Minecraft Day 6 - 5 July

We're running out of time - there is only one more week of term left! I came in specially on Friday afternoon to work with this group, because many of the students were away at a soccer and hockey tournament on my usual Thursday. Space was at a premium and the Conference Room was also being used as a temporary office by our Principal. She kindly allowed us to work around her and there wasn't too much chaos!

Pjw must have forgotten to show up. And we had Jg1025 missing this session because of the Charter rules. This meant that (Steve) was working on his team's project on his own today.

Before I let students loose on the computers, I asked them to discuss and note down the sorts of signs they needed to include in their areas. I wanted to see some descriptions of the Kiwiana aspects of their designs beginning to appear. They had to imagine the sorts of information tourists would need. They also had to discuss with their teams, what they would be working on today.

I notice that most groups tend to have the individuals doing pretty much their own thing, and collaboration is at a fairly surface level. At every session, I'm finding I need to uproot some students from their seats, move them from their computer screens, and have them work things out face to face - they get very indignant (naturally) if someone else is 'unbuilding' what they have built; or if they can't agree on what else is to be built. I tell them that if they can't work things out, they'll have to 'paper, scissors, rock' to see who will decide - they generally work it out themselves before that, but it IS a case of having them look at each other in the 'real world'. If these students were more articulate with the written word (and able to use the Chat feature effectively for this) then they might work things out better within their virtual environment. The older students are definitely able to work more collaboratively - is that age, gender, or personality, I wonder?

Beacons were a popular item to build today, but students soon got busy on the essentials and signs began appearing. They tended to be based on students' own background knowledge, rather than any new research (this might work better in a classroom). Several students were asking for help with their spelling - a good opportunity for a bit of a lesson, but work needs to be done on punctuation too!

Towards the end of the session, one of the students noticed that a huge underground cavern had been dug beneath much of the theme park. It was all lit up, and included things like an enchanting table, a stream and a waterfall..... hmmm, everyone crowded in to have a look and they were trying to figure out who might have done this, and when..... They decided that the likely person was our player who was required to miss a session, but there was no real evidence (will the server logs tell me - I'll need to check). This mystery created quite a lot of interest and discussion, but the students were all very indignant. My main concern was that whoever had done this had been spending a lot of time hiding underground and building something completely unrelated to the project and what their team was working on. It had been concealed. Also, with an enchanting table hidden there, what was planned in the future? Some students wanted to start filling it all in, but we didn't have time. Next week could be interesting...
Next week we will finish clearing the empty allotments and turning them into grass, and work on the central food and seating area. Also the main ticketing office at the entrance to the theme park. The car park area has been started. I'm really looking forward to going on those roller coasters!

I am thinking we will all need to meet again in the first week back after our 2-week holiday (starting after this week). Students will record a tour through their area, and narrate it. They will be able to visit the other areas of the theme park and enjoy exploring. And then, the following week, I'd like to show them the MinecraftEDU Tutorial world.

They are already asking whether the same students will be able to continue next term but I haven't decided yet. I'm conscious of other students wanting to be involved too. And it will also depend on whether parents will be happy for their children to continue. I would definitely like to try a survival world next time. The theme for the school next term is related to growing and science. So it could involve teams of students building communities and farming crops and animals.

There have been updates to MinecraftEDU since we got under way, but I haven't been game to update our version yet - I would have to update all the computers, and haven't wanted to risk problems from doing this.