Teacher’s Guide | Liam O'Donnell

Multi-School Minecraft and the Digital Learning Commons

by liam | Feb 5, 2013 | education, gamebasedlearning, gaming, literacy, Teacher's Guide, video games, virtual worlds

As you might know, last week I spoke at the Ontario Library Association’s 2013 Super Conference about my GamingEdus Multi-School Minecraft project. It was a lot fun, definitely exciting and I had a chance to talk Minecraft with many great people. But for me, the...

Getting Started in Minecraft: From Zero to Punching Wood

by liam | Feb 1, 2013 | education, gamebasedlearning, gaming, media, Teacher's Guide, video games, virtual worlds

A few months ago, the GamingEdus team was interviewed about using Minecraft in Education by Seann Dikkers, for an upcoming book on the subject to be published by the University of Ohio. As the interview progressed, it became clear that one of the goals of our...

Play is the Thing for Gaming Curious Teachers

by liam | Dec 19, 2012 | education, gamebasedlearning, gaming, literacy, media, Teacher's Guide, Uncategorized, video games, virtual worlds

I regularly receive emails from teachers around the world looking for advice on how to use video games with their students. While each teacher, student and learning environment is unique, my first piece of advice is always the same: Play the game yourself. For fun....

Patterns holds promise for gaming educators

by liam | Oct 14, 2012 | education, gamebasedlearning, gaming, Teacher's Guide, video games

Earlier this month, Linden Lab released a very early beta-version of their new sandbox game, Patterns. Clearly inspired by Mojang, Patterns takes the block-building structure Minecraft and adds two very interesting elements: triangles and physics. I downloaded the...

Take a tour of the GamingEdus Minecraft server for educators

by liam | Jul 17, 2012 | education, gamebasedlearning, media, Teacher's Guide, video games, virtual worlds

In addition to writing books and teaching kids with Minecraft, I also run a Minecraft server for educators called GamingEdus. With the help of a group of amazing colleagues, we’ve set up this server to be a fun, safe online space for educators to come explore...