Share on our Blog!

Have you created an amazing Minecraft world you’d like to share? If you or your students are interested in an authentic purpose for writing, we welcome you to share on our blog. Sharing your thinking is a very reflective way to consolidate learning. Students may wish to write a blog post or create a short video to share their ideas.

For example:

• Have students write a blog post explaining what they learned and why it’s important. Have students use Google Docs and the voice typing tool to type with their voice. To access the voice typing tool, open google docs, select Insert and then voice typing.
• Have students to create a video tutorial about their learning.
• on a computer use Screencast-o-matic.
• on the Chromebook, download and use the extension Screencastify.
• on the iPad, take screenshots, then upload to Explain Everything and record your voice.

Before offering this opportunity to students please note:

• this is an opportunity to review digital citizenship, including etiquette, safety, copyright and sourcing images when sharing online.
• students must have social media permission

Email me if you would like to share on our blog!

Marci Duncan mduncan@scdsb.on.ca

Minecraft + Math

Students like Hudson are always amazing me with the ways they use Minecraft to explain their thinking. On Friday, many classrooms were celebrating the 100th day of school and were doing math activities using the number 100. When we talked with Hudson about how he would represent 100 he decided to show us...

“I made groups of 10 with different coloured blocks, and then made signs that counted by 10s to 100.” Then he went on to explain all the different ways he could represent 100 in Minecraft, including by 5s, 20s and 25s.

Just like Hudson showed us today, there are many ways to experience math and learn concepts while having fun.



Check out Jim Pike / @joakleyiii 's world of mathcraft where everything is a math problem!

If you want to learn more view Jim Pike’s webinar on Mathcraft: How to Use Minecraft to Teach Common Core Math or sign up for his MathCraft PLC starting on February 20th.

Announcing Minecraft: Education Edition

Today, Microsoft announced it is acquiring MinecraftEdu and investing in a new and expanded version of Minecraft for the classroom called Minecraft: Education Edition. This new version of Minecraft will launch this coming summer. The game will cost $5 per user and be accessible through Office 365. 

The Minecraft Education Edition website has a teacher resources page and answers frequently asked questions including the features Minecraft Education Edition will offer for schools:

• Enhanced maps with coordinates for students and teachers to find their way around the Minecraft world together.
• Student Portfolio feature, where students can take photos and selfies to show their work and learning.
• Enhanced multiplayer, where a classroom of up to 40 students can work together toward a greater world in Minecraft.
• Login and personalization, where students have personalized avatars and feel more engaged in the game and teachers can know who each player is.
• World import and export, where teachers and students can create and save their worlds in the game.
• To get started, there will be a library of lesson plans available to help educators understand how to apply Minecraft: Education Edition to their specific classroom needs, in addition to an online community of educators at http://education.minecraft.net

You can read more here: Announcing Minecraft: Education Edition and sign up for updates.

Multiplayer on the iPads

On Friday we set up the iPads so students could collaborate while playing MinecraftPE. 

The game allows up to 5 students in one world.

Here is a resource to help you get started: How to Play Multiplayer with MinecraftPE on a SCDSB iPad.

A Chart to help you learn how to move around in Minecraft Pocket Edition:

Minecraft Pocket Edition Controls on the iPad

And How to Get Started with Minecraft Pocket Edition on iPads

#craftreconciliation

Wab Kinew has challenged Canadian educators and students to work together (First Nations and “mainstream”) to create a vision of what reconciliation could look like in Minecraft.

If you would like more information about this innovative project, check out this Overview Document, the Website: http://craftreconciliation.blogspot.ca/ or contact Shannon Simpson (slsimpson@scdsb.on.ca) and Jaclyn Calder (jcalder@scdsb.on.ca)

Getting started with MinecraftPE on the iPad

I was chatting with a teacher about Minecraft Pocket Edition on the iPad today. He was wondering about how to get started… I encouraged him to think about the following steps:

Step 1: See Minecraft as a Learning Tool

Minecraft is highly engaging game for many of our students and it has the potential to add great value to learning. We need to support the students in seeing the opportunities for deep learning and ensure they know it’s not just from playing Minecraft, it’s what happens as a result. When students know their learning purpose and audience, Minecraft become an opportunity to show their creativity and develop problem solving, communication and collaboration skills. 

Step 2: Purchase the MinecraftPE app

Then talk to your principal and explain why/how you want to engage students with Minecraft. The app costs $9.99 per iPad and can be purchased for school iPads through Airwatch by submitting a helpdesk ticket. The ticket must be submitted by the school principal and include a budget code. You can share this document with your administrator: How to request an app in Airwatch and to save you time here is the link to the app from the VPP store that you will need: https://volume.itunes.apple.com/ca/app/minecraft-pocket-edition/id479516143?mt=8&term=minecraftpe&ign-mpt=uo%3D4  

Step 3: Learn How the Game Works

You don’t need to be an expert on how to play the game but having a basic understanding will help you to imagine what is possible. My best advice for learning how to play is to just try the game or even better, play with your students! Have the students show you the basic controls and ask them how they think we could use Minecraft in the classroom for learning. 

Step 4: Academic Purpose - Design your Activity

Many of our students already know how to play Minecraft and the game can engage students in a diverse range of subjects. It’ essential to begin by giving students clear learning goals and an authentic audience. For example, have students challenge another class to solve math problems involving fractions within Minecraft. 

There are many sources of inspiration online. Many resources may be de designed for the computer version of the game but you can still use the ideas.

• Starter lessons from Minecraft Education Edition
• Teaching with MinecraftEdu
• Check out @joakleyiii 's world of mathcraft where everything is a math problem! (watch the YouTube Video)
• See what is happening across SCDSB by following #scdsbMinecraft on Twitter.

Consider using multiplayer and have students collaborate. The game allows up to 5 students in one world. How to Play Multiplayer with MinecraftPE on a SCDSB iPad. 

Embed opportunities for your students to document their learning.

• It is easy to use an iPad camera to film over their shoulder (but sometimes the sound isn’t great so it’s important to select where you film). Here is an example of a student explaining his learning during a tour of his medieval world: Lord Delaire’s Castle.
• Take screenshots (How to take a screenshot on the iPad) and add them to their SCDSB Google Drive, which they can share with you.
• Upload the screenshots into the Explain Everything app and talk about their ideas. Check out this example: Minecraft + Explain Everything.

Finally, remember to keep the activity fun and open. The power of Minecraft for learning is how it connects players socially and inspires creativity!

MinecraftEdu at Allison Union

Today the Grade 4s at Alliston Union had their first go with MinecraftEdu. It took some time to get the program loaded on all the computers but once the students were in you could hear the excitement as they explored together.

One of the best activities for getting started is to have the students try the tutorial world (which can be found in the MinecraftEdu launcher). The students can play independently or you can start the server and load the tutorial world.

This tutorial will walk you through how to start the server with the tutorial world: