Today we had a teacher and four student visitors from Colquitz Middle School and Spectrum Middle School. They taught us how to use minecraft as well as all the ways we can use it in the classroom as an education tool. I loved minecraft as a kid so I found this class very fun and engaging, especially considering I hadn’t played in a long time. Prior to this class I had never really thought about how minecraft could be used as an educative tool so this really opened my perspective into how games that may not be designed for educative purposes can be used in educative ways. I also found this topic very helpful as it is closely related to my EdTech project which is focused around improving math literacy using technology. Below is a screenshot I captured of the house I made while playing minecraft.
We were covering multiple topics today so we also did a mini Edcamp. An Edcamp is a collaborative discussion session for those involved in the education field where the topics are typically chosen by those attending based on what they are interested in. My group discussed how we can encourage students to have healthier, more balanced lunches. I found it really interesting to hear everyone’s perspective and watch as the discussion naturally flowed and moved in different directions. We did not come up with a way to resolve the issue but we did come to a better understanding about the complexity of the issue and how we as teachers can tackle it. Overall I really enjoyed the activity and found it very beneficial to hear everyone’s ideas on this topic.
