Criteria for an effective lesson in Minecraft Education.
The children need to have some sort of understanding of the features of Minecraft Education. They should have a few preparatory lessons in using Minecraft, even if it’s just a station during another lesson , such as, English or maths depending what your lesson focus will be. The lesson should be laid out in clear segments of time and maybe a whiteboard time used to help with task completion. It is very easy to get carried away so a lesson outline should be given out. A print out or lesson roadmap should be given to all students and a more detailed key or explainer given to children with additional needs. A checklist for tasks completed should be ticked and given to the teacher from each group at the end of the lesson.
The school I am teaching in was founded in 2003 and had been in a temporary building previously. Like all growing schools the emphasis is on gathering base materials and technology, so the resources are scarce. Each class has a projector with only two classes have a Promethian Interactive Whiteboard. All teachers including support have a laptop that they use with a projector . There are children who have laptops as assistive technology but these are not used in groups they are for personal use only. There are 4 iPads that are used I the junior classes . Teachers are using Twinkl as a resource provided by the school and of course Seesaw was used this year. Some coding was taught by one teacher who is proficient and this was used in a withdraw setting. Teachers encourage the use of technology in the school and CPD training has been accessed. In-school in-service in technology and assessment was provided and this has been very useful. Hopefully as resources develop and the school becomes more established the technology will grow and the children will have access to more learning apps like Minecraft Education. In so far as using Minecraft Education in the school , there is a tech company that manages the school internet and devices. Any tech queries we have must go through this company which means we cannot upload anything without going through them. This is handy in some respects because you don’t need to be technology proficient yourself.