Minecraft continues to grow as an essential part of my academic curriculum, as well as, after school clubs.  I continue to be amazed by how deeply the game engages young people.  I use the word "game" hesitantly, though, as it doesn't quite seem to capture the possibilities presented by Minecraft.  There really are some amazing opportunities for learning, collaboration, and creativity inside the game.  Recently, I've joined an online community of educators using Minecraft (mostly the MinecraftEDU mod), and I've seen the possibilities.  Check us out.

By far, the most impressive resource I've found is a map made by a teacher named Eric Walker.  He uses the map to teach the humanities.  The scope of the map is breathtaking.  He has recreated structures from the ancient world, fantastic fictional locales, and placed them all inside the game world.  See just a few of the sites below:

If you don't find those impressive, then you should probably just skip the rest of this post.  In case you'd like to download and use the map, you can find it here:

In several pictures you can see little columns with a blue, lower-case 'i.'  Those are information blocks that give the students information about the structures or direct them to complete various assignments.  What a wonderful way to learn about humanities.

In my last post, I spoke about my students playing more traditional games.  Specifically, they've been playing Warcraft III, an intense strategy game with beautiful graphics and sound.  I guess I wasn't really surprised when they asked to play Minecraft instead.  Well, they're getting their wish.  My plan is to begin to create an epic Minecraft map that might someday rival Mr. Walker's map.  So, I'm putting my high school students to work.  We've recently invited about ten sixth-graders into the game club.  We had to because if I hadn't given these middle school students a chance to play Minecraft, there would have been a revolt!

So, we're going to be working together--some of the oldest students at SEED and the youngest.  We are just getting started, but we're going to be tracking our progress with a wiki.

Currently, we're working to decide which seed to use.  Seeds are like world templates.  As we begin to add to the seed we choose, we will keep updating the wiki so feel free to stop by and see how we're doing!

Greek mythology tells us about Sisyphus who was doomed to roll a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down just before it reaches the summit.  It also speaks of Tantalus who, parched with thirst, is unable to drink from the stream in which he is eternally standing.  Well, for me, these terrible fates rank just above the idea of taking an entire class called simply "typing."  Nonetheless, I was tasked this year with teaching just such a class this year.

Seriously, for 70 minutes a day, my students are supposed to practice their keyboarding skills.  Well, that wasn't going to work for me.

A common (and valid) complaint among the teaching staff here at SEED is that students lack some basic computer skills.  For most teachers, this means that students don't understand the basics of word processing.  It's a terrible cliche that anyone under the age of 18 has an inherent and impressive knowledge of computers.  My students could use their phone to friend on you on Facebook in 11 seconds flat, but ask them to center and underline some text in a document, and you'll be met with a blank stare.

So my solution is to teach the basics of word processing using game based learning.  If you've been following along with my blog posts, you probably know what I'm going to say next.  Yep, we're heading to Minecraft.

So, here's what I've done.

1. Found a beautiful MC seed (blank map)
   
   

Then, I record some tutorial videos that demonstrate to students how to survive in the MC world.  As they do, they create a "survival guide" that catalogs their adventures and shares the information they learn.  Here's the template I've been using to demonstrate.

Also, here's one of my tutorial videos:

And one more:

So far, so good.  Students are really into it.  And I've got a great reason to incorporate MC in class.  As we move forward, I will updating this site with information.  Thanks for tuning in!

I was very excited about using Minecraft in my classroom, but I was not prepared for the shear level of excitement its inclusion would bring.  As a long time gamer myself, I was familiar with Minecraft, but I hadn't spent any real time immersed in its blocky landscape.  For the uninitiated, Minecraft is an open-world game in which players explore, mine, and add to a world.

The world is constructed entirely from cube-shaped blocks of various material (dirt, sand, stone, wood, etc.).  As the player, you can "mine" these blocks and re-position them into any configuration.  Of course, some enterprising players have created some truly awe-inspiring structures using Minecraft.  The pictures below is constructed from thousands upon thousands of blocks.

My initial concerns centered on the fact that Minecraft is nothing like Call of Duty, Madden Football, or any of the other games my students report to play in their spare time.  I wasn't too surprised to find that a few students had played the game on their own, but I was unprepared for the response of the rest of my class.

I know it's going to sound like exaggeration, but I have never seen students so happy and motivated in all my years of teaching.  The laughter and smiles continued unabated for an entire hour and a half.   In future updates, I look forward to sharing the projects we're working on with Minecraft.

If anyone out there wants to discuss how to use Minecraft in their classrooms, I have been made a true believer, and would be happy to share my experiences in more depth.