Criteria for an effective lesson in Minecraft:
• Engaging topic for the students
• Student led opportunities as the project develops
• 21st Century Skills – critical thinking, research skills, creativity, perseverance, planning, oral and written communication, leadership, teamwork, collaboration, ICT literacy, computer programming
• Projects which promote the integration of different curricular areas
• Projects that promote collaborative work
• Opportunities for the students to showcase their work
Our School’s Current level of ICT
We currently have 32 student laptops which are on 2 trolleys and timetabled for each class
We also have 10 ipads with plans to get more so that there would be one between 2 students in each class. The ipads are also timetabled for each class.
Each teacher has a laptop and access to an interactive whiteboard or a touch screen.
Our school is working hard at integrating ICTs into the teaching and learning. Some teachers already use Scratch for teaching programming and for promoting the development of critical thinking skills with creativity and the integration of multiple curricular areas.
How I envisage using Minecraft in Education
I think Minecraft would be a great addition to the school. I would propose starting with 10 licences. This would allow for each group of 3 students to access Minecraft in Education and on completion of their class project I would encourage them to share their work with the whole school community. This would hopefully inspire other teachers to explore and learn more about Minecraft in Education and use it in their class teaching.