Minecraft: Education Edition Guide for Game-Based Learning in Irish Primary Schools, Assignments of Communication

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A guide for educators beginning

their Minecraft journey with

Microsoft Dream Space and

RTÉjr

This teacher guide aims to empower educators to explore

Minecraft: Education Edition in their classrooms, allowing their

students to achieve more through game-based learning.

By bringing together game play and a range of subject areas

from the Irish primary school curriculum, this guide has been

created and curated in the hopes that you can see how easy it is

for Minecraft: Education Edition to be integrated into your

classroom.

Each chapter contains teacher guidance on the weekly Dream

Space TV episode, general Minecraft tips, student activities and

worksheets, as well as useful links for the digital content

involved.

This guide has been carefully built out by the Microsoft Dream

Space team. Corey Hughes is a secondary school/Youthreach

teacher and during her time in Dream Space has worked on

training teachers in Minecraft: Education Edition. Michael Barrett

is a primary school teacher who has aligned our Dream Space TV

episodes to curriculum areas with an emphasis on Maths,

English, History, Science and Digital Literacy.

This teacher guide was also completed with the help and

consultation of experienced primary school teachers in Ailbhe

Ford and Niamh Brady. Editing and proofing was also completed

by Prof. Deirdre Butler, Assistant Prof. Dennis Moynihan and the

final year Bachelor of Education students in DCU St. Patrick’s.

A thank you to Hugh Meenagh for aligning this guide and our

supplemented curriculum guide to the Northern Irish

curriculum.

And finally, to the Minecraft: Education Edition team for all of the

support.

Get ready,

The worlds is yours.

The future is MINE.

Minecraft: Education Edition offers a great way to engage pupils and educators in creative projects, problem solving and celebrating the community. In each episode, the Dream Space team will present the pupils with a challenge and these challenges provide an opportunity for educators to use Minecraft to inspire pupils in core school subjects, local issues, real-world problems and history. These Minecraft: Education Edition Dream Space TV episodes start by posing a challenge to pupils and inviting them to design solutions: for example, build a futuristic car, design a sustainable version of your school, architect your dream home, or recreate a scene from history or local landmark. Challenges don’t have to be competitive; they can be an exciting way to bring the community together to solve a problem and celebrate the ideas and creativity of the pupils. Adding an air of competition can be motivating though so at the end of these six episodes Microsoft, Minecraft: Education Edition and RTÉjr will be hosting a final where the top competition builds from each province will go head-to-head for a grand prize! Details of the competition will be sent to your registered email. source: www.education.Minecraft.net Operating System Software Windows Windows^10 Mac MacOS^ Sierra^ 10.13^ and^ up iOS iOS^10 or^ higher Chromebook Chrome^ OS^ version^83

Minecraft: Education Edition is an open-world game that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive environment where the only limit is your imagination. Classroom Friendly Minecraft: Education Edition offers special features for educators such as easy tutorials, classroom management tools, secure sign-in, classroom collaboration and tons of sample lessons, plus a global network of mentors and tech support. Real Learning Outcomes Educators are using Minecraft: Education Edition to teach a range of subjects, from history and geography to sustainability and mathematics, and can map lessons directly to specific learning outcomes and curriculum standards. Build 21 st Century Skills Minecraft: Education Edition helps prepare pupils for the future workplace, building skills like collaboration, communication, critical thinking and systems thinking. The open learning environment gives pupils the freedom to experiment, encouraging creative self- expression and problem solving. Minecraft: Education Edition also helps in preparing pupils for lifelong learning and the future workplace. Learn to Code in Minecraft Code Builder is a feature that allows pupils to learn coding in Minecraft using tools including Code.org, Tynker, Scratch and Microsoft MakeCode. pupils can use blocks of code or JavaScript/Python to build and create in Minecraft.

There are a variety of options to change the appearance of chat text. Click the gear icon next to the chat input box to access the Chat Settings menu and change how your chat font appears. Settings include:

• Mute All Chat toggle
• Text To Speech For Chat toggle
• Font type
• Size
• Line Spacing
• Text Colour
• My Mentions Colour Use Single Sign-On to enable Minecraft: Education Edition to remember login information. This allows pupils to open the game without having to type in their credentials each time Minecraft: Education Edition is opened. You can enable/disable SSO using the Enable Single Sign On toggle on the Profile screen in Settings ▪ Navigate to previously sent chat messages using the arrow keys on a keyboard. ▪ Use the Escape key when you have the text field selected to back out and navigate the chat screen on keyboard. Immersive Reader embeds text reading and comprehension capabilities into Minecraft: Education Edition. This option help users of any age and reading ability with features like reading aloud, translating languages, and focusing attention through highlighting and other design elements. Click “ i ” or select the Immersive Reader icon next to text in the game to activate the feature.

The Keyboard & Mouse, Controller and Touch screens in the Settings menu offer a variety of ways to re-map controls to allow players to configure gameplay to best suit their needs. (Use of a controller is not supported for many features in Minecraft: Education Edition, such as the CodeBuilder). Click here to find out more about Re-Mapping controls. Auto Jump is a great feature to reduce repetitive button/key presses. Use the Auto Jump toggle on the Keyboard & Mouse, Controller and Touch screens to enable or disable this feature. (Use of a controller is not supported for many features in Minecraft: Education Edition, such as the CodeBuilder).

▪ Area ▪ Length and Width ▪ Perimeter ▪ Using keyboard and mouse / IT. Skills ▪ Before the lesson, ensure your devices are charged and in good working order. ▪ Consider the grouping of pupils before the lesson, as it may be worth assigning pupils to work together in pairs/groups for the duration of the lessons in the Dream Space TV series. ▪ If some pupils have experience of using Minecraft, consider pairing those pupils up with others in the class, who are new to the platform. ▪ Revise the school rules for using laptops/devices in the classroom before starting the lesson. ▪ Create a class contract for behaviour expectations during game play. See our example contract here. ▪ This lesson can be completed individually, in pairs or in small groups, to allow for different availability of devices in each school. ▪ Have Minecraft: Education Edition preinstalled on devices ahead of the lesson. Be sure they are all the same version. ▪ Blocks: The basic units of structure in Minecraft that can be directly placed in the game world.

This episode was developed to teach children the basics of

Minecraft: Education Edition. In this lesson children will build

their very own dream home and sustainable garden.

90 minutes

(about 1 and a half hours)

: Communication, Critical Thinking, Collaboration,

Creativity.

The child will be enabled to:

▪ Log on to Minecraft: Education Edition using their email

address and password provided to them by their teacher.

▪ Navigate the Minecraft: Education Edition home screen,

locate settings and change their skin.

▪ Navigate the world of Minecraft and use the necessary

controls to move.

▪ Locate and use their inventory and begin to place and

destroy blocks.

▪ Use formative assessment tools such as chalk boards and

camera to showcase their learning.

▪ Plan, design and build a dream home.

▪ Plan, design and build a sustainable garden.

▪ Showcase learning using formative assessment tools in

Minecraft: Education Edition.

Welcome to Dream Space TV! Minecraft is a well-known word in your pupils’ world, but have they heard of Minecraft: Education Edition? Using this worksheet get pupils to write down everything they know about Minecraft and then compare how they feel Minecraft: Education Edition will differ. In this part of the episode the Dream Space team talk through why they love Minecraft: Education Edition. This will showcase to pupils the differences between the Minecraft game, and the education edition to get them started on this journey. The Dream Space team mention worlds, lessons and biomes. Check out this page to learn more. In this section the Dream Space team will bring pupils through how to move in Minecraft using the different controls for either laptop users or tablet device users. Pupils should watch the Dream Space team carefully before following the practice instructions on screen. For a recap on how to move in Minecraft please click here. Pupils will also learn about their inventory, how to access it and how to place items into their hotbar. To revise how this is done check out this page. Finally, pupils will learn how to build by placing and destroying blocks!

Reviewing our work is always important because we can always make improvements on a first iteration. Watch how the Dream Space team work collaboratively to discuss what they could have done differently. The Dream Space team have made a plan for their sustainable garden, and they want flowers and plants! As a class using this worksheet discuss what factors flowers need to grow. Teacher Tip: This could be an excellent opportunity to create a separate lesson around photosynthesis, or even potentially as homework providing pupils with these worksheets where they can learn more about the topic. After reviewing their dream home, the Dream Space team have decided that they would like to add in a sustainable garden! Pupils should watch along and see how they devise a plan for this garden. Teacher Tip: Sustainability is very topical and important. This could be a good opportunity to teach pupils about the idea of sustainability, what it is and how as a class you could become more sustainable. Check out these worksheets that you can add into lessons or provide pupils with to complete for homework.

In this part of the episode the Dream Space team teach pupils how to build a garden. There is some new features being used that pupils will not have seen during the house build. For example, pupils will learn how to plant flowers which requires the use of a hoe and some seeds. They will also learn about bone meal, which is used for speeding up growth. Along with this, pupils will learn how to find animals in their inventory and how to spawn them. For a quick recap check out this page here. Formative assessment tools, a teacher's best friend! This is how we can get pupils to showcase what they have learnt through the medium of Minecraft: Education Edition. In this episode the Dream Space team introduce pupils to posters, the camera and the portfolio. One thing to note is that these tools are unique to Minecraft: Education Edition so even your resident Minecraft class champions will not have seen them before. To have a look over what these are check out this page here and here. To look at how these formative assessment tools compare to your regular classroom assessment tools check out this page. It’s time for your class to take on this episode’s build challenge. Once your pupils have completed their plans for the home and garden give them time to build. Once they have completed their build it’s time to review, is there anything you would have done differently? Finally, be sure your pupils showcase their learning with formative assessment tools. This is of huge importance in this series and competition!

Accessing the Homepage There are a few options to choose from when you first log on to Minecraft: Education Edition 1) Play – This is where pupils can access worlds, lessons and biomes. 2) New and Featured – Have a look in here to find new worlds and lessons for your classroom! 3) Settings – This is where teachers can adjust sound, locate accessibility features and manage certain controls such as keyboard shortcuts and mouse movements. 4) Switch Accounts – This is where pupils can log in and out of their account. Through your C 2 K Managed Service, you and your school should have free access to Minecraft: Education Edition accounts for all your students. For more information check out this information sheet on the C 2 K exchange. So now its time to get logged in! Pupils should log in with the email address and passwords provided by C 2 K. Need support, why not join the C 2 K Minecraft: Education Edition community Teams channel?

Once you click the option to “Play” you will be brought to this page. View My Worlds – This is where pupils can access their saved work. View Library – The library contains pre-made lessons in a range of different subject areas such as Mathematics, Science, Art, and Language Arts. It also contains monthly build challenges set out by the Minecraft: Education Edition team. Create New – Allows pupils to create new worlds. Join World – This is where pupils can access the multiplayer function of Minecraft: Education Edition in order to collaborate. Import – This is where pupils can upload a saved .mc file from their local device (Minecraft worlds save as a .mc file). This may come in super important so to learn more watch this 1 minute video.