We are on a two week break and I am spending some of this time trying to connect two things in my mind. We have an opportunity to run Minecraft in our school next term. We are also running many Inquiry units that all have as the foundation the concepts of Innovation and Change. These children will be applying a design brief to create products. I know I can come up with a connection.
I have started dabbling with Minecraft by –
- listening to the EdTech Crew’s Podcast – Exploring Minecraft and crafting discoveries with Joel Levin (Minecraft Teacher) and Dean Groom
- listening to EdGamers podcast – Sending our kids to the mines- again with Joel Levin
- Viewing blogs and Wikis- including Minecraft Teacher , Heidi Siwak’s My Life as a non-gamer and Minecraft Wiki
- Consulting a Teenage Minecraft player
- consult some of my local experts – students at my school who are very keen users already
- and eventually playing it myself
So far, I have learnt that Minecraft is
- open ended problem solving
- suitable for 5 year olds but still enjoyed by teenagers and adults
- a game that generates a random world that is virtually infinite
- a game that has a ‘retro’ look – think Lego blocks
- a game where you need to define your own ‘purpose’
- has challenges when the sun goes down and the monsters come out
- able to be modified to classroom situation (eg you can turn off the monsters). This is, in fact, the recommended option when running your own server for educational purposes.
- a game that has control scheme similar to many other games
- supported by numerous online guides – Wiki’s, You Tube tutorials
- still being developed
I will admit that a while ago I was quite sceptical about the place of gaming in school, but I am getting more and more convinced that it is a great way to engage students and incorporate many useful skills.
More to come ….
PS Since the first part of this post, I keep looking further and finding more resources …
Ed Tech crew Show notes has heaps more including Dean Groom’s “How to teach Minecraft in an hour”
PPS and then due to the wonders of Twitter I listened in to an episode of EdTechTalk – lots more talk about Minecraft
One major resource I found from this interview was
I wish there were a few more weeks of holidays
Anyone else already been where I hope to travel ??
Hi Celia
I want to start minecraft with my very, very small year 10 elective IT class. Thanks for all these great links. I would love to know how you are going to manage it. I want my boys to be able to play it from home as well at school. However, I feel that their small netbooks might not be adequate screen wise and would prefer them to play it online. Have you thought through the mechanics of it all yet? What class will you use it with? Have you tried any other games?
Thanks Anne,
I will have to credit Adrian Camm with all the technical details, so can’t help you there (yet to start). I was researching so I could get an understanding. The potential seems amazing – so open-ended. If you get to listen to the podcasts there are many passionate teachers working with this style of learning. I have a group of year 5/6 boys who are already blogging about their out of school Minecraft experiences, so we intend to build on that passion. I would hope to get others going too, I love Heidi Siwak’s interview with her female students – wouldn’t mind working on that angle too!
I have used Lure of the labyrinth with year 5/6’s too – wonderful – Lynette Barr’s work here is the inspiration.