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Comment on Teacher’s Guide: Organizing student accounts on a school Minecraft server by liam

liam — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:11:03 +0000

Hi Lisa, as far as I know servers using MinecraftEDU are usually run on school computers, so they’re turned off at the end of the day (I think.) Our Multi-School server is open 24/7 because we have people from different timezones dropping by.

Currently, none of our students play with their personal accounts. We provide the accounts for the kids and they play during the day at school. Only the teachers know the passwords, so the kids can’t log into the game with that account by themselves or outside of school. This stops them from playing on the server outside of school. The whole “not knowing the password” thing is something we negotiate with the kids before we start playing the game. We make it very clear that playing Minecraft in school is different from playing it at home. Basically, we recognize that the moment teachers bring any commercial game into a school the game is co-opted for learning. We can’t pretend it’s the same as playing the game at home with your friends. With that in mind, the kids are generally pretty good about not knowing the password and understanding that these are their school accounts.

In the past, we have had kids play with their own accounts and we basically let them know the server is off limits after school because there’s no supervision, etc. I let them know I have a log of the server (and i show it to them). I tell them I can see who enters and when, so I’ll be able to see if they come on after the agreed times. With the exception of one student who snuck on and was busted, that generally works too.

For us, a big part of using Minecraft is about building community and trust. It’s been my experience that when these are mutually constructed, issues like deception, sneaking on, etc are pretty rare.

Hope this helps and thanks for dropping by and commenting!

Comment on Teacher’s Guide: Organizing student accounts on a school Minecraft server by Lisa D

Lisa D — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:44:45 +0000

I have heard students that have accounts outside of the MinecraftEDU cannot access Minecraft EDU. I do not read the Mincraft website this way and according to your post, it sounds like some students could login to your school server with their personal account if you let them correct?

Comment on Five Canadian Kids Authors Rocking it as Hybrids by Five Questions with Arthur Slade about Crowd Sourcing & Modo

Five Questions with Arthur Slade about Crowd Sourcing & Modo — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:38:25 +0000

[...] up with traditional publishing and independent, or self publishing. If you missed it, go back and Five Canadian Kids Authors Rocking it as Hybrids, so you’re all caught [...]

Comment on Five Canadian Kids Authors Rocking it as Hybrids by Hybrid Authors… | YOURS IN STORYTELLING...

Hybrid Authors… | YOURS IN STORYTELLING... — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:21:02 +0000

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Comment on Teacher’s Guide to setting up a Minecraft server at your school by liam

liam — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 14:52:18 +0000

That is too funny Kaye! That’s the thing with tech: no matter how well you plan, something can and will go wrong, leaving you with anxious young people nipping at your heels.

So glad you got your server up and running. You’ve got to be the coolest Grandma on the block! It’s funny you asked about plugins. I have a post waiting in the wings listing the plugins I use on our GaminEdus servers. There are some great ones that will make your life as a server admin much easier. It will be posted this week, so watch out for it.

Thanks so much for dropping by and commenting. I’m glad my post was helpful to you in getting your grandkids in Minecraft and building. Learning happens everywhere, not just in school, so I think you and your will have a lot of fun playing and learning along the way.

Comment on Teacher’s Guide to setting up a Minecraft server at your school by Kaye Swain

Kaye Swain — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:38:36 +0000

I had to laugh. I am just setting up a Minecraft server for my 3 grandkids and perhaps a friend or 3. As educational fun is one of my favorite things, I did a search for educational plugins for Minecraft and landed here. I loved your wise advice about ” I suggest you do this for the first time without the students there. Things won’t work. Connections will fail. Patience will be needed. Making a group of eager Minecrafters watch you spend an hour tweaking server settings is not fun – trust me, I know.” I highly concur as I did a lot of my work with anxious grandboys constantly asking – is it up yet?…and once up, it was – “This doesn’t work, can you fix it?…Is it fixed yet…Is it fixed yet! We’re up and running – with a bare bones setup and looking forward to learning more about computers along the way. I’m looking forward to checking your other articles out as well for more “educational fun” ideas. Thanks for the advice.

Comment on Judging the 2013 Best Books for Teens: It’s Decision Time by liam

liam — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 19:39:06 +0000

Hey Diana – I’m glad Rachel’s post will be useful for your research. It’s an important perspective. I think many adults, parents and educators have to come to terms with the fact that not all kids are going to go for the more ‘literary’ books. They’d rather have the lighter, faster reads. If you look at the best sellers on Amazon, it’s clear adult readers are no different.

I know many of my students found some last year’s Silver Birch books “too boring” and bailed halfway through. I didn’t blame them. All fine books, but not something the kids I teach are going to go for – even the keen readers in the Silver Birch clubs.

Comment on Judging the 2013 Best Books for Teens: It’s Decision Time by Diana M

Diana M — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:32:49 +0000

Hi Liam,
I’m going to have to grab Rachel’s blog post for use in my research paper on the impact of student choice in reading programs. I used to be on the Silver Birch selection committee and it was a very heated conference call at times! I agree with you and Rachel that the winners aren’t always the most-finely crafted works of literature, but ones that readers like. I remember when Edo von Belkom’s book “Wolf Pack” won the prize – some adults rolled their eyes at the kid horror title but the kids loved it. As for getting kids on the nomination committees, I say, why not? The only challenge will be ensuring the youth committee members can read all the potential books.
I have read a Best Books type of program with a school in Winnipeg (Acadia Jr. H.S.) via Skype. Each student would have a minute to address the group to promote a book they’ve read (in our case, it was the Ontario Red Maple program and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice program) and the students ranked on a wiki which book they were most intrigued to read.

Comment on Talking Power Play with Diamond Willow Award readers by liam

liam — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:23:33 +0000

Lori, I’ve had so much fun talking with your students! You’ve done a great job getting them inspired to read and then having them share their thoughts. I’m happy to chat with them. And please pass on my congratulations to all of them for reading so many Willow Award books!

Comment on Talking Power Play with Diamond Willow Award readers by Lori Kruk

Lori Kruk — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:13:37 +0000

Hi Liam,

I really appreciate how quickly you answer my students. They love it. I sure wish other schools would leave comments for you. My students are gobbling up your other books. I’m amazed at how many books (Willow Award nominees or other) they have read this year.

Lori