We finished our initial MinecraftEDU scenario yesterday, and so came to an end an awesome experience in so many ways. In a most unbelievable way I was able to learn from my students while interacting along side them about something that was very interesting to them. This is unusual in school, and therefore made an impression on both myself and them. I asked them freely when I didn't know something, and, not surprisingly, they asked each other for help and advice frequently as well.
Teacher Leader
In retrospect I would have advanced through the scenario differently. Since this was my first time using MinecraftEDU, I'm trying to go easy on myself- but there are large improvements I will make:
- In the teacher dashboard, I won't use the "give" feature too much. The students and I decided not to cheat per se, but I did give the players some unusual items that would have taken a long time to procure, such as the materials for the nether port.
- I will be more of a leader for my students. This is where the larger amount of growth will take place in how I use Minecraft EDU with in my classes. Since I was new to the game as well as playing alongside my students it made sense that I wasn't knowledgeable enough to guide the players. Now that I have been involved with completing one scenario, I have an idea of the techniques to be a class leader.
Scenario Completion
When we satisfied the requirements of the scenario we weren't sure we were done. It was my fault that this felt anti- climatic for my students. This was a tremendously missed opportunity to summarize the scenario objectives and draw meaningful connections to real world problems and situations. We did get a nice kudos from
+Joel Levin, which helped me see that focusing on the process is more important than the outcome!
Up Next
We are planning on another shorter scenario before the end of the school year. That shows how much the students enjoyed this experience together. That's another thing I'm seeing and reminds me of something that
+William Chamberlain talks a lot about which is creating memories for students. Using Minecraft EDU combines learning objectives and experiences which is a win/ win in my book.
