#MinecraftED Twitter Party

For our post this week, I wanted to participate in the community of educators using Minecraft as a pedagogical tool. Minecraft is, at its core, about placing and collecting (or “mining”) blocks which represent various world materials such as dirt, stone, wood, and ores such as iron and gold, among others.

Using these materials, players can build anything they can imagine, or explore the pre-generated terrain and discover Minecraft’s friendly and hostile creatures.

To me, pairing Minecraft with education seems like an obvious choice: children already enjoy playing Minecraft in their free-time, the game inspires creativity and literacy through its interactive mode.

I’m not alone in this mindset (Mineset?). Perhaps because of the kid-friendly, Lego-esque design and open world functionality of the game, educators have been using Minecraft as a learning tool practically since the game’s inception.

TeachersGaming created MinecraftEDU, a mod created by teachers, for teachers wishing to use Minecraft in the classroom. The MinecraftEDU website includes forums where educators can troubleshoot issues, ask for coding advice, and share lesson plans.

 

The MinecraftEDU mod has become so popular that it was acquired by Microsoft, the company who now owns Minecraft, on January 20th, 2016, and became Minecraft: Education Edition (MinecraftED), a full-fledged unique version of the original game. Understandably, there was some apprehension from the MinecraftEdu community regarding this change. Many educators and their students have been working on these MinecraftEdu worlds for years, and educators worried that the lesson plans and maps they have come to rely on would no longer be accessible.

In order to reach out to both Microsoft and educators with similar fears, and to continue the community that MinecraftEdu created, Garrett Zimmer (@PBjellygames) began hosting chats on Twitter to discuss Microsoft’s acquisition. Using the hashtag #MinecraftED, Zimmer proposed that every Tuesday at 8pm eastern, educators, students, and members of the Minecraft community at large join to discuss the future of Minecraft in education.

Zimmer has also proposed specific topics for each date. On February 2nd, 2016, the chosen topic was “The POWER, The POTENTIAL, And the PITFALLS of Minecraft in the CLASSROOM”, hosted by Zimmer and educator Mark Grundel (@MGrundel), as well as student moderator Saul Garza (@_Saul_Garza).

The Twitter Party began with a call for introductions from Zimmer (@PBjellygames)

Educators, students, and members of the Minecraft community from all over the world joined in on the chat. After posting, I was greeted with warm welcomes and lots of new Twitter followers.

The first official question was “Why is Minecraft such a world-wide phenomenon in Mainstream Gaming and in the Classroom?” The answers to this question showed the enthusiasm of the community for Minecraft both as entertainment and as an educational tool.

The second question was: “What challenges did you face when using Minecraft in a classroom setting?” The answers were overwhelmingly related to struggles of justification, both to fellow educators and to parents. Some community members also brought up accessibility and funding based issues.

 

The community was also very open to educating “newbies” on the Minecraft vernacular and advice on how to familiarize yourself with the game.

As shown above, the discussion also included varying opinions on the best way to utilize Minecraft as an educational tool, as well as the most effective way to push the game into mainstream education.

After an hour of chat, and numerous insightful discussions, the chat ended off with suggestions for future topics, and a general question of our take-away from the discussion.

As someone who have been interested in the intersection between Minecraft and pedagogy for years, it was great to hear from both educators and students who are utilizing the tool in a classroom setting. I am very much looking forward to next week’s chat (topic TBD), and I hope that some of you join us! If you are interested, you can sign up for email alerts on future chat dates and topics at minecrafted.info or follow the hashtag #MinecraftED on Twitter.