A Plethora of Information
Narrowing my Focus
The Information
As I figured out last week, there is TONS of information about/for/on Minecraft within the Internet. The problem is trying to figure out what is helpful for a teacher who is just starting to use Minecraft in the classroom and utilizing it efficiently rather than just as free time for the students.
Once I decided to focus on Minecraft, I needed to do a little more focused research. I found two articles within the UBC database that were interesting. One talked about layering literacies within the game, and the other explored individual creativity. Both articles bring to light why Minecraft is a useful learning tool. Sandra Schamroth Abrams talks about the fact that "layering literacies brings to light the intertwined, overlapping, and iterative connection among context, culture, and understanding" (502) and that with Minecraft, you can do all of these layers. The following image is also from her article and it brings this idea of layer literacies to a visual aide (which for me is quite helpful).
The second article was an interesting read because it shows "how Minecraft reinterprets narratives of creative subjects and invention" (Nguyen 471). Nguyen used narratives like Robinson Crusoe and New Atlantis to have students experiment with environments and sociopolitical aspects and look at different aspects of STEM education. While this article was not exactly what I was looking for, there is some good information for the ELA teacher who wishes to use Minecraft in Language Arts.
The next piece of information that I looked at more thoroughly was the book that I mentioned in my earlier blog post: Minecraft in the Classroom: Ideas, inspiration, and student projects for teachers. This book has a great examples for using Minecraft in the class and with almost any subject. Gallagher stated that his book is to "help teachers get started with Minecraft and to be inspired by what other teachers around the world are doing with Minecraft" (Introduction). The way this book is laid out makes it easy to follow and with the testimonials from other teachers and examples of lessons and assessments, it is a great starting point to using Minecraft in the class.
I wanted to explore blogs, websites, and personal accounts of those who use Minecraft from the book. I found some wonderful things. Edutopia was a website that had quite a few articles that I found very interesting. They showed the different aspects that one could use the platform for, and they also had articles with guidelines on how to set up and start using Minecraft in the class.
Here is a list of four articles that I found useful within edutopia:
* "5 Tips for Using Digital Games in the Classroom" by Chris Rozelle - This article talks about the different tips that someone who has used digital games in the classroom before thought would be useful for teachers that are just starting out. I really liked the first tip of "Let students be the experts
* "Using Minecraft as an Educational Tool" by Dan Bloom - This article also comes with a video explaining with student comments on how some schools and teachers are using Minecraft Edu in the classroom. The article also goes on to four steps to implementing Minecraft in the classroom.
* "Ideas for Using Minecraft in the Classroom" by Andrew Miller - This article focuses on some of the things you can do and learn from Minecraft. I really like his take on digital citizenship within the game because it is a collaborative game, and the students really do like working with their friends.
* "A Guide to Teaching Writing with Minecraft" by Matthew Farber - This article is full of helpful information on how to teach a concept within Minecraft, and there are also links to other resources that can be used to help a teacher with figuring out the concept of teaching a concept within the game.
From these articles, I went to the source. I explored the Minecraft: Education Edition website and YouTube channel. These are so full of information, I would recommend that you go in with a little bit of an idea of what you are looking for. The website does help with the deluge of information by having their lesson plans or worlds categorized into subject kits such as Language Arts, Art & Design, or History & Culture. As I am looking for Social Studies aspects, I searched within the History & Culture kit, and I was not disappointed. They have featured worlds and then topics that you can search through. It is fairly user friendly and I really liked that aspect.
The last item that I want to talk about that I came across on my search was a Google Group that may prove useful: Minecraft Teachers. As of my writing this review, there are 4011 members in the group (4012 now that I have joined), and there are all types of conversation posts that one can peruse through, and with the search function, it is a little easier to find a topic that you are looking for.
Final Thoughts
Looking through all of this information, I have learned that even though it is a scary aspect to bring a new piece of technology into the classroom, there are many different resources out there you can find and read (or watch) that will help you; even your own colleagues have wonderful information (which I discovered while talking about this review in my staff room!). I will bring up a collaboration with said colleague as we teach the same subject and grade and see if we can create something that the both of us can use within our Social Study classrooms. Here's for diving in head first!
Works Cited
Bloom, Dan. "Using Minecraft as an Educational Tool." edutopia, 10 Dec. 2013, https://www.edutopia.org/video/using-minecraft-educational-tool. Accessed 5 Feb. 2021
Farber, Matthew. "A Guide to Teaching Writing with Minecraft." edutopia, 23 Oct. 2020, https://www.edutopia.org/article/guide-teaching-writing-minecraft. Accessed 30 Jan. 2021.
Gallagher, Colin. Minecraft in the Classroom. Ed. E-book, Peachpit Press, 2015. https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/minecraft-in-the/9780133991048/
"History & Culture." Minecraft: Education Edition, https://education.minecraft.net/class-resources/history-and-culture-subject-kit. Accessed 5 Feb. 2021.
Miller, Andrew. "Ideas for Minecraft in the Classroom." edutopia, 24 Oct. 2016, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/minecraft-in-classroom-andrew-miller. Accessed 5 Feb. 2021.
Minecraft: Education Edition. The Educational Edition of Minecraft, 2021, https://education.minecraft.net/. Accessed 25 Jan. 2021.
"Minecraft: Education Edition." YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/c/MinecraftEducationEdition/featured. Accessed 5 Feb. 2021.
"Minecraft Teachers." Google Groups, https://groups.google.com/g/minecraft-teachers. Accessed 5 Feb. 2021
Nguyen, Josef. "Minecraft and the Building Block of Creative Individuality." Configurations, vol. 24 no. 4, 2016, p. 471-500. Project MUSE, doi: 10.1053/con.2016.0030. Accessed 26 Jan. 2021
Pedrech, Jim. "Using Minecraft to Write Survival Fiction." Minecraft: Education Edition, 12 Jan. 2021, https://education.minecraft.net/blog/using-minecraft-to-write-survival-fiction. Accessed 29 Jan. 2021.
Rozelle, Chris. "5 Tips for Using Digital Games in Class." edutopia, 20 Dec. 2017, https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-tips-using-digital-games-class. Accessed 5 Feb, 2021.
Schamroth Abrams, Sandra. "Emotionally Crafted Experiences: Layering Literacies in Minecraft." The Reading Teacher, vol. 70 no. 4, 2017, p. 501-506. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26632496. Accessed 26 Jan 2021.
Well done reading review on Minecraft in Education. I really appreciated this detailed deep dive into implementation, with guides, tools, research and even personal conversations regarding collaborations with your colleagues. A good overview of the inquiry process for you, as you narrowed and focused your goals and audience. You collected an extensive list of resources, links and references that will go a long way in supporting your ongoing implmentation of Minecraft as a learning environment with your students. Great showcase and highlighting of your key tools and resources.
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