Recently my EDCI 336 class had the opportunity to play Minecraft in our classroom. It was a wonderful experience and I was excited how many colleagues got a chance to see Minecraft for the first time. We had a number of experts guide us through Minecraft for Education, which is a version intended to be used in schools. Our experts were grade 8 students from Colquitz Middle School in SD61. They were so skilled and everyone enjoyed benefiting from their expertise.

Minecraft for Education is an open-world game that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem solving, all of which being important skills learned in school. This learning platform has content that aligns well with BC curricular content at all grade levels, and the  features of Minecraft for Education have been designed for classroom use. My favourite part of Minecraft for Education is that it’s something students already know and like. Minecraft is the 2nd highest selling video games ever created, and has a monthly player base of 91 million! In our session, we saw creativity, collaboration, and problem solving skills all being nurtured. It was so amazing to see such immersion in a classroom task!

I’m excited to bring Minecraft for Education into my classroom. Currently School District 61 is in the process of allowing schools to utilize this resource. Although Minecraft for Education was enabled in local schools in recent years, changes to Minecraft and district privacy policies has seen teachers lose access to this game. I’m happy the school district recognizes the value as much as teachers do, and I’m excited that Minecraft for Education will soon again be available for classrooms in SD61.

Personally, I have already played Minecraft for years, and I’ve long thought there were great educational opportunities with this and other games. I followed my classmates as they went through tutorials, and I acted as an ‘expert’ to peers when our grade 8 experts were busy. I enjoyed our session, I had some time to create a little bit (see below), and I was thrilled that my colleagues could have some exposure to such a great educational tool. Thanks for reading. – Mike