teaching | Liam O'Donnell

Kano Arrived

by liam | Sep 27, 2014 | gamebasedlearning, Teacher's Guide, video games

Look what came in the mail today. Kano! 🙂 You might also enjoy: An Overdue Tour of the Multi-School Minecraft Server Cube World: the next video game your students will be talking about Minecraft Students are evolving. They’ll pwn teachers (and servers). And...

Why I was sad & scared on CBC’s Metro Morning

by liam | Sep 14, 2014 | appearances, gamebasedlearning, literacy

Last Friday morning, I took a detour on my way to school to the CBC building downtown.

I wasn’t lost. I had been invited to chat with Matt Galloway on Metro Morning to discuss, you guessed it, Minecraft.

How those Minecraft books got my students reading . . .

by liam | Aug 1, 2014 | education, gamebasedlearning, gaming, video games, writing news

[This post originally appeared on GamingEdus.org, but I figured folks dropping by here might like to read it too!] If you’ve been near a young Minecraft fan lately, you’ll know that this year’s must-have items aren’t the creeper hoodies or pink...

This is why I write for kids

by liam | Jun 18, 2014 | comics, education, literacy, media, writing news

I know authors for adults get letters from their readers, but I doubt Margaret Atwood’s fan mail is created with crayons and comes with googly eyes. And that’s her loss. I love getting letters and emails from readers and recently an amazing teacher in the...

Minecraft Students are evolving. They’ll pwn teachers (and servers). And that’s awesome.

by liam | Feb 18, 2014 | education, gamebasedlearning, Teacher's Guide, video games, virtual worlds

“You’ll never know more than your students. And that’s okay.” I find myself saying that a lot to teachers looking to bring Minecraft into their classrooms. Any adult who’s been within a block’s throw of a Minecraft kid knows what...