A presentation about different reasons and ways, advantages and disadvantages, problems and challenges of using the game of Minecraft for EFL, with a number of ideas for practicing vocabulary, grammar and all four language skills and using the game to create a motivating learning environment.

1. Teaching Minecraft Kids
Sanja Božinović
OŠ Nikole Hribara Velika Gorica
sanja.bozinovic@skole.hr

2. Aims:
• describe how the game can be used for
language learning
• discuss pros and cons of using the
game in the classroom

3. What is Minecraft?

4. • video game developed in Sweden
by Markus Persson and his
company Mojang - officially
released in 2011
• bought by Microsoft for $2.5bn
(£1.5bn) in September 2014
• versions to play on PC, Mac,
tablet, Xbox360, smartphone
• 60 million copies sold across all
platforms

5. • create and break apart various kinds of
blocks in three-dimensional worlds
• interact with other players and
blocklike mobs, or moving creatures
• the purpose of the game: to build and
explore

6. Modes:
•creative
•survival
•hardcore
You can play:
•singleplayer
•multiplayer

7. Welcome to Minecraft
where students make and break
worlds

8. Aside from the original game:
Minecraft EDU
•TeacherGaming company licenses the
game from Mojang and sells the
educational version
•game already sold to schools in 42
countries
•new elements based on teacher
feedback

9. YouTube videos
• 41% Minecraft videos in top 20 (Jan
2015)
•students go to YouTube to find
solutions
•students publish their own videos about
what they create

10. Lego
•a special edition
•for younger students
Books
•Minecraft Redstone Handbook
•Minecraft Combat Handbook
...

11. Objects/toys:

12. Who are Minecraft kids?
Picture: Second-graders at a New York school put themselves and their teacher, Joel Levin, atop a
museum they built in an Egyptian-themed virtual world. (TeacherGaming)

14. • creative kids who like video games
• students hard to reach through
traditional teaching methods
• autistic kids who communicate easier
in the game than in real life

15. And teachers?
• gamers
• noobs in the game

16. Minecraft players
(students, teachers, parents)

17. Teachers learn and share:
learn
share
play

18. Minecraft for parents
• build with children (bonding)
• help with servers and mods (teach
about computers)
• visit worlds or help with choosing kid-
friendly video creators for younger kids
(against cyber-bullying)

19. What can you teach?
• school subjects
• digital citizenship
• cooperation instead of competition
• critical thinking
• developing problem solving skills
• after school or lunch clubs
• home schooling

20. Teaching EFL
• Language skills:
Listening: watching YouTube videos of
experts at play, in multiplayer mode
Reading: texts at Minecraft wikis, “walk-
through” sites, manuals, forums
Speaking: with other players in the game,
about the game
Writing: typing in the game, contributing to
game sites and discussions online

21. Teaching vocabulary:
• Describing objects, actions, situations...
(visiting worlds)
• materials and tools vocabulary (inventory)
• directions (moving, describing)
• verbs (building)

22. Task engagement:
•authenticity
• interaction
•challenge
•skills balance
•motivation
•feedback
•flipping instruction/roles

23. Teaching with Minecraft –
a few inspiring examples
http://www.minecraftexperience.net/
administered by Bron Stuckey

24. in different contexts
and language levels...
• Jeff Kuhn: The world is not enough
(academic writing classes) classes look at
how disasters occur and are managed
• Marijana Smolčec about her son Filip: ”
...used to watch YouTube with no idea what
people were saying, until the wall gradually
dissolved as the language somehow became
comprehensible”

25. • H. Lanphier and A. Yount: building the
city’s sandstone block walls and then
assigned each sixth-grader a plot of
land on which to build a home in
ancient Rome
• Dodgson, D. (2014) ”Breaking the
learning blocks – Minecraft and
language learning” - students read and
play

26. • Block by Block - using Minecraft to involve
citizens in public space design in Mexico
• GeoCraft's 'Snowdon:
http://www.agent4change.net/innovation/innovati

27. My Minecraft Experience
- task types:
1. ”What is Minecraft for me?”
Task: Discuss (in pairs and in group)
questions about the game (what, why
and how we play).
Write 150 words (individual work).
Read and discuss in group.

28. Audio files:
https://audioboom.com/boos/3113169-minecraft-conversations-part-1
https://audioboom.com/boos/3113183-
minecraft-conversations-part-2

29. 2. Crafting Dictations (pair work)
Task: Imagine a simple scene in Minecraft.
Describe it in details to your partner and watch
him/her build.
Discuss the errors/differences in understanding
the terms.

30. 3. Our Minecraft Dictionary
Task: Think of the most important words
to understand Minecraft . Try to create
your own dictionary definitions.
Write, correct, add to the dictionary on
the blog.
http://minecraftfunatschool.blogspot.com/

31. Leonardo, Grade 8

32. Minecraft story in 7 words:
http://bit.ly/1HmIvBs

33. Tomislav, Grade 6

34. 4. Describe a place
Task: Bring a screenshot of a place you
built in Minecraft.
Present it to your classmates and be
ready to answer their questions.
In writing, describe your own or your
colleague’s picture.

35. Leonardo, Grade 8

36. 5.Crafting a lesson from the book
Task: Read carefully the lesson and
discuss how to build it as a Minecraft
scene. Divide crafting within the team.
Create a video or take screenshots of
your scene. Present the work to the class
and be ready to answer questions.

37. David, Dominik and Robert, Grade 6

38. Domagoj, Marin and Kristijan, Grade 6:

39. 6. How to... videos/screenshots
•Task: What can you teach your noob
teacher? Make a video or take a
screenshot. Prepare a short speech
explaining how to do things in the game.

41. 7.Joe’s tips, my tips – a discussion
•Discuss the tips a Minecraft player gives
to his parents/teachers. Do you agree?
•Comment and add more tips.

43. Tomislav, Grade 6

44. 8. Minecraft word cards:
Create illustrations for the words from
the course book.
Add them to the word cards created in
Quizlet (http://quizlet.com)

45. Students blog
• Minecraft Fun at School
http://minecraftfunatschool.blogspot.com/

46. My Minecraft Experience:
Advantages
Challenges

47. Advantages:
• motivation
• fun
• creative
• authentic
• attracts students who are not usually
attracted by PBL

48. Challenges:
• a paid game
• time consuming
• needs careful planning of language
activities
• availability of computer room at school
• availability of the game at school

49. E-to open Inventory
(Literature):
• Minecraft and MinecraftEdu
Resourceshttp://www.minecraftercamp.com/res
ources.html
• STEM Curriculum Resources by Dr. Wesley
Fryer (a website):
http://stem.wesfryer.com/home/maker-
studio/minecraftedu

50. • Minecraft wiki:
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_Wiki?
cookieSetup=true
• Stevens V., Smolčec M., Smolčec F.,
(2014)Using Minecraft for Learning English
http://www.tesl-
ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume18/ej70/ej70int/
• YouTube playlist of student projects:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLAB1A4A258269FDFB

51. • MinecraftExperience Wiki
http://www.minecraftexperience.net/
• Articles in The Washington Post
http://wapo.st/1lwxF2q,
in The Guardian http://bit.ly/1HGKIaF
...
• blogs posts and links in COPs

52. • Books:
Teachercraft: How Teachers Learn to Use
Minecraft in their Classrooms by S.
Dikkers
The Ultimate Player's Guide to Minecraft
by S. O’Brien
Minecraft Handbooks (Essential,
Redstone, Combat) by Scholastic

53. Time for Questions
and Answers
sanja.bozinovic@skole.hr
?

54. Thank you!