Tag Archives: Minecraft

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Let’s try Minecraft!

Minecraft cube Why Minecraft

“I believe in student-centered learning. Part of student-centered learning is giving students voice and choice in the classroom. A few years ago, back when I was a high school English teacher, students were assigned a culminating project on Romeo and Juliet. Students had to show what they learned during the unit in a medium of their choosing. A student approached me and asked if he could show what he learned using Minecraft. I had no idea what Minecraft was, so after having him explain the game and how he planned to use it, I approved the project. A week later he brought in a video of Minecraft characters acting out his favorite scene from Romeo and Juliet in a gorgeous, block-based Globe theater. This is how I met Minecraft.

Continue reading Let’s try Minecraft! →

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Education Portal can help you use Minecraft at school

Tired of hearing all the buzz about Minecraft in schools and want to join the fun? Look no further than Microsoft’s new Minecraft Education Portal. Full of resources and starter lessons, the site gets you into the game quickly and simply.

Looking for inspiration? Check out this story about how a California educator mixed Minecraft with Spanish History. The article details their quest and is especially helpful because it talks about the challenges they faced as well as the enthusiastic play!

Need more? Check out this video about the Minecraft Education Portal:

Academic, General, School Media Specialist

Improve attendance with Minecraft?

CreeperMuch has been written about how Minecraft can be used in teaching. But one Alaska teacher recently noticed another benefit: improving attendance. Cindy Duncan decided to take that observation and put it to the test. She organized a “Morning Craft” program where students could come in before school and work with and use Minecraft. She structured her program to reward students and also have it be more than computer-play-time before school. Her article on EdSurge details the program but a few things stand out:

  • Duncan made sure Morning Craft had a purpose.
  • She opened her classroom to parents and other observers.
  • She thought outside the box addressing attendance with technology.

Read the whole article now for more details on the Morning Craft program and how Duncan got started.

Image Citation: WikiMedia Commons CC BY SA 3.0
General, School Media Specialist

Minecraft: more than just a game

minecraft_landscape1By now we’ve all heard about Minecraft, or maybe we know a child that can only talk about “Creepers.” With its popularity, many educators are looking beyond the blocks to what Minecraft can do for education.

Programming

One obvious choice that Minecraft can be used for is with programming. With just a $35 Raspberry Pi, you can setup a Minecraft sandbox where students can learn the programming language Python. Using this helpful worksheet, programmers can learn how to teleport in the game or even drop blocks as they walk. Check out our post about the Raspberry Pi to learn more!

Minecraft Club

Finally, students are looking for a place to play Minecraft too! What better way to give everyone that option than to setup a Minecraft server at your school and then organize a Minecraft Club.

Digital Citizenship

Another thing educators are looking to Minecraft to teach is digital citizenship. Check out this video about how some teachers are using Minecraft to do just that:

General

Is a Raspberry Pi right for your library?

Raspi_Colour_R-207x250At only $35, a Raspberry Pi might be a tempting addition to your makerspace or library. But what can it really do and can you make it work for your users?

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that only needs a screen, keyboard, and mouse. It can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video and can be used to teach programming.

One of the big draws of the Raspberry Pi is to learn programming. It can be used to learn to program Ruby, Python, Scratch, and even setup your own web server. Besides teaching resources, the Raspberry Pi website even has an Education Newsletter you can receive via email. Need inspiration? Check out what others have done on their make page.

We know that Minecraft is extremely popular. Check out our post about using Raspberry Pi to program in the Minecraft world!

Finally, here’s a short video about the device and getting setup: