Minecraft: Structure or Free Play?

The Pepperdine server has been updated, and one of three teams of students in my Exploratory has completed the Underwater Mine Rescue Challenge thus far. The remaining two teams have had difficulty organizing and completing the challenge.

Watching the kids during today’s Exploratory, I realized that it is a challenge to direct kids in an open sandbox game such as Minecraft without employing a specific mod such as MineraftEdu or being a drill sargent. The latter of which I do not wish to be and would defeat the whole purpose of playing the game in the first place. Continue reading

Share

Kids Teaching Adults Minecraft

Another reason why I love Minecraft.

Today my students became teachers and met their students in person. Seventeen adult graduate students from Pepperdine University visited my Minecraft Exploratory. I was excited for their visit, but the results were beyond my expectations. Lindax delivered the first challenge for our league: Underwater Mine Rescue (to be described in a future post). The level of engagement of the kids and the adults is obvious from the pictures and videos below. One graduate student expressed her doubts about Minecraft, but since meeting the kids had a complete turnaround. Person to person interaction is still important.

The world may be flat, but it’s also upside down.  Below, kids teaching adults.
Teachers would be better teachers if they let the students be the teachers.

 Minecraft brings kids and adults together in a collaborative learning space.

There are three schools in the Minecraft League. Several of the graduate students above have been assigned to each school to learn from the kids and observe how the game works. I suppose they will do some writing about their observations. The first challenge will begin in a couple of weeks. The name: Underwater Mine Rescue. Check back here to learn more about the challenge and the kids progress.

Share

Minecraft Challenge League Welcome Letter

Welcome to Minecraft Challenge League (MCL)

Lindax, League Commissioner
9/27/12
doc. ver. 0.9

This living document contains some useful information about how the server has been set up and what’s available to you. It will change as needed. If you are a student with questions or comments, please take them to your teacher first, unless you’re stuck or need help badly while you’re in the game. If we’re online we’re happy to help. Your Pepperdine University team includes:
Linda Polin → Lindax
James Rhoads → jbrhoads
Andrea Shea → Andreashea

Plain Vanilla
This server is set up as a mostly plain vanilla server. Yes, we have a few mods installed, but those are for administrative routines, like creating groups and protecting regions. We think it’s great to mine AND craft, not just get everything you need without even having to find and construct it. After all, it’s not called Craft. It’s called Minecraft. Continue reading

Share