My Minecraft journey lesson eight: Bringing it all together

Lesson Eight: Example Minecraft Lesson

In this lesson, participants review key highlights and tips and tricks that were addressed in lessons 1-7. Participants also focus on the Minecraft: Education Edition community and how they can leverage this community of people to continue to learn, grow, and share.

Lesson-Framing Question

How can I continue learning and growing with Minecraft: Education Edition?

Lesson Objectives

  • Participants review key highlights from lessons 1-7 of My Minecraft Journey.
  • Participants review tips and tricks for getting started with Minecraft: Education Edition in their classroom.
  • Participants explore ways that they can become a part of the Minecraft: Education Edition community.

Module 1: Default Title

Explore & Discover

Module 2: Default Title 1

The Minecraft: Education Edition community is made up of educators from around the world who share a passion and love for designing engaging and meaningful learning experiences for their students. As you’ve seen throughout this course, Global Mentors and educators alike are committed to growing, learning, and sharing. Many of the resources you’ve explored were created by educators, just like you, who took a risk, learned new skills, and then shared in learning experiences alongside their students.

This is a powerful community of educators because everyone’s path and journey to practice is celebrated and appreciated. As Meenoo Rami, Manager for Minecraft Education at Microsoft reminds us:
"I want to call this channel out as a safe space for New Mentors and those who may just be starting out their Minecraft Journey. A couple of years ago, I knew nothing about Minecraft as I was thinking about interviewing for this role. I researched, talked to a few folks, and then taught myself Minecraft by watching YouTube videos. We all have our unique path and journey to deep practice. Each point on that path should be celebrated and encouraged."

Module 3: Key Highlights From Each Lesson

Take some time to review key highlights from each of the lessons in this course.

Lesson 1: Why Minecraft: Education Edition?

  • Minecraft: Education Edition can help you create engaging learning experiences for students that include collaboration, creative exploration, and tangible learning outcomes.
  • Learning Theorist, Seymour Papert's research illustrates that students often learn better when they engage in all of the following:
    • Use tech-empowered learning tools and computational environments
    • Take active roles of designers and builders
    • Learn in a social setting, with helpful mentors and coaches, or over networks
  • Your students may bring passion and knowledge of Minecraft: Education Edition. You do not have to be the expert, rather, you can help facilitate an environment where students are able to take steps to own their learning experience.

Lesson 2: Building Community with Minecraft: Education Edition

  • Minecraft helps foster growth mindset skills by giving students the chance to employ strategies such as:
    • Working collaboratively with others to solve problems
    • Practicing student agency to direct self-learning
    • Overcoming challenges in teams with little help from the educator
  • Having clear expectations and classroom norms, monitoring student progress, and establishing protocols for students honoring each others’ work and resolving conflicts can help your students learn to communicate and collaborate better in virtual learning experiences.

Lesson 3: Play, Craft, Learn! Basic Minecraft Mechanics

  • Teaching with Minecraft: Education Edition liberates the educator from being the expert in the room, to being a fellow player on the journey.
  • You can add Worlds (from the World Library) in Minecraft: Education Edition.
  • The Movement and Place and Break Worlds are provided tutorials to help you learn basic mechanics for playing.

Lesson 4: What Does This Look Like in the Classroom?

  • Keep in mind that there is not “one” right way to play Minecraft: Education Edition. Minecraft play can be structured, exploratory, or a combination.
  • Classroom Build Challenges are short activities that you can try and once you’re ready, share them with your students. Each challenge helps students build 21st century skills, such as:
    • Character
    • Citizenship
    • Collaboration
    • Communication
    • Creativity
    • Critical Thinking

Lesson 5: It’s More Than Just a Game!

  • You will need to decide the aspects of learning in Minecraft: Education Edition that you will want to assess. As with any good planning, the best place to start is with your learning goals, and then determine the ways to assess, which may be through discussion, writing, reflection, tests, or using some of the in-game Minecraft: Education Edition tools.
  • Minecraft: Education Edition offers these awesome tools that students can use to show their learning and that educators can use to assess students’ learning:

Lesson 6: Minecraft: Education Edition and Life-Ready Skills

  • According to The World Economic Forum, the top two skills students will need in 2020 are complex problem solving and critical thinking. These are followed by other dispositions and skills that rely on communication, collaboration, and creativity.
  • An awesome way that the Minecraft: Education Edition team helps to provide opportunities for students to practice creative expression and critical thinking is through their Global Monthly Student Challenges that are posted online via the Minecraft: Education Edition Twitter account @playcraftlearn and on the official blog.
  • One way to encourage both collaboration and communication while students are engaged in-game, is to create classroom roles. Roles will ensure that students each have a part to play in the learning process.
  • Rubrics are a great way to assess learning with Minecraft: Education Edition. They offer students insight into learning as a process, and help students understand what they have been successful at and where they still have room to grow.

Lesson 7: Designing Learning Experiences

  • The open world environment of Minecraft: Education Edition lends itself to the authentic application of content and skills. Students can be given open-ended questions or tasks and go in-game to craft, build, and show their learning using the tools offered. Minecraft: Education Edition gives students autonomy and independence during the learning process; they are able to formulate questions and strands of inquiry, solve real-world problems, and create things straight from their imaginations.
  • Minecraft: Education Edition allows you the control to meet students’ needs while they are engaged in-game, differentiating instruction by choosing specific game modes, giving students access to inventory items, and by creating barriers.
  • The Minecraft: Education Edition website has a database with numerous lessons created by educators from around the world.

Module 4: Tips and Tricks for Minecraft: Education Edition

While every educator’s Minecraft journey will be different. The following tips (repeated from Lesson 3), adapted from Simon Johnson, a Minecraft Global Mentor from West Midlands, England will help you get started.

Module 5: Default Title 2

Don't be afraid to let students teach you!

Accept that it’s impossible to know everything. Realize that there will be times when your students know more than you, especially when it comes to Minecraft! Be open to letting your students teach you how to use Minecraft and don’t be afraid to ask them for help!”

(You can learn more about student agency in Lesson 1 and Lesson 2)

Allow time for reflection

As with any lesson, it’s important to give the students time to reflect on what went well and what they could do better next time.

(You can learn more about how to design learning experiences with Minecraft: Education Edition in Lesson 6 and Lesson 7)

Don't go mad!

You don’t need to incorporate Minecraft into every lesson, nor do you want to devalue or trivialize the impact by using it all the time. Start small and build up your use of Minecraft as you and your students grow more confident.

(You can learn more about easy ways to incorporate this teaching and learning tool in Lesson 5,  Lesson 6 and Lesson 7)

Module 6: Default Title 3

Set clear expectations

The concept of game-based learning may be as new to your students as it is to you! Make sure that you share your expectations with the students and ensure that your administration, students, and parents understand the reasons behind your use of Minecraft in the classroom.

(You can learn more about setting expectations and in Lesson 2 and Lesson 6)

Set some ground rules

The idea of playing games in lessons can make your students a little excitable, therefore it’s a good idea to establish some ground rules. You can ask your students to come up with a set of rules for using Minecraft as well as possible consequences for breaking these rules (a kind of Minecraft constitution). Not only does this give students a voice and ownership of their own learning but it also teaches them about decision making and the consequences of their own actions.

(You can learn more about setting expectations and ground rules in Lesson 2 and Lesson 6 )

Let Go

If you want to create an authentic Minecraft learning experience, you must let the students work things out themselves—allow them to make mistakes and let them know it’s OK to fail as long as they learn from these mistakes (FAIL: First Attempt In Learning). Some strategies I’ve had success with are C3B4ME i.e. students ask 3 other people for help before asking the teacher and SNOT (Self Neighbor Other Teacher).

(You can learn more about student agency in Lesson 1 and Lesson 2)

Module 7: Resources and Tools for Continued Learning

While you may be finishing this course, your Minecraft: Education Edition journey doesn’t have to end! There are countless tools and resources to help you learn more and dive further into using Minecraft: Education Edition as a teaching and learning tool.

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Bringing Minecraft: Education Edition to the Classroom

Continuing Your Learning

Becoming a Part of the Community

Module 9: Badging for the Course

If you pass each quiz from Lessons 1-8 in order, you will be awarded four “mini-badges.” Now you are ready to return to the course overview page and take the My Minecraft Journey Final Quiz.

Total points awarded (once all lessons are completed): 5000

Total badges awarded: 4 mini badges, 1 Minecraft Certified Badge and course certificate

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Try & Apply

Module 11: Challenge Yourself!

You’ve learned so much throughout this course, now try putting it into action! Consider the following options for one last challenge before you complete this part of your Minecraft: Education Edition journey.

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Submit a Lesson

Look back at the lesson you adapted or designed in Lesson 7. If you didn’t finish creating your lesson, take some time to complete your ideas. When you have your lesson written, refer to Global Mentor Kyle McMurty’s post on how to create and submit Minecraft: Education Edition lesson plans. Revise your lesson and put the finishing touches on it—then login to the Minecraft: Education Edition community and submit your lesson, using the steps Kyle outlines.

Explore the Minecraft: Education Edition Flipgrid Page

Look back through your Course Notes document and think about the reflections you’ve written throughout the course. Explore the PlayCraftLearn Flipgrid page and watch a few videos. Then, gather your thoughts and add your own video to any of the topics!

Explore Badges

Go to the Minecraft: Education Edition Badges page. Read through the badging options. Take the steps necessary to unlock the Community Badge. By completing this course, you will unlock the Certified Badge. And, if you want to take your learning a step further, you can consider applying to be a Minecraft Mentor.

Connect on Social Media

Minecraft: Education Edition has a very active Twitter account! Use the Minecraft: Education Edition Hashtag #MinecraftEDU to search Twitter for posts from educators around the world. Check out some of the awesome and inspiring ways they are using Minecraft: Education Edition as a teaching and learning tool. If you have a Twitter account, tweet out three of your takeaways, reflections, or questions using the #MinecraftEDU hashtag

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Reflect & Share

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For your final reflection, please take the My Minecraft Journey survey to give us feedback on your experience with the course.

Module 15: Next Steps

Take the Lesson 8 quiz, then you can go back to the overview and take the My Minecraft Journey Final Quiz.

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