One topic that we have seen a lot of audience activity around recently, both online via social media and in person at BETT last month, is the role of Minecraft in education. While there has always been a dedicated core of ‘recreational’ Minecraft enthusiasts around the world, it is becoming an increasingly effective tool for teachers, helping them to convey potentially foreign and technically challenging concepts to children in a virtual setting that is both familiar and engaging for their students.
Since arriving on Windows Phone last year, Minecraft: Pocket Edition opened up a new world of exploration and creativity for more people. But if you’ve not tried it before, the world of Minecraft can be both expansive and daunting. However, once you have a grasp of the essentials, you’ll be building an entire kingdom of your own in no time.
With this in mind, we’d like to share a Minecraft resource that Windows phone users will find useful:
A beginner's guide to Minecraft: Pocket Edition
In this guide from Lumia Conversations, you’ll find 10 tips that range from how best to set up the controls relative to the screen size of your phone, to how to survive your first night in the Minecraft realm, to creating fire! Anyone new to Minecraft or playing the Pocket Edition for the first time on a Windows phone should take a look at the guide, and we hope you find it to be of use!
The Student Becomes The Teacher
Many teachers however are not as well versed as their students when it comes to modern day trends and common practices within the world of video games, and as such they may not fully appreciate the potential benefits of including each latest trend as part of their classroom activities. Ray Chambers, Head of IT at Uppingham College and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert wrote in a recent blog post:
“I had a very dry approach to teaching logic gates which was not stimulating. It was during one lesson that a student mentioned “You mean like Minecraft”. It was this that made me start researching how I could use it in the classroom.”
Ray has since become one of our go-to-guys when it comes to Minecraft in the classroom. So much so, that we asked him to speak in our Theatre at BETT. If you’re thinking about setting up Minecraft in the Classroom where you teach, Ray’s blog also contains a step by step guide that explains how you can achieve this, covering setting up services, collaborative work, and much more.