Wow! What an interesting lecture! I did not fully understand what Minecraft was before this class – I knew it was a video game that kids were into, but had no idea how it worked, and even less of an idea how one would teach subjects through it.
I thought it was a great way of introducing it to us, having us each be able to open up the program on our computers, and go through the motions of what it is like to experience the controls and one of the “worlds” of the game. I thought it was also neat that Grade 8 students accompanied their teacher to give us this lecture and shared their opinions on learning through the game. I had no idea how much there is to it – the game is fairly complex, and you can keep building upon each layer, and at the top you can actually write code (or learn to). That’s a fantastic skill to have in this job market, and for even some students to get as far in the game as to developing code, is incredible. At fourteen years old, already having that baseline knowledge of computer coding I think is invaluable – I know I wish I could have had that experience!
For me to personally bring this into my own classroom would require quite a bit of learning on my part – which isn’t a bad thing! I’d want to be decently fluent in the Minecraft language before bringing students into it but hearing what types of topics you are able to discuss within it (or through it) was really interesting. It seems to be just about every subject area – math, science, social studies and then leading into more complex topics such as resource management, history and civilizations, computer coding… endless possibilities. I know being a student in that introductory lecture was really fun, and it makes me want to learn more!
