Computer Teacher Uses Minecraft as Curriculum

[lumenadducere]

........Can someone PLEASE DDoS Minecraft again? I am sick of Minecraft this and Minecraft that.

Don't like it? Don't pay it any attention. It doesn't hurt you to have others talk about it, nor does it take anything away from your experience online. You completely have the option to disregard all Minecraft-related items without calling for others to launch an attack on the site, which honestly is a little petulant and immature.

 

[Togs]

eh.... what are they actually learning from this?
Oh and that dudes voice is like nails on a chalkboard

 

[Sebster 105]

Somebody buy this man a beer.

 

[One Seven One]

Wow, I think that's a pretty interesting way to teach kids about limited resources and teamwork.
Go Minecraft Teacher!

 

[coolkirb]

what ever happend to lego,honsestly this seems kind of pointless and escessive.

 

[binvjoh]

That's really awesome.

This could probably fit the idea of gamifying education that Extra Credits talked about some time ago.

 

[The Red Spy]

I'd really like to see basic logic functions and gates being taught using Minecraft. Many Electronics and Computing lessons would see some benefit. Imagine it: your teacher has a basic map that is only every computer (or maybe just a single machine controlled by the teacher, whichever works) with a set of puzzles set out as stone (perhaps using redstone), with missing or incomplete parts. The teacher could ask the class for solutions.

An even better idea, you have the class split into two even groups, with each team standing in an opposing square. Between them is a console of switches (for the sake of arguing, let's say five) which are linked to the floor below the opposing team. The teacher will ask a set of questions and when one is answered correctly the player/student can then toggle one of the switches. Get five correct, the other team has the floor fall from below them and they die in lava. The winning team members would each receive a new item on the next tier up (for example, if one student had a wooden sword, he/she could request an iron one). They can then store their respective prizes in a chest until...

After a set period of time (at the end of each lesson/once a week/after school) the teacher would allow everyone to then battle it out with whatever weapons and armour they've been able to save over time, eventually ending with one (wo)man left standing, to be declared the winner. If killing your school friends isn't the best idea, then you could allow them to just mess around on the server for an hour or so, making another competition out of whoever could find the most diamond/which team can find the most diamond wins (if you want to give prizes, here's a chance), or ask each team to build something and then judge who has built the 'better' structure at the end.

This question and answer idea could also be easilly intergrated with the first idea of puzzles. Give a member of a team the minimum amount of blocks they will need to complete a a break in a circuit, or to construct a "0" or a "1" in a mock truth table (karnaugh maps anyone?). The student would have his team either watching him/her play or can be in the server with him/her, giving advice on where to put the blocks and complete the problem before the other team.

Again, prizes could be items in the game which build up importance before leading upto an event, or just free roaming time at the end of class.

 

[Optional Opinion]

Limited trees?

I'm waiting for the one smart kid to horde all the lumber and sell them for diamonds.

 

[rayen020]

his light house is actually pretty cool.

 

[Bravo 21]

Holy crap! "MINIONS, assemble vast minecraft structures for me." That's just the feeling I got from seeing all the little figures building something with a giant tower in the background

 

[Conn1496]

I can't wait for the bit when final fantasy 4+2/55555432x42 is used in classrooms.

"So kids, how fast DOES sonic run?"

DOHOHO. Anyway, mockery over, it's a really good idea. It opens the imaginations of kids, even if it is mindlessly slaughtering square pigs... It opens kids eyes to what they like. Maybe a butcher... *cough*... OK. Now, mockery REALLY over. All in all it really is a brilliant idea, kids are really unimaginative these days they're all too busy playing media spewed garbage that gets good reviews because "Hurr durr, yay, we shoot guns, heheheh.". Really, when I was younger we spent most of our time imagining things in the yard were walls, or buildings, or trampolines. We even decided that we would reenact games how we thought would be cool, like:
Resident evil: the pokemon chronicles, the Metriod version. Sure things got a little out of hand after we earned the whirlwind rifle and Blastoise was shooting pure plasma, but it was god-damn fun, not to mention the fact we made it fair, like, we had to work for our stuff, and the "boss-battles" usually lasted half a break-time (Honest to god, when you're running from Nemesis after he was helped by Ridley to gain Samus' technology, so you can obtain the chain rifle to drag him to the floor before you throw a pokeball at his weak spot to capture him, it's damn awesome... even if it's made up.).

All's fair in love and unimaginativity <--(Is that even a word?).

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

........Can someone PLEASE DDoS Minecraft again? I am sick of Minecraft this and Minecraft that.

You'd get at least a few news posts about how it's down and who could have possibly done it and when the servers are back up and whatnot.

Seems counter-productive to what you want.

OT: I'd be more interested in seeing the class grouped off and given their own giant plot of land with a good amount of resources. Each with varying obstacles. IE: A hilly area with no real flatzone, a lake, etc.

Just to see how they'd build stuff.

 

[Twad]

Now history teachers will be using Civilization to teach kids general history, and Call of Duty to teach kids World War II

Well.. maybe modify it a bit.
Games for education are certainly more engaging and interesting than listening to long speeches and reading a wall of text. Plus kids these days all know about videogames so i guess it will make it easier to get them "hooked" on the subject.

 

[Abedeus]

Now history teachers will be using Civilization to teach kids general history, and Call of Duty to teach kids World War II

You might have a good idea, until they realize that Gandhi wasn't a bloodthirsty warlord that lived in the same time as President Lincoln and Napoleon, and that everything from Call of Duty is at best time-period stories, much like Band of Brothers.



But still, having classes inside of Minecraft is pretty genius, but I cant shake the feeling that during recess, little Jimmy will hurt his hand trying to punch a tree for wood.

Accept our idea of peace.

Otherwise, we will wipe you from the face of Earth.

You have 12 hours to respond.

 

[Aureliano]

Um..."A New York City school exposes children at an early age." I'm not really sure that's something to be proud of.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

That teacher looks just like my A-level physics teacher. He was awesome to.

Rule of thumb: all the best teachers have ponytails, beards and glasses.

 

[blackdwarf]

i tip my hat for this teacher. i really love the way how is he is presenting the game and the limits in his mod. i like how he really makes a point with the rules like the limited resources.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

"Teacher magic." That's a cute way to say "hax."

He isn't a computer teacher!

He's using a Mac...

Joking aside, that is kind of strange. I thought elementary schools mostly stopped using Macs back when Windows got good graphics and people started making educational software Windows-only. I wonder if he would have had this idea if all those programs were still available.

 

[Seagoon]

The Kid who wanted to make a castle of obsidian was an absolute legend!