Week 9 – November 1 | Minecraft EDU class with visitors from Colquitz Middle School

This week we had guest lecturers Heidi James and five middle school students from Colquitz give us a tutorial on MinecraftEdu.

I was encouraged to learn about this game and see how it might be used in the classroom. Below are a few take-aways from Heidi and her experts.

Minecraft touches on many of the core competencies and can be cross-curricular. The game itself is highly social and can be played in team environments and with group objectives. The students who were helping us agreed that there is a social aspect to the game that brings out another side to a student that may not be present in a traditional classroom setting. Minecraft also involves:

  • uses problem-solving skills
  • collaboration
  • social studies > use class to create civilizations
  • math > coordinate grid use
  • formative-based assessment
  • student self-assessment

As a newbie Minecrafter, I found the experience in the tutorial world to be engaging, though about 15 minutes into playing I did have a strong feeling of motion sickness that never really left me for the remainder of the session. I understand that playing the game on a smaller screen may help this feeling and it did indeed lessen when I went back on to a reduced screen size.

If I was to take this up in my classroom, I think I may use it through a core competency lens, and get students to be engaged and build on the collaboration aspects of the game before I would be confident to branch out into other curriculum areas.

It was inspiring to see a teacher so connected to her students and advocating for something that she finds to be an important educational tool. A nice note left by Heidi on her Twitter page after a week of visiting UVic Education students. A reminder of just how important connection and engagement with students is.

In case you’re interested in a Minecraft tutorial walkthrough, check out this Youtube vid…