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Minecraft Wiki:Projects/Minecraft in education

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Members[]


Ideas, requests[]

  • Basic skills - what every player needs to know - index, quick reference, why these
  • Server settings, mods for educational gaming - controlling the setup and environment behaviors is important to direct learning


Learning activities[]

  • English / language arts - activity log, description, instructions, analysis, reflection, presentation, video (script, narration), audio / podcast, common core reading
  • Spanish - build and label - house with contents, school, town
  • French - Français Minecraft Wiki
  • Social Studies, History - buildings, monuments, scenarios (houses, markets, transportation), events (WWII - Pearl Harbor, D-Day)
  • Math - calculations, manipulation, application, companion to Khan Academy videos, 3D math problems
  • Science - energy, reaction, geology, biology
  • Technology - Redstone, MC Servers, Mods, programming
  • Engineering - applied science, structures (bridges), problem-solving / modeling (USFIRST robotics)
  • Collaboration - working together, small groups
  • Agriculture - Farming
  • Mobile - using Pocket Edition

Educators' guide[]

  • how to get started
  • what kids know
  • have the kids do the work
  • more advanced activities

If you understand the basic ideas of Minecraft and have students who play Minecraft, you can facilitate some interesting learning experiences. Activities will depend on the Minecraft play environment - what is available, what can be customized (mods, settings).

  • classroom computer - basic setup
  • school computer lab
  • student computer - personal, school-issued
  • school server

Types of play

  • single player - individual activities
  • multiplayer - collaboration, more complex problem-solving, larger scale projects, planning

Preparation

  • Minecraft skill level
  • time to design and create work area, tools, tutorials
  • instructional time, trade-off

Student engagement

  • focus on academics
  • time on task


Basic skills[]

Basic skills - getting started, "how to", vocabulary, tutorials, tips

  • little wall building demo, with the 3 main ways of quickly building (run back, jump and build, 2 layer quick click)
  • tool making - axe, pick, shovel
  • how to make glass, stairs, smooth stone, cooked meat, a boat and a compass [1]


Education environment, maps[]

  • turn off PvP (stops them from spending the first hour punching each other) [2]
  • find a good server mod for locking chests. We were using hey0 & chastity chest, but I haven't had a chance to find a Bukkit equivalent yet [3]
  • add more structure next time. This workshop we added a map with a semi-destroyed village, and asked participants to rebuild it - with varying success. Encouraging the use of materials other than dirt and cobblestone proved to be difficult! [4]
  • change to the core game to make it more suitable for the classroom. Chief among these was making students invulnerable to damage while playing, so that they couldn't die in the game. A simple way to do this: When all students are on the server, use the command /effect @a 11 1000000 255. [5]
  • crafting recipes - keep a binder or wiki with an index and crafting recipes for reference. The kids may remember all these, but teachers have trouble keeping track of the 1000s of recipes that are useful in educational situations.


Teaching and learning[]

preparation

  • away from the game, .. explains the goals for the day. Then they go to work, often in pre-built worlds created by Levin which feature specific tasks to accomplish or puzzles to solve. But they always need to work together. [6]
  • different preset activities. Or you can go off and create your own content. That alone gives me a ton of freedom to invent content for the kids to engage in. I don't let them just play the game however they want. They must follow a path I lay out for them, which allows me to carry out lesson plans. [7]


learning outcomes

  • negotiating unfamiliar terrain (when your skills with the controls are still clunky) definitely draws on prior knowledge (i.e., transfer) [8]
  • pleasure in sharing creations – and collaborating on new ones
  • minecraft can be used to scaffold: collectivity, resource sharing and community building versus the dominant message of our culture: consume and compete [9]
  • highly open-ended, creative, exploratory and reflective. As a gamer, Lucas connects the curriculum with the gameplay in ways that feel authentic [10]


examples

  • group work, collaboration - task groups of two or three students to build a structure with limited resources
  • math, technical drawing - 3x3x3 space [11]
  • investigate a mysterious pyramid, figuring out how to get inside while at the same time not disturbing the various treasures it contained. Some of the groups ended up building museums to house the contents of the pyramid.
  • language learning - working together on building project [12]
  • history, geography - student-built sustainable village [13]


Servers, installation and mods[]

server running the Tekkit mod pack, which is a Bukkit-plugin version of the Technic Pack (http://technicpack.net/). It has loads of mods that add very technical and complex things to the game; most notably IndustrialCraft (http://wiki.industrial-craft.net), BuildCraft (http://www.mod-buildcraft.com/), Forestry (http:// forestry.sengir.net/wiki/), RailCraft (http:// railcraft.wikispaces.com/) and Redpower (http://www.eloraam.com/).


Learn more...[]

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