I wish the essential question this week was not “What Minecraft game could you create that would help students learn” but rather “Why should you use Minecraft to help students learn?” because I have always been a skeptic and this week I set out with the lofty goal of becoming a believer. I understand that games in the classroom are beneficial. I see the love of competition, the building of the classroom community, the learning without realizing you’re even learning, but I haven’t been sold on Minecraft. I even did a hands-on session at ASTE a couple years ago where the presenters let us pretend to be students and to play and learn and explore, and I didn’t like it. It was glitching and the other educators in the room were getting frustrated and bored. I have a hard time reconciling the start-up time commitment of a game like Minecraft with the learning benefits. I encountered a mom who had similar concerns: "’I don't send my kids to school to play video games,’ says Sara Sroka, who has three video-game loving boys in her Iowa home. ‘There are better ways to learn...Video games are a distraction that should be used on a limited basis at home,’ Sroka says” (Sheehy 2011). So here’s what I discovered. According to the most recent blog post by “The Minecraft Teacher,” Joel Levin (2016), creator and co-owner of MinecraftEdu, using Minecraft in the classroom “was like discovering a new secret power to reach into the minds of kids” The informational video by Brown (2013) claims that Minecraft is “Fluidity” and “improvisation,” a “fully customizable networked environment that is both fun and inexpensive.” Furthermore, Ibxtoycat (2016) asserts that Minecraft is the future of “mak[ing] a more engaging lesson.” What is even more interesting is the comments fro school aged children below Ibxtoycat’s video; many students wish they had Minecraft in their schools, some have it and love it, and some commented regretfully that their schools banned it. What’s more profound, however, is the fact that kids are watching YouTube videos about the history of Minecraft in education, they are conducting the same kind of research as me, an adult educator. That says something. More often than not, what I found was glowing testimonials of educators who have used Minecraft in the classroom, and arguments justifying its use to skeptics like me. What I didn’t find was any real, empirical data that supported these positive experiences. Perhaps that is what makes it emerging (although, according to Ibxtoycat (2016) it’s been used in classrooms since 2011, so why isn’t there more research and evidence of its worth? I am, however, intrigued by the creative applications of Minecraft I encountered, especially in the following sites: Minecraft for Literacy and Problem Solving GamingEdus Project Liam O’Donnell’s blog Andrew Miller’s blog Database of Minecraft worlds already created by educators I learned from these educators that Minecraft doesn’t only work in Social Studies applications, nor is it only a math/science tool, but it can be extremely beneficial in the English classroom as well. I learned that, “Because Minecraft has such open possibilities and potential, the teacher can choose how he or she wants to use it” (Miller, 2012). Additionally, Miller suggests: One of the best ways to improve how students display their reading comprehension is asking them to create a visualization. They could reconstruct various settings from the text, and even recreate scenes and plot events. They could also use these recreations to give a presentation or make predictions on what might happen next, and then physically create those predictions in Minecraft. Miller suggests letting students explore the Colosseum or the Globe Theater in Minecraft, and Brown (2012) takes that one step further and suggests having students create sets for Shakespearean plays using the game. O’Donnell (2012) has a blog post where he describes five ways Minecraft can increase writing and literacy skills, which I will summarize here. Students can practice procedural writing with a pre-game write-up, a post game play reflection, or a walkthrough guide to the world they create. Students can also write character biographies for the avatars they create or literary criticism of existing videos or guides about the game. Furthermore, almost everything I read touted the benefits to student communication skills through Minecraft. The possibilities seem limitless and I was really pleased to see so much information on reading and writing through gaming.
Which leads to the essential question, which asks me to think of ideas for my own lesson. I would like to try an end of unit summative assessment for The Odyssey, where students develop a Minecraft world that represents a modern day Odyssey. They would have to consider deeply the trials Odysseus faces and the details of the different characters in the epic. Developing avatars of each monster Odysseus fights, each Olympian god he encounters, and each friend who helps him along the way would help students retain knowledge of each adventure and help them to connect Odysseus’s adventures to their lives. This ultimately would help them to understand the universal themes present in the poem. I think a project like this could really be beneficial, and hopefully not a waste of time, like I originally thought. References Brown, K. (2013, March 06). Is Minecraft the Ultimate Educational Tool? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios. Retrieved July 04, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0BN5AWOe8 Ibxtoycat. (2016). Minecraft Education Edition Explained - History of Minecraft In Schools. Retrieved July 04, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0_XyJunlPU Levin, J. (2015-16). The Minecraft Teacher. Retrieved July 04, 2016, from http://minecraftteacher.tumblr.com/ Miller, A. (2012, April 13). Ideas for Using Minecraft in the Classroom. Retrieved July 04, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/minecraft-in-classroom-andrew-miller O'Donnell, L. (2012, April 16). Teacher’s Guide: Five ways Minecraft (and other video games) can boost student writing skills. Retrieved July 04, 2016, from http://liamodonnell.com/feedingchange/2012/04/16/teachers-guide-five-ways-minecraft-and-other-video-games-can-boost-student-writing-skills/ Sheehy, K. (2011, November 1). High School Teachers Make Gaming Academic. Retrieved July 4, 2016, from http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2011/11/01/high-school-teachers-make-gaming-academic
3 Comments
Tricia
7/9/2016 09:06:33 am
While talking with a group of students about Minecraft at a BBQ last night, I can see how communication is improved. I was impressed by the students talking and how they were taking turns and building off of one another's comments. I could see that they were actively listening and being respectful of one another's ideas.
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Jessica Marks
7/10/2016 03:32:57 pm
I really enjoyed your blog entry. I like it because you were very honest in your approach. I have a lot of anxiety when approaching new technology, and it can and does hold me back. Gliches such as you mentioned before would have me throwing up my hands and saying "see? Not worth it!" I think if I was given the proper support I could be successful with MindCraft. If I were to make it a success now, however, that success would have to come all from my initiation.
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Sarah K
7/10/2016 09:24:04 pm
Camille,
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