may not be as addicted to Realism as Fortnite (as it is first and foremost educational), but it can definitely serve as an enticing buffer between the addicting game world and the classroom.

Realism’s interaction and content is modeled after traditional game layouts, like those found in Fortnite. Augmented with objectives, achievements, and a class competition system, Realism provides an engaging and fun experience for students.

However, Realism is also extremely educational as it is engaging for students. All of our virtual science labs are inquiry based and NGSS aligned, providing students with a wholesome experience that is equally engaging as is educational. Content slides teach students the concepts that they need to complete the labs, while objective questions and quizzes provide instant feedback on their understanding.
And maybe best of all, Realism personalizes to the student. They can work completely at their own pace and not be afraid of failure, which is commonly quoted as one of the main reasons students don’t go into the STEM field. In Realism, students can fail as many times as they’d like and have zero repercussions.

We’ve also built Realism to give students an realistic science experience — something that they would encounter in the workforce today. For example, students are positioned as a NASA engineer trying to launch their rocket into space in our Rocket Lab. This directly ties into the core of STEM education today: inquiry based learning. Realism embodies that ideal, as in every single lab students must figure out what to do next for themselves. We accomplish that through open ended objectives and real world experiences.
All of this contributes to making Realism fun and engaging.
Goodies for Teachers!
For teachers, Realism is equally as powerful. As of today, they can access 8 different 3D science labs that cover in total 25+ science topics. Within each lab, you can teach 2–6 different science topics that relate to the simulation.
Realism labs are currently mainly in Chemistry and Physics, but new Biology labs are coming soon.

We have detailed 5e based lesson plans, worksheets, and flipped learning modes that make integrating Realism quick and easy. And everything is completely NGSS standards aligned. Though our easy standards alignment sheet, you’ll be able to directly pinpoint which lab topic teaches what standard.
As of today, we’ve worked with 100+ schools from different parts of the world. And we’ve been able to help them boost their student engagement and scores.
Special something that Fortnite doesn’t have…
Realism can currently operate on Windows, with Mac & Chromebook versions to be released by the end of the month. Fortnite similarly operates on desktops/laptops, but also has the added phone edition. However, Realism has a special version: VR.
Realism originally started out as a solely VR project. We branched out a few months in to laptops/desktops (Windows, Chromebook, Mac) for wider integration into schools. You can probably imagine most schools don’t have expensive VR equipment with tight budgets now days.

However, VR is where the true magic of Realism happens. Our whole platform is already modeled after real life interaction, but VR’s immersion is on a whole new level. Using Realism VR mode is just like being the research lab, maneuvering beakers and pipettes and operating complicated machines. It activates your whole body to really immerse inside a otherworldly experience.
Even though VR is expensive and hasn’t gone mainstream yet, I’d encourage schools to explore purchasing even just a one or two high end VR headsets if it’s within the budget. The advantages even today are immense, with numerous applications that provide students an unparalled visual learning experience. A great and fun example is Google Earth in VR. In 10 to 20 years I’m confident that affordable VR will be as ubiquitous in classrooms as Chromebooks are today. The power of tapping into another reality is priceless while possibilities are endless. Here’s an article I wrote a while back on a few potential applications of VR in classrooms.
To date, we’ve already worked with two schools that have implemented large VR stations into their curriculum. From preliminary student interaction, we are seeing immense value in the new medium and a whole new level of engagement. Not to mention the numerous research papers on how VR can boost learning outcomes (here’s a great one that address the pros and some potential cons).
Closing
Fortnite isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s one of those things that you’ll need to figure out how to deal with; it’s one of those challenges that one will most likely face throughout their career. Fortnite may fall off the mainstream media in the next year or so, like Pokemon Go did. Hopefully Realism will be able to help teachers and classrooms overcome the negatives- or it may be the next revolutionary educational tool. It’s going to be tough to keep students at bay, but you’ll find a way :).
PS
As thanks to everyone that read this article too the end, we’re announcing our inital free access to the open beta version of Realism. You can head over to our website and register for free now. Remember it’s only for Windows now — Chromebook and Mac will be out by the end of the month.
If you’re a district/school leader or teacher that’s interested in using Realism for your school reach me at stevenw@realism.io. We’re always open to working with different innovative schools and districts.
