This week I went into thinking my time was going to be spent going in one direction but it ended in a different direction. After finding Minecraftwiki last week listing out the play-by-play; literally the minute to minute of survival strategies I thought I would use that to help me get further along in the game. However, after spending several sessions attempting to play like that it just felt too forced. I was not having fun anymore and all of the momentum of the previous weeks seemed to dissipate. My daughters on the other hand were asking to spend more and more time playing Minecraft. They ventured into survival mode a few times but mostly they staying in creative mode. They love it so much I ended up purchasing the “pocket edition” for the ipad so that both could be playing at the same time. I’ve always been one to try and control their screen time and would much rather have them playing outside in the dirt making imaginary mud pies and selling lemonade then sitting in front of a screen. So I still am very cognizant of making sure they play both indoors and outdoors. Our conversations about Minecraft happen nearly daily. What I love is that a third person to the conversation would not know that we were necessarily talking about a computer game when we we are talking. J- my daughter that was not at all interested in Minecraft before I started wanted to build a fun land. She was asking me about restaurants and drive thru windows. She created a drive through McDonalds right next to the Funland sign because "I never let her go to McDonalds. Then we talked about railroads, and people being able to eat on the roof of their house. How do people get on their roof? Is there a hole in the roof? A door? What about lighting? Is the moon bright enough to lite up the night sky for people to be able to enjoy their dinner on the roof? If not, then she needed to put flames up there. She was figuring out her virtual world but at the same time learning all about her real world. All while she was discussing this we would be sitting together building her funland together. I wasn’t necessarily the one making the decisions but the learning that I came away from the discussions with her were very powerful. I didn’t quite get how Minecraft could be used in education until I sat down and had those conversations with her. After the lightbulb went off I wanted to research more in depth how educators really were using Minecraft. One of the first articles I came across made me think, “why didn’t I think of that?” It was a blog entry called “Journey Writing with Minecraft” by David Lee. He states, “Teachers have to find out their students’ interests and utilize the information to facilitate learning for higher achievement.” Another resource that I came across this week was a podcast on Minecraft being used in the classroom by MinecraftEdu creator Joel Levin. A powerful statement I heard was that “You have to flip your expectations on the head and get out of your comfort zone. [You] have to be okay with not being the expert in the room.” Another great point was that students are passionate about Minecraft and will respond to it. Minecraft creates produces and not just consumers of technology. I know this is something as educators were are all wanting our students to reach. I think it is an exciting time for gaming and education. With the right parameters, student engagement and learning can be raised to a much higher level than seen before!
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7/25/2015 04:27:10 pm
Kelly,
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Andrea Jacobs
7/27/2015 05:18:02 pm
I've been curious as well about how to use Minecraft in the classroom. I think the biggest thing to remember, and you talked about it in this post, is that learning isn't always about learning content. Sometimes learning is about the whys and the hows. Critical thinking and problem solving are skills that are practiced in gaming and coding and I think that's what we need to teach our students. We won't only use it because they can work on perimeter and area, but because they can collaborate and create things.
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