I have been teaching students in Australia and New Zealand for over 10 years and in 2017, was fortunate to participate in a trial using Minecraft Education at Glenwood High School, NSW, with year 10 students studying Geography.
The pilot program by the NSW Department of Education saw thirty Year 10 students learn curriculum content using Minecraft Education Edition during class time.
More specifically, students created a new suburb for the Stage 5 Geography topic 'Urbanisation'. 10 HSIE 2 was fortunate to participate in the MEE trial under the supervision of Mrs Callaghan.
There are numerous benefits of using game-based learning in class to facilitate teaching and learning. At Glenwood High School, Minecraft was able to;
give students the freedom to create, pushing their imaginations to the limit and allowing them to be creative in ways not possible in the real world.
inspire students’ higher-level, problem solve and think critically.
Minecraft is also a very social game, where students can rely on other players for help in the sometimes-unforgiving Minecraft world. When students work together, it builds positive classroom climate, teaches the benefits of collaboration and facilitates teamwork in a way that’s more organic than, say, being assigned to work together on a project. Students who might not get along in the real world can become allies in the Minecraft world.
To learn about the experiences of students, please go to our Class Site.