This week, guest presenter Heidi James explored with our class some of her dynamic teaching ideas and ways to use Minecraft in the classroom.
Before this week, I could have maybe imagined using Minecraft for math class, since it involves geometric cubes, but I was shocked to find out she utilizes it for Socials, Art and Language Arts as well.
It was interesting to learn about game-based learning, in which the game is the learning experience, versus gamification, where the game components are added to the traditional instruction method.
I have never played Minecraft before, but I don’t think it is a coincidence that I can remember almost every time in elementary school that my class played a game together. For one reason, it was a rare occasion, and two, it made me incredibly engaged in the class and lesson.
I’ve already seen game-based learned in my Link2Practice classroom, where the students played the math game Prodigy on individual Chromebooks (see EdTech Inquiry blog post).
The students all loved the time they spent playing this game because it incentivized their ‘exploration’ of content by offering in-game rewards.
I had no idea games such as Minecraft could be used to support the curriculum, but as Heidi James and her students pointed out, that passion and reasonable requests can go a long way. I look forward to continuing my research into the type of games, both digital and in-person, that I can bring into my future classrooms.
Photo by Nikita Kachanovsky on Unsplash
Photo by Nina PhotoLab on Unsplash