Minecraft and Literacy - midpoint review

You would be hard pushed to find any parent or teacher who have not heard of Minecraft. An open-world sandbox game, it was first released in November 2011 and has since developed into the second best-selling video game (behind Tetris). According to Wikipedia, as of June this year over 106 million copies have been sold, across a variety of platforms. About 20 or so of these have been purchased by me...

Minecraft has fascinated me since my then about 11y old abandoned his expensive Lego Technic sets for this blocky, nausea-inducing computer game. Over the last few years I have spoken about and presented on the value of Minecraft for education on many occasions both in New Zealand and Australia. With my return to the classroom this year, I was keen to put all this talk into action, and my supportive principal encouraged me to give it a go.

Before getting started with Minecraft, it was very important to consider the age and maturity of students. My students are 6-8 years old and are working at CL1 or early CL2. At their age, they are still learning about Managing self, Relating to others and Participating and Contributing (NZC Key Competencies). They are not used to being members of 'online communities' yet. However, about half of our 40 students are working on their personal Chromebook within Google Drive and post to their individual blog. Minecraft proved a great forum to teach them about above Key Competencies, their application within the online world and digital citizenship.

How did we set it up?

With Chromebooks as well as some iPads in the classroom we had to weigh up options what platform we would use. In the end I chose the regular Minecraft PC Edition with Premium Accounts, installed on old desktops in a spare classroom, with one server running a size-limited world. Due to hardware issue we only managed to instal it on 11 devices of which five have given me grief last week (guess how I will spend my lunchtime tomorrow?). We had considered iPads and (old) Android tablets but felt it was important that all players would interact in one world. The new Minecraft Education version was not quite released yet when we wanted to get going (start of term 2), and even now I am not sure that is the avenue I want to take as the Premium addition allows me to customise to my heart's content.

The original installation was done by my now 16y old son, including Read Me files for when things go wrong ("Make sure you actually read them, Mum"). To quote the wonderful +Annemarie Hyde "your technician needs to be 13 or have the mind of a 13y old". We purchased Minecraft Premium Accounts through Mojang, each linked to a school email account I had set up (note: We ran into trouble when we tried setting up too many of these Minecraft accounts in one go, maybe some sort of spam filter?). As Minecraft gets updated more regularly now, we set our Minecraft versions to a particular version under profile (profiles and server need to be on the same version). Our server properties have disabled 'cheats', the 'nether', 'hostile mobs' etc.

So what do we do with it?

While there is quite an obvious link between Minecraft and Maths, I am focussing on the links between Minecraft and Literacy, partly influenced by the work +Kassey Downard did with her class at Mokoia Intermediate School. However, there is a large overlap between many different disciplines.

At first we needed to learn how to actually work together in this world. The students negotiated a Minecraft Treaty, based on our school Kaitiaki values:

Some students found it easier, some harder, but about 3 months into the process, the children are working very well together. Very early on I started introducing the point that we don't just play Minecraft for the sake of it, but that it is linked to Literacy, especially writing. Over time we have come up with some of these ideas:

• Putting up signs in Minecraft
• Using the 'chat' to communicate
• Writing our names using a block alphabet
• Looking up items in the inventory
• Writing narratives in books in Minecraft, signing them and keeping them in a chest for others to read
• Explaining how to do things in Minecraft, orally and in writing

Some of the interesting things I have noted:

• Several of the students who find reading and / or writing challenging are our  best Minecrafters.
• When they talk about Minecraft their vocabulary is extensive.
• Good Minecrafters have become the go-to experts, they teach other students and often have become more confident outside Minecraft sessions, too.
• Initially less confident Minecrafters are becoming more confident and are teaching others.
• I have become quite redundant during these sessions, in fact on Friday a girl asked me to not talk so they could learn from each other :)
• Minecraft is definitely a carrot for students to be on task in other areas!
• At times I tend to overplan things; last week we were building our version of the Olympic Games in a new super-flat world, and where I had first thought I needed to 'direct traffic' etc., my children just got on with it and created swimming pools, Rugby 7 fields, race tracks, even an ice skating rink (they had planned it all and were so keen to build it that I didn't have the heart to point out the difference between summer and winter games).

Does it make a difference?

We are part of the ALL PLD programme, and for a while I had made Minecraft an important part of the work I did with my ALL group. All five boys in this group are keen Minecrafters, and they have created some good explanations as well as some narratives set in Minecraft. During the first 10 weeks of the ALL programme, one boy has accelerated to CL2 and left the ALL group, 4 others have moved one sub-level. This is not just due to Minecraft, but Minecraft has definitely helped them to see that they have got something to say.

Currently I am using Minecraft with all our students in rotations with 10 students at a time, and the ALL boys are my go-to experts. However, ultimately I would like to move towards the 'YouTuber' phenomenon, where the ALL children - and possibly other children - create their own walk-throughs and tutorials.

First attempt at writing a narrative in Minecraft

Pitfalls

Early on we had one instance where the chat feature was abused. Luckily I was able to retrieve all of the chat from the server file. This became a very useful lesson of how to be a digital citizen for the students involved, and it has not reoccured.

Hardware issues can be frustrating (enough said...).

Having the devices in a separate room has positives and negatives by not always being instantly available.

Increasing the amount of devices running Minecraft could make the timing of sessions easier.

Minecraft Lunchtime Clubs

In addition to using Minecraft in my class, we are also offering lunchtime clubs during the winter terms. Responsible y4 & 5 students are supporting juniors and seniors on two different days, and I just spend my lunchtime in the room to support them should they need it. We have set up different worlds for different occasions and purposes, and my Minecraft leaders are very pleased that they have additional privileges when they come in for a fun session once a week all by themselves.

Overall, I believe Minecraft has an important place in my classroom, and I am looking forward to how our use further develops as the year progresses.

Club Leaders' World

#educampAKL

My first time attending #educampAKL. Not only did I love catching up with old and new friends from near and far, I absolutely loved the sharing, collaborating and learning. Here is a collection of the tweets. Feel free to follow the links to access the resources shared at #educampAKL. Can't wait for next year! Thanks heaps to Stuart Kelly and Jacque Allen for hosting and organising, and to N4L and Cognition Education for sponsoring the event!

Self-marking Google Forms

Previously you had to use Add-ons for Google Sheets to mark the responses you got Google Forms, such as Flobaroo. Last week I read online that now Google Forms includes this within the app, so today I had a play with this.

At the age my students are at (y3, 7-8y old and working towards / at the beginning of CL2), there is not often the need to mark responses to 'tests'. However, I was intrigued with the possibilities this could offer, so I created a CLOZE reading worksheet which my students can fill in online. Originally I had planned for them to complete it as Google Doc (I shared individual copies with them via Hapara TD), but then I would need to go back into each of their sheets to check their answers, so a Form sounded a good idea.

When you create your new Google Form, as usual you add question after question. I had set up the sentences with gaps for the students to complete, so my first attempt was to choose Short Answer, with the students hopefully choosing the correct word from a list at the top. However, this did not give me an option to add the Answer Key and with that to set up the Self Marking.

Instead I went for Multiple Choice (which I prefer for young learners over Drop Down where they can't easily see the choice of answers). I randomly chose 4 words (including the correct one) as options. I considered selecting Shuffle Option Order (find by clicking on the three vertical dots bottom right of the question), but this could be confusing for my students whom I want to encourage to collaborate.

To set up the Self Marking, you click on Answer Key at the bottom left of the question. Choose your correct answer and assign points. You can Add Answer Feedback which I have left off. I could see how this could be very useful when you want to use the form to straight away feedback to your student, or when you want to use it as a tutorial (maybe you remember this Tutorial I created as Google Form couple of years ago?).

This is a copy of what I came up with. I have linked it out of our Class Site, and I'm looking forward to using it next week (feel free to fill this is so we get some data to play with):

I have submitted a test response, this is a quick screen shot of what data you get:

You can select your Summary and Individual Responses, what questions were answered wrong frequently, and you can see the responses to each individual question. 

You can also create a Spreadsheet to have all data in one easily accessible place:

I can see that this could be an easy to use and helpful tool, but please give it a try and let me know if and how it works in your context!

Changing World

"The future is unknown but not unimaginable" is a saying I have liked for a long time. Like many other future focussed educators I am trying to prepare the young people in my charge for an unknown future. There are different theories out there about what will be required to be successful in the future.

Our NZC's vision says: 

Our vision is for young people:

• who will be creative, energetic, and enterprising

• who will seize the opportunities offered by new knowledge and technologies to secure a sustainable social, cultural, economic, and environmental future for our country

• who will work to create an Aotearoa New Zealand in which Māori and Pākehā recognise each other as full Treaty partners, and in which all cultures are valued for the contributions they bring

• who, in their school years, will continue to develop the values, knowledge, and competencies that will enable them to live full and satisfying lives

• who will be confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners.

Another view on the skills required to be successful in the future comes from the Institute for the Future:

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Both above statements emphasise the importance of being connected and culturally aware and competent. Some of the more recent international political landscape has been somewhat contrary to this, and this brought back to me how the future could be less imaginable than I expected. I am now wondering if this requires me to change my approach, to prepare my students differently? While I want my students to be valuing different cultures and I want them to be connected learners, do I also need to prepare them more consciously for situations where they encounter people that are less so inclined?

Our students will be the future society. What are we doing that helps shape this future society? And how do we ensure that these future citizens of Aotearoa will not (need to) search on Google after their vote what the decision was all about in the first place?

I have many more questions than answers - how about you? Keen to hear your thoughts.

Passion Learning for Teachers

Having attended a number of PLD events over the last few weeks, I have been pondering my own 'passions'. While I thoroughly enjoy my current role teaching 'little people', I have found that one of my passions still endures: Supporting other educators to transform their practise. This starts with sharing information about PLD events with others, encouraging others to attend events I think they would find useful, with trying to make myself available for others who would like support from me, to submitting proposals and presenting at events. Due to a lack of time I have heavily reduced my participation in online communities, creation and sharing of resources, as well as blogging and I do miss these aspects - but there are only so many hours in the day, and my little people and my family have to come first:)

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It has been interesting to observe who participates at various events:

There are still many teachers out there who are 'new' to digital tools and the pedagogies required to transform learning for their students. This is not saying that in the past no teachers have adapted to meet the needs of their students, or that they have not had their students' best interests at heart. I am passionate about using digital tools in a way that we transform our students' learning experiences - though I am not necessarily the best example of putting this into practise myself (I have said before, I seem to be more of a 'do as I say, not as I do' person...).

I have encountered teachers I would regard as more experienced or experts in using digital tools in order to transform learning at these events; in most cases they would be presenting at such events. But what other avenues are there for them? Where do those teachers get their PLD who are already experienced / experts (gifted?) in this area? Where can I get my PLD fix?

While I know that every teacher has many areas they need to be confident in (and I have many areas I need to work on), when we compare teacher learning with student learning, we have moved away from the deficit theory of telling our students to only worry about the areas they are not good at. We want our students to follow their passions while we help them build up the areas they are less confident in. What does this look like in teacher PLD?

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I am wondering if we can learn from the classroom when we look at teacher PLD (I have previously written here about how I don't think I applied enough of what I used to tell my teachers in my work with them). Let's assume we have a technically confident future focussed teachers looking to further their passion for this, what are we offering them? Just like in the classroom, teachers have different needs, so considering UDL we might want to offer them Multiple Means of Engagement (why), Multiple Means of Representation (how) and Multiple Means of Action and Expression (what of learning). What could this look like at a f2f event I wonder? Could we design workshops and sessions around these principles rather than a one-size-fits-all present approach, and what might this look like? How can we incorporate asynchronous, digital learning with this?

I have had some of my proposals to present accepted for the NZLA Conference and for Ulearn16, and I am really keen to make these sessions applicable to as many learners with different needs as possible. I have previously attempted to incorporate UDL into my presentations, (e.g. my Supporting UDL with GAFE presentation at Ulearn14, see post here).  This could be my starting point for how to design my sessions for later this year. I am also interested to see how this might further influence what we already do in our y2&3 ILE classroom.

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The question remains though: How do we ensure that teachers can push their passions further? And where can I learn more about this?

I asked the wonderfully knowledgable +Hazel Owen for some advice around it, and she wrote:

The interesting thing is - there isn't (as far as I know) that much research / papers out there that look into this specific subject. Rather the research is around:

• personalised, tailored learning, 

• teaching as inquiry, 

• action research in teaching, 

• Continuing Professional Development (CPD), 

• (online) communities of practice, 

• PLEs, and 

• mentoring / coaching for teachers' / education leaders' PLD.

In the holidays I plan to start reading more on this topic. If you regard yourself as confident or an expert in a particular area, but still passionate about learning more about that same area, how do you go about this? I would love to hear from you :)

PLD Term 2 2016 - Reflections

My reflections on three 'away' PLD events this term

GEGNZ Sparkshop in Auckland 28 May 2016

(go to the Twitter Stream here)

It's been great to catch up with other GEG NZ educators. Approx. 50 participants shared, learned and collaborated on a variety of topics around the use of Google Apps in education. I really enjoyed the session with +Ellie Mackwood around using DTs with learners with SEN - a lot of this applicable to our young learners in our y2&3 ILE, too. Another fabulous session was run by +Lenva Shearing, she shared a multitude of useful Chrome Apps and Extensions. I especially appreciated the extra time she took over lunch to show us some of the ins and outs of Hapara Teacher Dashboard.

Apart from the app tricks and tips that come in useful as my students are working more within GAFE, I have been reflecting on the way PLD event experiences differ from when I attended them as a facilitator to attending them as a teacher. As a facilitator I looked for a wide range of applicable learning that I could pass on to the educators I have been working with. Often I would bookmark tools, presentations etc. for later and sit down and tutu until I was confident I could pass this on to an interested teacher. As a classroom teacher now I am looking more for ideas that are directly relevant for my context and the learners I am working with. With no time set aside in my day to 'play', I probably pick up on fewer tools than in the past (not saying this is better or worse, just noting that this is different).

I also reflected on the attendees and the content of the presentations. This was free PD and even with my rather patchy Social Media presence nowadays I saw it advertised weeks ago (and two colleagues joined me). Among the 50odd participants there were few of the GEG educators I used to meet in the past (having been overseas for a year probably added to that). Another participant mentioned she was surprised that not more Auckland teachers took up this offer of free PD. I suppose Saturday morning sports are an important commitment for many teachers and parents, reports coming up etc. all have an impact.

Educamp Tai Tokerau in Whangarei 11 June 2016

I had been to two EducampTT previously (from memory), and this one probably had fewer attendees than the ones in the past. I believe the annual event did not run in 2015, so I expect this had an impact - as well as the game All Blacks vs. Wales in Auckland the same day. And again it was a Saturday where many of the rural primary teachers have commitments. [One of my wonderings: Am I right that there are more primary than secondary teachers represented at such events, and why is that?]

In difference to the Auckland event, there were lots of familiar 'experts' present. Due to the number of attendees rather than individual workshops, a smaller number of topics were presented to everyone in the room.

I personally gained less from this than from the previous experiences, but it gave me an opportunity to revisit some of the tools I have come across previously. Especially Edpuzzle is something I want to explore more; I would like to investigate flipping my classroom, and Educreations could be one way to record 'lessons', or I could use Edpuzzle for a range of existing (or my own) videos with or without added questions for my students.

As I had not quite had enough of commuting that week lol, I also attended the Open Night at the MindLab Whangarei 13 June 2016.

First thing I realised was how long it takes to travel from Mangonui to Whangarei - at least 1h 45min. I am lucky to live in Kerikeri, 45min south of Mangonui. As I have previously written about, I am very passionate about professional learning for rural and isolated teachers, and commuting to Whangarei for a 4h sessions every week for (I think) 16 weeks would be hard work. In 2015 I had encourage the MindLab to come to Whangarei for Northland teachers to be able to take advantage of the great programme they are offering, but back in the classroom working long hours, I would struggle with the commute alone.

Karen Baker competently presented the 'intro' to the course. I was interested to see that the ITL research was quoted, something I had not come across much in New Zealand before but have worked with intensively in Australia. It sounded like I would enjoy a lot of the content, but given that I have worked across this field previously I am not sure that I would find enough 'new' learning to justify taking that much time away from my day job and my family (please note the order... sigh...)

I am incredibly thankful to my colleagues for their company on the trip to Auckland and to our principal for the financial support.

Setting up and moving into a year 2 & 3 ILE

During last term the decision was made to move our y2 and y3 classes into an Innovative Learning Environment. After countless hours in the holidays setting up and planning, and 3 weeks learning together I can truly say I am enjoying my days!

We currently have 41 learners; we are using two connected classrooms with a large opening between them, and we have a large covered verandah out front with beanbags our children use as quiet space. We gathered a variety of furniture from our previous classrooms and elsewhere around the school, and we are eagerly awaiting the imminent arrival of some additional items we have ordered. While we don't have separate breakout spaces, students have been making use of the spaces we have created within the classroom, e.g. my little green tent is well frequented. I am still watching in regards to catering for introverted students, but so far I have not seen any issues yet.

For continuity and administration we still have two official form classes, but we are mixing for many activities. We decided to run the class(es) loosely based on the UDL principles, with a particular topic / strand / concept for all learners but then adapting this for where these students are at. As a simple example, we were working on multiplication in maths, and while everyone worked on skip counting etc. the stronger learners had to go further than the less strong ones. As my experience is more with older learners, I mainly work with students at the upper end of the spread of abilities. Being able to focus on this has been real game changer for me as I feel I can now start to extend them where previously achievement data showed that while my students at lower levels were making accelerated progress, the students at the higher levels were progressing at a considerably slower rate.

One of the concepts I am still trying to get my head around more is 'acceleration' vs. 'remediation'. I originally come from a school system where everyone was expected to reach the same level at the same time while being taught in the same way. If you did not achieve the level, you either scraped through and continued to struggle in the next year, or if your 'failings' were severe enough in at least one subject, you had to repeat the full year in all subjects. Working at an individual student's level was the solution to this problem in my eyes.

However, one of the very valid points made was that if the expectation is that every student will reach at least a certain level of competency in a particular area of learning, keeping them 'at their level' and not exposing them to enough new, higher level learning can set them up for failure. Socially it can also be an issue when a student is working with children that are several years younger than them - what does it do to your confidence when the younger ones keep on moving ahead of you while you are still treading water? So how do you 'accelerate' a child's learning without going back to the 'one size fits all approach?

In our current environment, the children are up to 16 months apart in age, socially close enough in age (though it is relatively easy to spot the 6y olds from the 7y olds, and not just by size). As part of the ALL programme we are giving extra time to our struggling writers (most, but not all boys), and as of late I have started to see a difference in the way they approach writing in class. While we do group the students by level in reading and in maths, and in writing with the ones working towards or at the beginning of CL2 in my room, we are trying to have mixed ability within that and / or offer opportunity for mixed ability work. We are setting pretty high expectations, and I believe this has an impact on to what level the students aspire.

I am still working on my understanding of how to accelerate students, and I'm starting to think that the acceleration and working at their level are not the polar opposites I believed them to be when I first heard about it.

We are really trying for the students to develop agency, to know where they are at and where they are going next. We have many different displays where they are tracking their learning, where their goals are displayed, and with not much art work on the walls yet, most space is now taken up. On my recent visit to Stonefields School I had a glance at their app in development which will show this online; it was really intriguing, but I am not sure yet that would meet our needs best at this point in time. There is something quite satisfying about moving your avatar up on the Reading Eggs Skills Bank display, or moving your named rocket to the next level sight words? (We go through lots of blue tack, velcro and staples!). One of our rooms has a lot of visuals e.g. for 'interesting words', and I am struggling to find space to put more up. I have been wondering if I should move this online, especially as 'my' learners are using their own Chromebooks. Maybe I could connect an older unused laptop to my TV or the Chromecast and just have the relevant tab on our class site open during Writing, freeing up my laptop for when I need it? What works for others working with a similar age group?

In our jam-packed days, things do fall by the wayside, and for example posts to the children's individual blogs have not been happening as much as I would have wished. The students working towards or at the beginning on CL 2 in writing have been assigned their own Chromebook, and we had one session so far for students working in Google Docs. After the initial decision to go 1:1 last term, we I had held out assigning them as I very quickly realised that students needed much more than just the technical ability to operate a Chromebook, they needed to be able to manage themselves and get on with their learning. Btw, being in the shared space has really had a positive effect on those students that are still learning how to themselves, they had to learn that their actions affect a larger number of others and that some students younger than them were 'showing them off' :) I hope to incorporate the GAFE tools better in our days in the coming days and weeks. I had also intended to contact parents regularly, and in the busyness of my days I have really neglected this - something I definitely want to get back into.

On Friday we finally started my little passion, it was the first time we visited our new Minecraft Lab which my oldest son set up for us. All our learners present on Friday had a turn, and it has been very interesting observing them in their interactions. It also reminded me not to underestimate their skills as they were happily spawning all sorts of creatures - something we will curb with a bit of server tweaking :)

Inquiring into your practise has to be a way of life in order to be an effective teacher, so planning something like a whole term ahead in great detail is simply unthinkable to me. There are few days when our DP +Angela Nunn who I share the space with and I have not discussed how to tweak things to better meet our learners' needs. It can be very tiring, but there is nothing better than them succeeding or seeing the little light bulbs appear above their little heads - like when a 6y old just this week explained to me what 40 +36 was: "76!" he told me. "How do you know?" I asked. "Well, you have 30 and 30, that's 60, and then there's 10 and 6 more, that's 76!" Do I need to say more?

(Pictures will follow)