Presenter: Alexander Fryer
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
YouTube: legoarf
Presentation Description: Minecraft is a game and virtual world you may have heard about but not know a lot about. I created this presentation to show adults what students are doing in Minecraft, some basics of the game, and how people (even adults) are using Minecraft in creative, fun and interactive ways. In this presentation I share some of the worlds I’ve created in Minecraft, describe how I’ve learned about Minecraft primarily using the Minecraft Wiki and YouTube videos created by other users, and show some clips from videos demonstrating some of the possibilities of Minecraft. I hope this presentation inspires you to learn more and ask your students about what they have created in Minecraft.
Link to Presentation’s Supporting Documents:
learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/minecraft
I have always considered myself a thoughtful and considerate teacher. I try to understand where my students multi-intelligent. I like your project
Alexander,
I love the ways you bring together so many elements — of defining Minecraft, of how to construct your own worlds, and how gaming has potential for learning. (And about zombies. Of course.)
I was intrigued about how the use of video tutorials helped you along, and then how users begin to contribute to that knowledge with their own videos (and now, this presentation!). That kind of collective experience and knowledge seems to be integral to an experience like Minecraft. How do we continue to nurture that experience, I wonder?
Also: do you think that if more teachers began using Minecraft in the classroom, would it suck the fun out of the immersive experience for students? I worry about this when I bring tech into the classroom. When our (teacher) goal is learning, how does this affect student interest? Just wondering what you think.
As an aside, I was noticing your MC menu: how many worlds have you constructed? And I notice a few test worlds. Are those your experimental places?
Finally, what advice can you give to a teacher thinking, maybe I will try out Minecraft? Where does one begin? (other than watching your presentation).
Thanks for the great presentation and insider’s look at your own experience. I may not yet be ready to dive into Minecraft, but I feel I have a better sense of it now.
Sincerely,
Kevin Hodgson
Sixth Grade teacher
Southampton, Mass.
Mr. Hodgson,
Thanks you, It was lots of fun creating this and showing what I’ve done. I am going to try and answer all your questions so here we go:
First, the attractive atributes of minecraft i think is that its just a place where you can build whatever you want and its just sort of a place to mess around for some people and not really do anything. It would be something hard to encourage but letting students share what they’ve buit is probably the best way because it is encouragement coming from their friends not necessarily their teacher and that is usually more attractive. Again, I mostly just answered your second question but I think it is more about providing opportunities for them to do something in minecraft or another technology source rather then requiring it.
As for my minecraft menu, I’ve built in many worlds more because I’ll learn something new or want to start over with something new in mind. A lot of my worlds are influenced by who I watch on youtube also so when I start watching someone for a while I will start to build things more like them per se. And my test worlds, those are worlds where I can “cheat” and experiment around with things when in my normal minecraft world I couldn’t do, or it was just easier and I wanted to see if I would like it before I built it for real. I will also occasionally test out game mechanics to find out how exactly something works for myself which is a lot of fun also.
Finally, If you are looking to start then its better almost to jump into it because you learn a lot as you play and you will find sort of what you like doing. Again, its helpful to watch other people and what they build or do to play in minecraft just because it will give you ideas as to what to do. One of my favorite people to watch on youtube has been Ethoslab and I would probably also recommend Zistseau. I can’t remember if I already mentioned them in my presentation but they build some pretty cool stuff. Some of their builds may be too large scale for you to start off but can always start you thinking of new things. There are also a lot more people out there to watch but these two are good to start with I think. It also may not be for you but you never know till you try.
I hope all of this helped you some
thank you very much,
Alexander Fryer
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I think that minecraft is a great game for social interaction with friends and teaches creativity. Great post!
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