Remote Learning with Minecraft – Week 10

Today, I was not in class because I have a not so great cough. Instead, we used a platform called BlueJeans that allowed me to have a video/audio feed of the class. Downloading BlueJeans was fairly easy. Although starting our class, the audio did not work until we switched laptops. Overall, BlueJeans was a good system. There were a few times where the video or the audio would cut out for a moment, and I would have to wait a bit for it to come back in.

However, that was not the main topic for today’s lesson. In class, we learned about Minecraft from a Middle Years teacher who has used Minecraft in her class for several years. Heidi James spoke to the class about how she used Minecraft as an educational tool and how she allowed students to complete projects using Minecraft over the traditional slideshow presentation.

Heidi allowed our class around 5-10 minutes to just explore the controls and the world of Minecraft before freezing their avatars. An effective method for classroom management when using games as learning tools. She told us how Minecraft can engage learners who might struggle in traditional learning environments but focus whenever they are playing the game. Although she did stress that the students are playing under strict guidelines from the teacher. Her students usually play in a private world that they helped build.

Heidi brought some of her students along to talk to the class about what they can learn using Minecraft. One student mentioned building landscapes in Minecraft then painting them, and another mentioned that Minecraft sparked his interest in architecture. Minecraft can also be used to teach students about math, specifically perimeters/areas, ratios, and coordinates. Students could also build Ancient Civilizations as a part of the Social Studies curriculum.

Finally, we visited the Minecraft Education website and looked at some of the lesson plans they have available. I love history, so I looked at the ones they had available there. I found one about creating a Coat of Arms that I think would be cool if you were studying Medieval England. You could have all the students pretend to be knights or lords and ladies of the court.