We recently had the pleasure of interviewing MinecraftEdu's Joel Levin - better known as MinecraftTeacher - who gives us an in-depth look into exactly what MinecraftEdu is, some of the challenges they face and more!
Joel went on to say that MinecraftEdu is geared towards teachers who want to use Minecraft as a teaching aid in the classroom, with design features meant to facilitate ease of use and accessibility for everyone, regardless of technical background. With user-friendly interfaces and clearly explained features, MinecraftEdu sets itself up to be usable by a teacher the minute they pick it up!
Joel would like to thank Mojang and his partners at MinecraftEdu for the opportunity to help him bring this project to life, so that everyone may enjoy its benefits.
We here at Minecraft Forum would like to thank Joel himself for his dedication, vision and the opportunity to share all of it with us. We look forward to seeing MinecraftEdu take learning to a new level in the future! Feel free to take a look at MinecraftTeacher's blog right here!
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Special Note - today is ez's birthday! Happy birthday!
You really have to respect a guy that wants to do something like this. It's really great to see someone trying to show that games can be great learning tools too, and designing something with schools specifically in mind. Heck, I wouldn't even use it for school, and I'd try it out!
As someone who know alot about Minecraft and has played since early alpha I couldn't just listen to the teacher about what to do. I'd be wanting realy to actually play the game.
Also , I'd like to say that with the graphics minecraft has it being implamented into a school system makes it feel like a cheap and horrible game , but its not..it's a EXCELLENT game.
I don't agree that this is a good tool for teaching children? I absolutely love Minecraft, its an amazing game but its not the right format to try an educate a child.
Children already spend massive amounts of time in front of computers at home, most adults spend alot of time in front of computers. Surely during the period of time when children are in school we should use that to get them away from computers? Teaching them face to face, interacting with them in person, get them to go 'outside'.
Minecraft is based on the world around us, why not take the opportunity to show it too them. Knowing that most likely they will go home and spend all night in front of a computer regardless of what they do during the day.
I don't want to sound like a hater because there are minor elements of this game that could be passed of as a form of creative learning but I can only see negative effects due to substituting a real class with books and pens for a game with a keyboard.
Sorry, just my opinion.
I agree. While MinecraftEdu is an interesting concept, I really do not think the game is classroom material. And also, despite Levin's attempts to keep his students focused, and him claiming they were focused, I really do not thing any student could possibly stay focused when playing such a wonderful game.
As a student in high school, I am very interested in this. I have a few questions though.
If a student already has a Minecraft account, will they be able to use it? And if they use that account, will their skin be shown instead of the weird skin that's being used as a default?
Also, what kinds of tools would the teacher be able to use?
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"You don't honestly care if your new Crystal Meta-Sword is going to clash with your Elite Boss Clogs! It's about the numbers! You want the items with the best numbers so you can use your numbers to decrease the enemy numbers until your numbers are the best in the land!" -ZeroPunctuation
We recently had the pleasure of interviewing MinecraftEdu's Joel Levin - better known as MinecraftTeacher - who gives us an in-depth look into exactly what MinecraftEdu is, some of the challenges they face and more!
Joel went on to say that MinecraftEdu is geared towards teachers who want to use Minecraft as a teaching aid in the classroom, with design features meant to facilitate ease of use and accessibility for everyone, regardless of technical background. With user-friendly interfaces and clearly explained features, MinecraftEdu sets itself up to be usable by a teacher the minute they pick it up!
Joel would like to thank Mojang and his partners at MinecraftEdu for the opportunity to help him bring this project to life, so that everyone may enjoy its benefits.
We here at Minecraft Forum would like to thank Joel himself for his dedication, vision and the opportunity to share all of it with us. We look forward to seeing MinecraftEdu take learning to a new level in the future! Feel free to take a look at MinecraftTeacher's blog right here!
___________________________________
Special Note - today is ez's birthday! Happy birthday!
thanks for sharing this with us Sach!
That would be me. :happy.gif:
Also , I'd like to say that with the graphics minecraft has it being implamented into a school system makes it feel like a cheap and horrible game , but its not..it's a EXCELLENT game.
You have a nice voice. Relaxing to listen to. =D
LMAO
I began minecraft ~July 7 2011 1.7.3 Beta
My username used to be Creative_Dalek but is now Dalek since 2/4/2015
I agree. While MinecraftEdu is an interesting concept, I really do not think the game is classroom material. And also, despite Levin's attempts to keep his students focused, and him claiming they were focused, I really do not thing any student could possibly stay focused when playing such a wonderful game.
If a student already has a Minecraft account, will they be able to use it? And if they use that account, will their skin be shown instead of the weird skin that's being used as a default?
Also, what kinds of tools would the teacher be able to use?
"You don't honestly care if your new Crystal Meta-Sword is going to clash with your Elite Boss Clogs! It's about the numbers! You want the items with the best numbers so you can use your numbers to decrease the enemy numbers until your numbers are the best in the land!" -ZeroPunctuation