Girls Learning Minecraft with MinecraftEdu

There were 20 boys in my Exploratory class last semester. The next Exploratory class begins in two weeks and I hope to get some girls to sign up. I have been making references to Minecraft in my science classes this last semester and I heard many girls say things like, “What’s Mindcraft?” “I don’t know anything about Mindcraft.” I think you can see the problem here. So, I announced at assembly that I would offer a training course at lunch the next day for anybody interested in learning the game that was sweeping through our middle school. I knew everyone would forget, so I went around to some lunch tables and encouraged some of my girl students to bring their lunch and come up to the classroom. I think it is very important to get girls involved in technology, and Minecraft is a great way to do this. MinecraftEdu provides an excellent education version with an easy to use tutorial world for students. I watched a video by the Minecraft Teacher called Using MinecraftEdu – Part 1 – Introduction to learn how to set up the server tool; several clicks of the mouse and the server was up and running.

Some of my observations of the girls include: how engaged they were in the game. how social they were. their physical proximity to each other; they preferred to bring the laptops near each other, rather than work separately at the lab stations. Safety in numbers, maybe, while trying something new?

Did I miss anything?

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6 thoughts on “Girls Learning Minecraft with MinecraftEdu

  1. Glad to see you diversifying your Minecraft community. We have found Minecraft to be just as compelling for girls as it is for boys. Our servers have always had a ratio of about 50/50. If fact many of our best players are girls!

  2. Great to see, how did you find the tutorial world, I still have not used it, so I am trying to work out if it is ‘the’ way to teach kids how to play minecraft. So your thoughts would be very much appreciated.

    • Thanks for the comment.
      When I start up the server tool in MinecraftEdu, I choose the tutorial world button.

      Did this reply go to your email?

      • Thanks for the reply, did the kids enjoy the tutorial world, do you think they learned how to play the game using that map, and how long did it take them to get through the map?

  3. It’s a shame I wasn’t at your school, me and my friend love minecraft and guess what… We’re girls! I wish we had a minecraft class 😛

    • Thanks for the comment.
      Have you tried to start a Minecraft club at your school? Are there other girls or boys that are interested?
      What grade are you in? Do you have clubs at your school?

      Good luck and let me know if you put anything together.

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