Musings on Minecraft in Education

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a blog post. But goodness do I have exciting news! First, we signed a contract for Zombie Mombie with Atmosphere Press! How exciting is that?! I’m pumped and we are excited to see our second book in print. Meanwhile while Rodan+Fields continue to grow, I’ve taken on more roles as an educational consultant with Education Collaborators. This past fall I was trained to be a certified Minecraft Educator and this winter I added ZSpace to my portfolio and am working on becoming certified in Kano. So what does all this mean? I get to get in the classroom working with teacher and adding new, exciting technology to the classroom. But how and why did I get started?

By now you know my passion for education and finding unique ways to blend literacy into the classroom. Well, when you find incredible programs that do just that, it’s marvelous how much you come to life when brought into the classroom. So, for this particular post I’ll focus on Minecraft then in future posts you will hear more about ZSpace and Kano.

Last spring, as I prepared to teach a class in Florida Microsoft Teams, they had also requested Minecraft. I know what you are thinking, gaming in the classroom, what on earth?! How could this possibly be beneficial. But, I was hired to teach so I figured, I better get to learning and fast. So, I took the classes online and studied my little heart out to get as much experience as I possibly could so I would be comfortable in this online world. So imagine a non-gamer such as myself, entering the virtual world in Minecraft. My little head bobbed along with my avatar as I struggled to move forward, back and switch the tools in my inventory. Survival vs creative, forget it, I was just trying to navigate moving forward and literaly running into walls. “HEEEELLLLP”, I called out to my resident experts (my three kids). Y’all that’s when it began. I saw a shift on my role as an educator. No longer was I ever going to be the subject matter expert in this field. That role was already happily taken by the children. My role needed to shift to facilitator and guide to create lessons thereby using the Minecraft worlds as tools to solidify understanding. By the time I arrived in Florida, I was more comfortable with Minecraft then Team thanks to the help of my young subject mater experts. LOL

Fast forward to this fall as I drove down to Charlotte to become a certified teacher of Minecraft. Already I had explored world after world, training and awaked an understanding that went from reluctant learner to embracing the technology world of gaming. Minecraft was a catalyst not only for gaining cool points with the kids at school (because let’s be honest when you teach Minecraft you’re dang cool) but also giving me a whole new perceptive on how to engage learners in a different plane of understanding. You can create a digital citizenship with 21st century skills. Science, chemistry, math, literacy social studies, coding you name it, Minecraft has a world for that, a digital environment that classes interact together, work with one another, solidity learning and discover a whole new set of skills. Technology isn’t going away, we need to empower our student through the digital world. So why not embrace and learn how this will work to your advantage.

So are some of you thinking, “ya, great but I don’t want the kids one the computers just playing all day”. It’s so not that and it never should be. Minecraft or any digital tool isn’t a replacement, It’s an enhancement. It’s a tool that can be used very effectively. Just like your classroom you need to set boundaries, create lessons and utilize the tools in the game for accountability. Yes, we do have ways to do all of that! As certified trainers, that’s our job to help you understand the bells and whistles of the game, to get you comfortable being in the virtual world and to help you understand how to create a digital environment. Teachers are encouraged to learn with their students how to read, study, plan and block out projects before they even enter into virtual Minecraft to get an idea how they will work together to build and design fluidly. I’ve been in the virtual world as I act like the buffoon, breaking blocks left and right and stumbling about. What’s amazing to me is how the kids all cluster and help to fix my “mistakes” working together seamlessly. That teamwork and cohesiveness was so wonderful to see. Accountability, we have it! With ink & quill notebooks, portfolios, camera and creative designs you will love the worlds students build!

I challenge you to reach out to your tech team, ask them about the possibility of bringing in Minecraft to the classroom. I encourage you to explore the world and who knows, I may end up traveling to be your trainer (don’t be surprised if I show up in elf ears).

https://education.minecraft.net/how-it-wo…/in-the-classroom/

https://education.minecraft.net