Today in tech class we had some student experts come into our class and show us how to play Minecraft!

Teachers are using Minecraft Edu. In this version of Minecraft the teacher has a set of controls that allow or limit the abilities of the students throughout the game. With this tool students are able to express their knowledge and grow their understanding in a very creative way. Students are able to communicate with each other and  discover many cross curricular concepts through the game.

  • Students have been able to explore possible interests such as architecture, media, and sculpting etc..
  • There are lesson worlds that the students can explore (ex. parts of the body)
  • Students can collaborate or even challenge each other on building experiments
  • Students can follow prompts and come up with different products

I can see the potential… can you?

Topic #2 : Edcamp!!!

The idea behind Edcamp is to have a professional development opportunity that is accessible to everyone (including parents, students, and other educators) and provides a diverse variety of topics to share and learn about.  The Edcamps are held on Saturdays at schools, participants do not pay to attend or for key notes.  Everyone is able to talk to each other, people put topics on a board, and everyone votes for three different ones they are interested in learning about. This provides a way for different interests and passions to be shared and new learning and friends to be made.

  • This can be done in the classroom allowing students to pick what topics they want to learn about
  • Good way to find student voice in your classroom
  • You can get up and go to a different topic whenever you want
  • The more diverse, the better the Edcamp
  • They are usually not facilitated

“Minecraft” by John Baichtal is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0