It’s Minecraft Time…Again.

It’s that time in our school year where we embark upon our use of Minecraft within our curriculum. This week we are starting off with our Grade 3 students in planning and building a community full of interconnected systems. Their Unit Of Inquiry is “How We Organize Ourselves” with the central idea being “Communities can function because of the systems within them”

I’m really interested (stressed) to see how Minecraft turns out this year as this year’s students are completely different than last year’s students (naturally). I’ve tried to focus all attention on our use of Minecraft to our curriculum this year. I may not offer a Minecraft after-school club this year and offer a game making class instead. To be honest, students had a very entitled  air about them regarding Minecraft this year. When it was announced there would be no Minecraft after school club this semester there was a near riot at assembly and it got on the verge of being obnoxious and demanding. Teachers and parents alike were stopping me every day asking about it. So it may be time to re-evaluate the environment of Minecraft in our school. I am very focused on seeing whether we can use it in any other grade for a Unit Of Inquiry but I think after school club might be out this year. Get students used to the fact that it is just another tool we can use to help us understand concepts, inspire creativity and help us develop collaborative/social skills. That way we can focus on the curriculum integration of Minecraft.

Coincidentally in the run-up to our unit I was asked to talk about Minecraft a couple of times over the last few weeks.

First up, was an episode of Michael Boll’s EdTech Podcast where we talked a lot about Minecraft in general and how the Minechat Youtube channel came about.

Second up, was the first in a month long series of webinars for connectedlearning.tv. This was a very interesting Google Hangout with a number of different players in the education technology field (and beyond). It was at 7am Singapore time so I was just happy to be coherent.

http://livestre.am/4FPsl

I was delighted to be asked back for Week 3 of the webinar series which will be on Thursday 21st November. That episode will be based around “…how can Minecraft help students learn not only academic content but also 21st Century learning skills, social-emotional skills, and other non-cognitive skills.”