Minecraft Supporting an Inquiry

Capturing the learning. In a recent Inquiry, our Year 5 students focussed on ' co-existing' and we found that the Minecraft world catered for this beautifully. Our students highlighted their learning journey by using Edmodo to share thier thoughts, refelctions and screenshots.

Tapping into Minecraft: Students Create a Minecraft Adventure

Minecraft has an attraction to our students. As a teacher you may have heard stories of what children get up to when using Minecraft or you may have had students asking if Minecraft can be used at school for a particular project or activity. Unless you have 'played' in a Minecraft world, our perception of Minecraft can be quite daunting and in turn treated with suspicion, in much the same way as a student requesting the use of 'Call of Duty' as a basis for a project. The fact is many of our students use their screen time at home building, creating, exploring, curating, collaborating with others and of course surviving (which does mean fighting off zombies and eating animals - if it's played in survival mode). Recent stats show

Taken from Minecraft Stats - https://minecraft.net/stats

The stats above do not include Consoles or the Pocket version (iPad etc). No wonder so many of our students talk about their Minecraft world. It is safe to say millions across the world are using Minecraft and the nature of the game allows these users to use Minecraft in many different ways.

Think of Minecraft as online world or lego in a unique and interactive environment. Minecraft is in fact an unfinished product that is being developed and improved year by year - low on graphic quality however high in 'playability'.
Apart from the survival aspect to Minecraft, our students have the opportunity to build and create and communicate with each other in real time. Mining for resources, building shelters, growing plants, farming animals - there are so many possibilities, infact from this point on, Minecraft can be taken to a level that requires a high level of deep thinking,  problem solving skills, online collaboration and programming,

As a teacher in a Primary school, I see this as a challenge to harness this opportunity that Minecraft gives us. Think of it this way a tool that provides:

• An online interactive world - movement, exploration and interaction in this world
• Collaboration and communication within this world
• Creation - find and use resources and build
• Student Engagement / Student Voice / Social interaction
• Opportunities for higher level thinking and problem solving
• A presentation tool in 3D
• A tool to promote positive social interaction
• Mapping and location skills

The elements of Minecraft  are many and varied. In regards to Learning and teaching, the following is an example of where we, as teachers, need to: 

enable - facilitate by planning and recognising the possibilities

support - allowing the opportunity to take place a

engage - allow the students to take control.

Here's my example  A Minecraft Adventure Game

Learning Intention - I can create a Minecraft Adventure Game that other students can play.

Success Criteria

• I can lead the players of my game through a sequence of events guided by signs
• I can use my Minecraft skills to create locations and build structures that enhance my game
• Players of my game are challenged in locating the signs and following clues and instructions
• Players of my game clearly understand the goal of the game 

All in all it was fascinating to watch our students engage in this project. The ideas, the thinking, the collaboration between the group really came together to produce something unique. To then watch the Year 2 students take the opportunity and develop their own games with the help of their Year 6 buddies set the scene for future projects.

Minecraft and Educreations

Using Minecraft with students - Please note that this is the iPad version of Minecraft - Minecraft Pocket Edition and all settings were set to Peaceful in Creative mode.

Recently our Prep students joined in on the Minecraft action and used minecraft to create a shelter as part of their Inquiry based learning. Whilst the students were busy building and exploring, we took a screenshot to capture their creation.
Using the Educreations ipad app,, our follow up session focussed on the presenting an image (screenshot) of the shelter and voice over recording. This can then lead to writing a sentence describing the shelter.

Here are some examples

Sharing Our Wonderings - Using Padlet

Padlet was formerly known as Wall Wisher. A wonderful tool to facilitate and share discussion, images, videos and links. It's just like online paper where everyone can share. To add your wonderings just click on the screen or access the Padlet using the QR Code.

Want to know more about Padlet - click here

Created with Padlet

Mobilize

http://padlet.com/wall/ocw0shc5qa

What do you think about Padlet? Would you use it? How would you like to use it? Please share on this blog by adding a comment.

Cybercitizenship

The Big Picture - a snapshot of the world that our students are already engaging in.




 The Implications - essential information literacy for the 21st Century?



Our Reality Student Survey 2013

Our Action St Peter's Cybercitizenship Policy and Action Plan 2013

Our Learning & Teaching - share your views or questions here 

Future Directions - Becoming an eSmart School

This video documents a Year 5 Inquiry Unit 'Rip Rip Woodchip'
The Focus of this Inquiry was to allow students to explore Co-Existence through the use of an online world - Minecraft and to communicate via an online space - Edmodo
Learning Goals
Students were required to :
Create an Environmentally friendly home
Coexist with creatures who inhabit the Minecraft World
Preserve the natural flora and fauna of this world.

Teaching Goals
Improve Teacher Capacity to use explicit teaching & individualize learning
The use of an online learning and teaching Management system eg Edmodo to maximise learning and teaching from Minecraft - links to Fullan areas of "Pedagogy matching technology" and the "Learning -- instruction assessment nexus".
Catholic Education Office Melbourne - Contemporary Learning Schema - Minecraft and to communicate via an online space - Edmodo)

Communication or Collaboration?

Do we know the difference?
What are the implications for leadership?
Where, When and How could collaboration make a difference?