As I’ve said before, Minecraft is a fantastic game for many reasons. Not least of which, is the way it sparks the imagination, creativity and inquisitiveness of all players, young and old. I’m not getting paid to blog about the game, but that hasn’t stopped my last batch of (irregularly updated) posts to focus Minecraft. I’m afraid it’ s going to get worse.
After realizing the deep, meaningful connection the game had made with some of my former students, I just had to introduce it to a new batch of kids.But this time I wanted to do something a little bigger. Already, I had used Minecraft to engage a small group of students who came to me for literacy support. Minecraft was the ideal game to let their imaginations and writing abilities go wild. From strategy guides to avoiding Creepers to documenting their scientific inquiry into the results of lava-water collisions, the results were impressive. I had to do it again. But this time, I really wanted to put the multiplayer into the game. This time, I’d have one new world but 30 students, from across 3 different schools: A Multi-School Minecraft Server.
The Gaming Edus hard at work
I was going to need some help. Thankfully there were plenty of good people around to add their much-needed wisdom. First up was Diana Maliszewski, gamer, award-winning teacher-librarian, blogger, tweeter, wikier and much more. Diana brought along Denise Colby, a fantastic teacher-librarian (now Literacy Co-ordinator) with the TDSB and a hardcore gamer in her own right. While neither had played Minecraft, they were both eager to try it out for themselves and their students. They agreed a multi-school server could be fun, so I put together a test server for us to play on and the GamingEdus Server was born. We even created the GamingEdus wiki to document our early plans and discoveries.
The idea for the multi-school server was taking shape: We would have 3 schools all playing and building on 1 shared world. Each school would run an after school Minecraft Club, where 5 – 10 students would meet once a week to play and document their findings in a wiki shared by all three schools. From time to time, all three schools would meet in world for shared building activities. We put together a proposal (.pdf), pitched it to our principals and they agreed.
With all our pieces in place, we are excited to get started to say the least. Our aim is to have the clubs started within the next week or so. After that, the fun and the learning is all up to the players.
I can’t see what they create, destroy, build, blowup and learn!
Last year, I had the unique chance to use Minecraft with a small group of students who came to me three days a week for literacy support. It was a messy, fun three months and the kids did a lot of writing and researching outside the game, driven by their explorations in the world they were building. Soon, it was June and we all went our separate ways for the summer. I thought we had all just had a fun time while building our reading and writing skills. Two months later, when we returned to school in September, I realised my kids had not stopped playing and they had not stopped learning. They had become Minecraft superfans.
It started on yard duty when two of them rushed up to me.
“Mr. O’Donnell! 1.8 comes out today! Are you excited?”
1.8? What are they talking about? They told me in that way kids can tell you something obscure that you should totally know about. “Minecraft 1.8 update? Endermen? Adventure mode?” Then I was treated to a 15 minute debate between the kids on the merits of the new patch.
Remember, these are students who “don’t read”. And yet, they were versed with the ins and outs of the latest Minecraft patch. Which they had researched and learned about by themselves. During the summer. Think about that.
Many of those Minecraft kids happened to end up in my Grade 5/6 class. Unfortunately, with over 31 kids in the class and one computer in the room, playing Minecraft wasn’t going to happen. But that didn’t stop Minecraft from being a focal point in our classroom.
It started with drawings left on my desk. Like this one:
When teachers have discussions with their students in over-crowded classrooms, shouting, calling out and talking over others can become an unfortunate part of the process. But I recently figured out it doesn’t have to be. And I have the 99% to thank.
The recent #OccupyWallStreet and wider #Occupy gatherings around the world have introduced many to the long established tradition of holding General Assemblies to have civilized, equitable, non-oppressive and productive discussions with each other. This great video explains how General Assemblies (GAs) work:
In addition to being immediately transfixed by the organic power of People’s Mic, I was impressed at how a few simple hand gestures could help create a space where voices were heard, disagreements were civil and all people felt included. In short, the ideal classroom environment.
Since October 15th, I’ve attended a bunch of GAs in my participation with the #OccupyToronto movement. After learning and using the hand signals, I decided to teach them to my Grade 5/6 students.
They loved it.
Instead of shouting out agreement or disagreement, students showed their “Twinkle Fingers” of agreement or their down low twinkles of disagreement. Confusion or questions were shown by making a letter ‘C’ shape with their hand. This General Assembly Guide from the New York City General Assembly shows what each symbol looks like. And to ensure all voices were heard, not just the loudest, a “stack” or speakers list was put on the chalkboard.
It was amazing. For the first time in a long time, I was not repeatedly asking my “shouters” to be silent, we could all immediately take a “temperature check” on how people were feeling about the discussion (many twinkle fingers or just a few.) And for the first time, I could accurately and unobtrusively assess how some of my more shy, or lower performing students were feeling and thinking about our discussion. When the stakes of disagreement are lowered to merely wiggling your fingers to the floor, instead of voicing your opinion to a room of your peers (some of whom might be bullying you or just not like you), then it becomes easier for you to take a stand and make your feelings clear.
And besides all that, it is just plain fun.
There’s something addictive about twinkling. My kids were doing it during their private conversations in class and in other discussions where I hadn’t clearly stated that we were using them. During a math lesson when I asked if people understood our long division questions, instead of head nods or raised hands, I got twinkles. It was immediate formative assessment: Kids twinkling up got the math and dove into their work. Twinkles down meant they needed more support and I worked more with them. A low stakes, not embarrassing way of saying “I don’t get this stuff!”
I can’t wait to see how the GA hand gestures will transform our future discussions. And I can’t wait until other teachers bring them into their classrooms. To make that happen more quickly, I’m putting together a series of lesson plans that will show teachers how to do exactly that.
Last May, as the school year was winding up, I took part in a great podcast over at Teachers Teaching Teachers to talk about using video games in the classroom. Lucky for you interweb peeps, you can listen to the podcast here.
The show centered around the release of the 2011 Horizon Report (pdf), which predicts Games Based Learning to be widely adopted in just a couple of years.
For my part, I discussed my use of educational games like Wolf Quest to support lessons in science for Primary Grade learners. I also talk about using off the shelf video games like any of the Pokemon games and more specifically Minecraft as a springboard for literacy activities with Junior students.
Hopefully, one of the main points that people can take away from the discussion is teachers need to play games if they want to use them in the classroom. And by bringing them into the classroom, remember you are removing the situated learning that James Paul Gee and others have clearly demonstrated lie at the heart of gaming’s literacy value. In my mind, situating games in the structure of school removes the authenticity of much of the learning video games provide (and why so many people love them), but it is a start and much better than skill n drill tests and worksheets.
I look forward to more Minecraft student creations and disasters, in the coming school year.
It’s barely 9:15 in the morning and already two students have fallen down a mine shaft, one burst into flames when he swam through lava and another just killed his best friend with a pork chop. It’s going to be a messy morning but one packed with learning. This is learning with Minecraft.
For those of you who don’t pay attention to such things, Minecraft is the uber-successful indy, lego-style building game. But it’s much more than that. It’s whatever you want it to be: an epic zombie-dodging wilderness survival game, a “if you can think it, you can build it” construction zone or a virtual space where players can run wild, break stuff, build stuff and do a whole lot of learning in the process. I’ve done a bit of the first two, but it’s as an environment for learning where I (and many others) see the potential for Minecraft.
Minecraft isn’t a learning game. It’s not designed to teach you math, problem solving skills or community building, but it has the potential to do all three.
The premise of Minecraft is simple: dig up resources (like wood, stone and dirt) combine them together to make other things (shovels, swords, armor and much more) and use the resources to build stuff (homes, rollercoasters, boats, castles, and anything else you can think of.) For teachers, Minecraft is the ideal game to use in the class because it is so open-ended, totally flexible and affordable (currently $20)
For me, it was the perfect vehicle to build the literacy skills of seven grade 5 and 6 students who come to me for reading and writing support three days a week. For these students, motivation to read and write is a big challenge. Previously, we had done a writing unit around their Nintendo DSi’s, specifically Pokemon, where they had drawn maps of the game areas, profiled their favourite Pokemon and written strategy guides for specific Pokemon fights. I knew they loved video games and after screening a few Minecraft videos on youtube, they were totally eager to play.
Three years ago, I stopped blogging here for many reasons. Although I didn’t know when I’d return, I did know I’d be back sometime. That time is now. And here’s why:
Since 2004, I have blogged about children’s culture and technology, from the rise of cel phones for kids (here) to the use of video games to engage students and promote learning (here, here, here, here and here) and everything in between. It’s this last area of video games as tools for learning that has brought me back.
The new voices coming into these discussions on gaming and learning provide a chance for all of us to continue to redefine what learning and school look like.
However, what I also see are educators who seek to simply “gamify” education or cram these alternative literacies into an existing pedagogical framework. Both these strategies will kill any authentic learning video games offer and merely recreate creepy treehouse environments that reinforce the hidden curriculum of playing “school.” My posts will aim to counter these views as I explore using games within the confines of the classroom.
Currently, I’m working with a small group of elementary students in the game Minecraft for literacy support. I hope to post about the work we are doing around that in the coming days.
As you’ve no doubt noticed things have been very very quiet around here for the last while. There’s a variety of reasons for this, not least of which is I just don’t have time to blog much lately. A new job, new writing projects and various other newnesses have lured me away from feeding change. So, after about four and a half years of blogging, I’m pressing the pause button and stopping the feed. I’ll still post updates about my writing over at my main page, but my rants on technology for kids, education and other stuff will all just have to stay in my head – where they knock around with some frequency but lately rarely make onto the interwebs.
In the meantime, I’ll leave these pages up for the random google surfers who drop by. I’m pretty sure this isn’t good bye. It’s just, see you later.
Award-winning children's author and educator creating relevant media for young minds.
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As I’ve said before, Minecraft is a fantastic game for many reasons. Not least of which, is the way it sparks the imagination, creativity and inquisitiveness of all players, young and old. I’m not getting paid to blog about the game, but that hasn’t stopped my last batch of (irregularly updated) posts to focus Minecraft. I’m afraid it’ s going to get worse.
