Today was very interesting! We had Heidi James come in and talk about her experience using Mindcraft in her classroom and the learning opportunities that it can create. Coming into today’s class I was skeptical about how Mindcraft can be used as a pedagogical tool. Previously, I viewed Mindcraft as just a game that can immerse children for hours on end, and in a way “rot their brain”. The whole movement for the past few years has been to try to get children away from spending too much time on the computer. The amount of ‘screen time’ children should be allocated is very controversial for most parents and educators, due to recent research on it’s negative effects for children. So it was very interesting to see how this game can be used to support subject areas such as math, social studies, language arts and arts and design.
After trying out playing Mindcraft and listening to Heidi and her students talk I could definitely see the appeal for this game in the classroom. It is a great way to engage students in their studies and cater the content to them, which is what the new BC curriculum is encouraging. As much as I love the idea I don’t know if I would personally incorporate it into my own classroom unless I developed a passion for it later on in my career. I just don’t think I have the knowledge and technical ability to execute this type of activity. If I were to incorporate it someday, here are some lessons that I would be interested in doing:
Language Arts – https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/fairytale/
Science – https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/element-scavenger-hunt/
Math – https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/fractions-steeplechase/
Art and Design – https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/patterns-and-motifs/
Today we also talked about the Google Science Journal which is an app that collects scientific data on your phone. Using smartphone sensors it can detect and measure light, sound, motion, and atmospheric pressure. This is cool because students could use it in any way the wish, such as attaching it to their dog to see how fast he/she could run around the house. This would be something I would be interested in doing because it incorporates technology in a way that students are comfortable with and is something that they could use and explore, in and out of school.
