Minecraft Education Edition

[darsparx]

Ok so this is probably more of a post aimed towards our educator crowd but has anyone else seen this education edition of minecraft microsoft just put out?



https://education.minecraft.net/


https://education.minecraft.net/how-it- ... minecraft/


What does everyone think about this? Personally this is just doing what it seems a lot of schools are trying to do now. The education system as it was when I was going through it just didn't seem to encourage creativity and now it's like they're finally realizing this. I was already realizing I loved the computer field in elementary school but in the late 90's and early 00's there definitely wasn't anything there to foster and encourage that. Kinda excited to see where this goes even if it's too late to get much of that kind of experience at the college level, and definitely going to be too late for my sister to even get that in high school(seeing as she's a sophmore now).

One can only wonder what things will come out now to further change education at this point, and kinda makes me want to go into the educational technology revolution we're having at this point and join that field. There just seems to be a massive amount of potential for that field at this point.

[ElkinFencer10]

I've never messed with it (doesn't work quite as well for high school history), but one of my friends who teaches 5th grade has used it a bit, though I haven't talked to her about her feelings about its use.

[darsparx]

That's interesting to hear, you were the specific person I was targeting for this seeing as you and Dave(can't remember his username now XD) are the only ones who seem remotely in education. I'd really like to see technology used more in education than it is now. The education system as it is now to me is broken beyond belief since it doesn't foster creativity, innovation, and life long learning. At least public schools don't and you have to have money for the schools that might. I don't know what kind of solution can be posed at this point since schools want all this money for new schools but won't improve the ones they have especially in low-income areas.

[samsonlonghair]

Dave's username is spelled D...S...H...jumble of unpronounceable syllables and vowels.

[darsparx]

Well when you don't see him but once in a blue moon it's hard to recall that XD

[ElkinFencer10]

Our schools definitely don't foster creativity as they should, but I think that's more the fault of the state legislatures more than the schools themselves; they keep pushing these god damn standardized tests on us and the students. Also, with core classes, while I think creativity is fantastic and love it when my kids get creative with their assignments, I don't think it should be a requirement that a history teacher make the Gilded Age "creative" or that a math teacher get "creative" with integration. It's awesome if they do, but I think that ought to be a bonus, not a must.

[darsparx]

Well on the math side of things, instead of enforcing one common way to do things, instead encourage trial and error to find different ways to solve the same problem. Common standardized testing may work for things like history and such. But history taught straight from a book is boring as all get out. I've had a few teachers that made it interesting using projects and such and I loved that. I just don't like having teachers being monotomous and uninteresting with their ways of teaching. Heck that's one of the reasons Psych 150 is such a hard class for me, she does powerpoints galore straight from the book with a few videos. The videos are great but the powerpoints and book has just too much information to learn in such short time without making it worthwhile.

I mean if you're teaching straight from the book and powerpoints from said book there's a reason most hate history and that is the reason. I love history but if I'm going to learn it video games, and history channel style re-enactment narration is more efficient personally...

[ElkinFencer10]

I mean if you're teaching straight from the book and powerpoints from said book there's a reason most hate history and that is the reason. I love history but if I'm going to learn it video games, and history channel style re-enactment narration is more efficient personally...

That's true, and I would certainly encourage that for elementary and middle grades. High school is supposed to prepare these kids for employment or college, neither of which give a shit if you're having fun or find something interesting. I try to do projects and assignments that will interest my students every now and then, but they also need to either suck it up and take notes during my 30-45 minute lecture or get their counselors to put them in a different history class. I'm trying to prepare my students for college, not the arts and crafts fair (that's the art department's job).

[darsparx]

Yeah understandable, it's just I'm at the point that if you're teaching straight from the book and the powerpoints that came with that same book you're doing it wrong. The books are too broad and wish there was a better technology aspect to everything so that people have better tech skills and everything else for their jobs(I'm in way too many classes that people have difficulty doing things that aren't that hard like screenshots, uploading stuff, and other things that should be elementary tech skills). But I still think that even at a HS and college level there still needs to be a level of fun and encouragement to be creative and innovative. That's certainly not on a history teacher, but there's also not enough focus on STEM yet teachers make it seem like a big deal to study it...little too late to tell HS students it's a big deal but yet not focus on it when we're younger like should have happened in the first place. I just don't see technology being used to it's full potential in schools(especially when it's something as cheap as minecraft education is supposed to be) and that seems to be why we've slipped beyond the fact states don't want to invest in helping the low-income areas that have the schools and if time, money, and energy was focused there some issues might resolve themselves. But yet they sure love building new schools we don't need yet instead.

[Forlorn Drifter]

As far as the money aspect, I don't think the amount of money is the issue in most cases, distribution and application seem to be the biggest issues.

On topic, it's interesting, although I'm not in teaching so I don't know how well it works for teaching applications. However, with mods setup through some form of teaching mod database, I could see a whole lot of potential use. Mods for the farming and ranching aspects could work for low level teaching in agriculture courses.