Minecraft and Geography

Does this image mean anything to you ?

If not, then you've probably never heard of MINECRAFT: a game that has millions of players worldwide and is finding its way into lots of schools too.

My son LOVES Minecraft and has produced some amazing creations on the Pocket Edition that we have on the two tablets in the house. He and his sister play together in a creative world they have generated.

When I upgrade my computer in the New Year, we will put the full version on, and really start to explore the Minecraft Universe.

Recently, after a Twitter exchange with Claire Rafferty in Australia, I created a Google Doc and started to put together a summary document which could form the basis for Geography teachers to start to think about how they could use Minecraft in the Geography classroom... and also explore where it was being used in other parts of the curriculum, and also as an extra-curricular activity.

I discovered Stephen Reid, who I'd quoted in the document was interested in the project, and he was happy to get involved too. He runs a free Minecraft project for schools to get involved with the game. Check it out.

Finally, there seems to be a movie of the creation of Minecraft that has been produced, and the trailer can be seen here - my son will be interested in this:



I'll open the document up to scrutiny and publish it in various places in the New Year so that I can work on it over the Christmas period 
Get in touch if you have something you want to contribute...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very interesting post! I adore Minecraft myself, and can see the possibilities of it as an educational tool to be highly effective. Really enjoyed this post, and your others here. I work for a new social blogging site called glipho.com, and was just wondering if you would be interested in sharing your posts there with us? It wouldn't affect your blog in any way, and I know our community would love to read through your work here. Let me know what you think!

All the best,

Teo
12:19 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Geography and Isobars Image Copyright: BBC - visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather for the latest forecast ! An isobar is a line joining places which are experiencing equal atmospheric pressure. Last night was a very windy night down in Norfolk, and across most of the country - the synoptic chart above is for mid-day today, but yesterday's chart showed the classic pattern of a mid-latitude depression. The sycamore tree in my garden lost all the leaves it had been clinging on to, and bushes were tapping against the windows. On the way home from a fancy dress party, my Noddy Holder hat blew off and I ended up in someone's front garden chasing it round in a gyre... Of course the storms were nothing compared to the problems created by the weather in the Philippines. See this BBC NEWS article for more on the effects of Hurricane Durian. Interestingly, durian is one of the top search phrases on Google for leading people to GeographyPages - not sure why... Geography and Music (Cont.....
Read more
Image
Picture: David Rayner CfBT Conference for Geography for new KS3 Curriculum Thanks to the 70+ Heads of Geography and other colleagues in various capacities who attended the CfBT Eastern Region Conference at the Holiday Inn in Norwich yesterday. It was hard work (especially as I followed it up with 2 hours plus at a parents evening...) but enjoyable, and good to talk to people and get their ideas for how they were going to be "creatively subversive...." Particular thanks to David Rayner and Ruth Totterdell, the National Subject Leads, my RSA colleagues John Harrison and Katharine Hutchinson, John Lyon from the GA, and Jon Wolton from the RGS, and of course all the delegates, particularly Lucy and Clare. A few images below, taken by me: What to ditch / add ? Katharine's 'significance' workshop Importance statement John Harrison getting "funky" Ruth in the morning... The venue... GA welcome banner... If you were present and want any other copies of the d...
Read more
Thanks to Tony Cassidy for directing me to this neat little video on YOU TUBE, which is a short guide to creating a blog using BLOGGER. One of the links on his new TEACHING AND LEARNING BLOG . Check it out.
Read more