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| Scene from "Escape From Everest" |
Yesterday was one of the most transformative days I've had in my entire career. The afternoon was spent observing my students fully engaged, while playing Minecraft alongside them.
The Details
I've been following along with how Minecraft is being used in schools as well as playing a bit on my own, but today was the first day that my students and I were able to participate together in an online scenario at school. For me this was a milestone.
The Scenario
We picked "
Escape From Everest". I was immediately impressed by how each student was adept at determining what the goals and objectives were as well as beginning the quest. Naturally the half dozen students began working together and discussing the overall objective, which wasn't really spelled out entirely. I kept thinking of "
Invent To Learn" by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager because these students were figuring out what the goals and objectives were
as they were going. This is so fundamentally different than the normal operation of schooling where everything is spelled out ahead of time that it was truly an "ah-ha" moment!
Applications For The Future
This smaller scale test of the cloud based MinecraftEDU platform with students is part of a larger idea to increase creativity and imagination amongst my students as well as provide an opportunity to captivate students in a manner that promotes deeper and more collaborative thinking. I am excited about the prospects of this experience together as well as the potential that this game, and others, has towards providing an engaging and enriching experience for our students. Yesterday's session showed me that I have lots to learn about this gaming platform, but I am confident that by partaking along side my students they are more than happy to teach me while we explore and think together.
