Let's Not Ruin Minecraft Huh?

I feel like all I am doing lately is complaining about the resources and information that is out there and available to teachers, and todays post is not feeling any different. It is however a core part of my job now, and I, more details further down, have finally realised why I am so darn passionate about not only my job but Minecraft in education globally.

I have, after the previous post had quite a few discussions around the traps with regards to the kinds of resources that teachers need to get started. I am going to try to summarise these conversations here, and then start a new discussion about what is possibly my biggest concern, fear, or worry about this whole Minecraft in education thing.

So, to the discussions about resourcing, some people had a very similar opinion to my own, and since I have already shared that I don't need to rehash it. I will say however that some of my 'key points' are, in reflection, not essential to each and every lesson. Some lessons don't need  maps, others do, some don't need associated worksheets, others do. So, if I think on the kinds of lessons I created, and create now, and that is what most of them need to actually be able to be run by others. Is that a good thing? Who knows, that may be a blog post for another day.

So the more interesting part is others' opinions. Those opinions ranged from, and I am seriously paraphrasing here for simplicity; "All they need is an idea to get started" through to "I provide my resources for free, so whatever I provide is better than nothing." Now these opinions I find very interesting. I understand that I am in a very unique position with the way my role is shaped right now, but I have always believed, to my core, that Minecraft has the possibility to really shift the way education happens around the world. 

I feel like I have always done my best to help teachers see that this is a true opportunity to change education. I always critically reflect on what happens in my class, and try to figure out what was working, and worthwhile, while at the same time, exploring what wasn't working, and what I could have done different (and would do different next time) to make the experience better for the students. I also feel like I have always shared my best work, again, because by sharing what is my best work, others can pick it up, and choose to do what they will with it. While sharing my best work for others to pick up and use, I also have shared the not so great work as examples of what not to do, to help others avoid the same traps, to show them that not everything is perfect, but it is all a part of a development, evolution or journey. This whole blog is a testament to that, raw, warts and all type posts about my lessons and thoughts while developing have been something that I have been, and continue to be, very proud to have my name on.

So while I value all of the discussion, I still think we should be sharing the best resources we can, be they lessons, guides, maps or whatever. At no point did anyone shake me from that belief. An experienced teacher can take a well thought out plan, run it as it is, or alter it to suit their needs. They could just possibly need the idea and no other resources, however, for a beginning teacher, I don't think an idea is enough, particularly for those that have no conceptual understanding of Minecraft. They have no basis to see the implementation in their classroom. I am still surprised that in a training group of 30 teachers, I may only have 1 or 2 that have ever even been 'in' Minecraft prior to coming to the training. A teacher of this experience level will surely benefit from having access to a well thought out lesson plan, and what ever associated resources are needed to make that lesson a success, but they will just as surely suffer if they only have access to ideas, and no idea how that idea works in this platform called Minecraft, let alone in a classroom full of students in Minecraft.

So, this leads onto my next train of thought to try and thrash around, and see what others feel or think about this particular curly problem. Taking it one step further from 'what do teachers need to get started' from a resource perspective, to now 'what sort of examples should be promoted, shared and put forward as great uses of this technology.' I think these are two separate things, but they are certainly not mutually exclusive. This is not from a 'selfish' I want to be noticed and 'patted on the head' for doing a great job perspective, I hope that is clear. This is purely from a 'what is best for the community' standpoint. I am sitting here thinking about the 60 odd thousand teachers I am supposed to support within my role, and let's be honest, I have no chance of getting to all 60k of them even if I had this job for 10 years. With multiple large districts around the world taking up Minecraft: Education Edition licenses with their Office 365 packages and the impending release of M:EE on iPads, there is going to be a massive 'influx' of inexperienced in Minecraft teachers.

So, what are they most likely to do? They are going to research, most likely on the web and social media, what others are doing. Now, this is a great thing, but also a very scary thing. As part of my role, I am producing resources to support teachers, and those resources are (soon to be) available on the web, but the teachers in my state will (and should mind you) cast a wider net, and leave the resources I have created and collated as examples I would say are supportive and easy for beginning and experienced teachers alike to run. 

So why is that scary? I do a lot of trawling on social media to see what is happening in the Minecraft in education community, I see what they are going to come across, and I don't think it is the 'right stuff' to get a teacher on the 'right track.' I had a random thought last night (3am'ish I think) about what it is I want to do, why is this whole Minecraft in education job so important to me. It may have taken me a few years to figure out why I am so darn passionate about it. It is something to the effect of "I don't want to change the way students learn, I want to change the way teachers teach." Kids learn so much through play, I have seen it with my own children, and I saw it happen in my classroom, both in Minecraft, and the other games I used after Minecraft opened my teaching practice to the power of games in classrooms.

So with that 'lens' on today while keeping up to date with the community, I saw so many shared lessons or activities that were, in my opinion, not all that great. It pains me to say that, it truly does, as I have always been of the opinion that everyone has to start somewhere, and that starting is better than not starting. I had so many loud voices when I was starting telling me I was 'doing it wrong' and I am very conscious that I don't want to do the same. This is more about those who are seen as experts sharing what are, in my opinion not great uses of this technology.

It brought this thought to mind; "Just because Minecraft is as flexible as a pencil and paper, doesn't mean we should use it as one." Which is nowhere near grammatically correct, but the concept is there. So, I threw some examples of what I had seen to a few mentors, and asked for their opinion. They replied with the SAMR model, and where those activities sat within that framework. Now this has value, in some respect, but I have also been working with people whose children, when they hear that their parents are going to do 'something' in Minecraft, respond with "You aren't going to ruin Minecraft are you?"

This is where my biggest concern lies, Minecraft has potential as a great teaching tool, platform, game... whatever you want to 'name' it, but only if we don't "break" it for the students. They all have fond memories of the game now, not like when I first started teaching in Minecraft, I didn't have 'players' in my classes in the early days, now everywhere I go, every lesson I teach has players, those that love the game, those that know the game, and those that have played, but don't anymore. There is a 'part' of most students now that has some 'connection' with Minecraft the game.

So how long is it going to take for teachers to "ruin" Minecraft because they are using the students memories, and a game in the classroom, to do activities where Minecraft holds no value over a pencil and paper? Where in some cases, Minecraft is actually worse than a pen and paper. I did it, make no mistake, there were activities that I ran, where the students would have been better off having been a part of a 'traditional' classroom, rather than what I did, but I never used those lessons in that same form again, and never will. I reflected on that lesson or activity, and I figured out what made it no better than a traditional lesson, and I adjusted, tweaked, modified until it aligned with the power that I knew Minecraft had for teaching my students. Over a fair bit of time, and experience in both the platform and the classroom, those lessons and activities didn't keep happening, the majority of my lessons, in my opinion, held value above a traditional classroom.

In light of that, I know everyone is at a different point on their own professional journey, but there is a sticking point for me here. That is, some of those activities I saw today were shared by Global Minecraft Mentors, they were the ones releasing these social posts of activities that they did in Minecraft, where Minecraft was used as a word processor, or a piece of graph paper, with no thought as to making the learning 'more' fun, or 'more' engaging by using Minecraft for what it does best, being a game. It is those whom Microsoft has promoted as mentors, who are using Minecraft as a pencil and paper, not pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Mentors should be pushing boundaries, supporting others to get started, yes, for sure, but themselves working at a level of pedagogy that utilises Minecraft for changing education, not substituting word processors and graph paper.

Alright, so that turned out to be a bit more of a rant than I wanted. If you would like try to thrash some ideas around with me about how we can support new, and experienced Minecraft teachers to not ruin Minecraft, and its potential to change the way education happens, please leave a comment below. Thanks as always for reading my brain dumps, and efforts to try and clarify my own thinking.

Minecraft Lessons and Supporting Teachers

Recently as part of my role, I have been scouring the internet and going through lessons in all subject areas across all year levels and trying to find high quality lessons that teachers can just pick up and run with. This is way harder than I would like it to be, many lessons available are just roughly sketched out ideas, without a great deal of support for teachers who are new, or even old hands at teaching in Minecraft.

That is not to say that these lessons are not valuable, I am sure they were fantastic when (if?) they were run in the teachers classroom that published that lesson online, however, in my opinion there is still a lot of key information missing that would support teachers both new and old to run these kinds of activities in their classroom. If I am going to re-scope or create resources for these published lessons to make them a viable option for new teachers here, I might as well design one from scratch and make it work for my teachers and our local curriculum as the amount of work for both options is pretty much the same.

So here is what I think every 'published' Minecraft lesson should have, in no particular order, to support teachers to run these lessons in their classroom, and by published I don't mean formally, I mean in any way accessible online as a 'lesson' and not an idea.

1) A script, seriously, a blow by blow introduction as to what should be said, what sorts of answers to expect from the students, and any key information that needs to be given. I have done this in the past for Sheep Probability, however, no matter how hard I look I cannot find that original script, but it is something that I am in the process of going through all of my own lessons and adding in before I make them public. It doesn't have to be word perfect and 'say this, then say that' kind of script, but should definitely include suggestions of discussion topics, expected answers and any verbal instructions for students to get started.

2) Outcomes, make it clear what outcomes you think this lesson should cover, it doesn't have to be set in stone, but at least suggest what it covered in your class when you taught it the way you designed it. It doesn't really matter what 'curriculum' you use to base your outcomes on, teachers are great at converting curriculum from around the world to their own. In all my lessons, before running them, I knew what outcomes I was expecting from the students, of course as it happened in the classroom there were some that surprised me, and I made sure to note down what students demonstrated for future reference. Remember, you designed the task and other people are not in your head, so the more information you can provide to support their understanding of your plan, the better.

3) A world, a well thought out, designed for students AND teachers, world. All game settings dialed in correctly, ready to just pick up and run. This takes time, testing and then more time, especially if your lesson has specific needs, but that is time you, the expert in your lesson, can put in and not every other teacher trying to run it has to. In all the lessons I currently have in development, I have been working on putting in "Teacher Control" platforms, where, alongside my teacher step by step instructions, they can just 'get things started' with the press of a button. Don't use 'seeds' to tell people what worlds to use, world generation changes sometimes, and doesn't carry between different platforms very well, which makes these seeds useless and confusing in the future.

4) Suggest the teacher run through it by themselves first, this is something you have no control over, but a suggestion from what they are perceiving as an expert (or at least expert enough to try your lesson) is valuable, and likely to be taken on board. When I tried this years ago with Shane, to pick up and run a lesson he created in my own classroom, without going through it before hand, it would have been an absolute disaster and turned me off using any others' lessons ever again if it wasn't for my own knowledge and experience in teaching in Minecraft. So take the opportunity, whether you are releasing, or exploring others' lessons, run through it as a teacher with no experience may, try to go back in time to when you just began, and see whether it would work for you back then or not and adjust accordingly.

5) A student worksheet, at an appropriate level. I have written worksheets for my own students level, and I am not thinking that you should do anything other than that, however that worksheet or student instructions are very important to a beginning teacher. They not only show the teacher the steps that students will go through during the lesson, but can also be used support the students to reach the outcomes. Students move through the lesson at different speeds, we all know that, and having instructions in game is great, but can sometimes be missed in the excitement of the moment. So having the instructions for each activity clear and accessible is a brilliant idea and supports the teacher with minimal stress of students being in multiple stages of the lesson at the same time.

6) Step by step instructions for the teacher explicitly outlining each activity you expect students to do in the classroom. This is kind of an extension to number 5, and the same instructions may be used in parts, but teacher comfort is a key here, make it specific to them, and provide tips and suggestions along the way about discussion points, or places where students may need extra support from your own experiences.

7) Have reflection ideas and suggestions built in. Minecraft does not teach, I still firmly believe this. Using Minecraft in a classroom does not change the role of the teacher, it is still their role to 'direct' the learning, assess the outcomes and discuss the learning with students and then of course plan the next steps. A big part of using Minecraft in my classroom was as a discussion starter, taking what students had done in the Minecraft activity and then talking about it, in depth, and reflecting on what they learned along the way, how it related to the real world, or what it meant for them in context. So make sure you include opportunities for the students to reflect, or the teacher to lead discussions to support students understanding, and explicitly list these for the teacher.

8) Make sure it has been play tested with students. This is perhaps the most important thing to have done. An idea is just an idea, until it becomes a reality by running it in a classroom. There is no value in putting a lesson out there as 'good to go' if it has never been tried in a classroom to see if it is viable. You may also find that your idea is much more powerful, or less, than you initially thought. Having students go through it, even if only informally at lunchtime, is a supremely rewarding experience, and also the ideal way to ensure your lesson is ready for other teachers and students.

So I guess one thing that needs to be discussed is, when does something stop being an idea and start being a lesson. I think it is at the point where the creator says it will support others to run this in their own classroom. So, if you release something and espouse how wonderful it is at supporting teachers to use Minecraft in their classroom, take that step back in time, to when you were just beginning, or go out and find someone to test it as it stands, then take another look before hitting 'publish' and making it a lesson, rather than an idea.

Why am I ranting about this now? There is a growing 'movement' in Minecraft and education, which means that there are many more teachers than ever before looking to get started. The last thing we want to do, is destroy their confidence, or give them a terrible experience in their classrooms. Those of us that are content creators, particularly for the education side of things, need to step up, and support these newcomers properly so that the whole community can move forward and push education and Minecraft beyond the current position it is in.

Thanks as always for reading, there may be some follow up posts with examples and more suggestions, as I feel this is an important enough topic to warrant more in-depth exploration. If you have any comments, please feel free to drop them below.