For those not based in Wales, Minecraft: Education Edition is available for free until June 2020 for all educators and learners who have a valid Office 365 Education account. You can request access here.

Setting the context for learning is a really important consideration when planning any lesson or activity with Minecraft. There are many ways practitioners can create really engaging activities, ideal for remote access learning. Here are two projects that I have found to be really effective.

Developing literacy skills

Minecraft can be a fun and interesting way of developing reading and writing skills. Focus on environment descriptions in a text and challenge your learners to create their own settings within Minecraft. Novels and short stories with rich setting descriptions are perfect for this activity. One project that particularly highlighted this was The Wonderful World of Roald Dahl. Learners engaged with a range of texts and created their very own settings from Roald Dahl books with Minecraft. Following this, learners created their own stories with imagined settings within Minecraft. An important aspect of this project was the planning, reading, and writing which was done before learners started building in Minecraft. This ensured that the time spent building within Minecraft was purposeful and encouraged learners to be reflective throughout the process.

Minecraft: Education Edition has produced a range of Roald Dahl themed resources to support educators with developing literacy skills through Minecraft.

Local history projects

Minecraft can be a really effective tool to support the development of historical enquiry and interpretation. In the project That’s Entertainment, learners investigated the role the local area played in people’s leisure time in the past. To start the activity, learners used a range of sources to investigate this, including: online journals, interviews with the local residents, and photographs. Some students created an online questionnaire to collect information using Office Forms through Hwb. Following this, learners focused on an area/building within the community and used their research to create a website to share their learning with others.

After the planning stage, learners worked collaboratively to build a virtual museum of the locality in Minecraft. Each child focused on a specific building and used their research to inform their build. They also created a plan which included the scale of their building and the blocks they would use. To share their learning with a wider audience, learners added Non-player Characters (NPCs) to link their websites to their Minecraft communities.

You can access the That’s Entertainment resource through Hwb.

Remote collaboration and sharing

There are lots of ways learners can share their Minecraft work if they are working remotely. A great way for learners to document their progress within Minecraft is by using the camera tool. Photographs are stored in a portfolio where learners can add captions to describe each of their photographs. Portfolios can be exported and shared as a PDF.

Learners can also use the book and quill tool to combine text and photos to share their learning within Minecraft. The book and quill encourage learners to write more detailed descriptions. They are able to add multiple pages and images within the book. This can then be exported and shared.

There are lots of Hwb tools for students to share their learning within Minecraft remotely. Why not challenge your students to create a digital story using Sway through Office 365? Learners can combine images, text, and video and share their learning using a link. You can find more information about getting started with Sway here. 

Gamifying distance learning to improve outcomes

The Minecraft: Education Edition team has compiled a special Minecraft remote learning toolkit, which includes more than 50 lessons, STEM curriculum and project-based learning activities so educators can use Minecraft: Education Edition with their students whether they are in school, at home, or in another remote learning environment.

Find out more

Discover how to start with Minecraft: Education Edition

About the author

James Protheroe is assistant headteacher at Darran Park Primary School, South Wales. As a Microsoft Showcase School, the school has placed digital learning at the very heart of teaching and learning. This has included developing effective pupil digital leaders who have supported teachers and learners across Wales to develop effective approaches to teaching and learning with Microsoft tools.

As a lead practitioner for Central South Consortium, James has supported schools from across the region to develop effective leadership in digital learning. James is an MIE Expert and Minecraft Global Mentor.

The post Utilising Minecraft: Education Edition for remote access learning appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

All up, we travelled over 50,000 virtual miles from Ferndale in South Wales. We used Skype in the Classroom and Teams to communicate and collaborate with learners from across the world.

This was reflected in a call with Anna Dyagileva and her students in Russia. They shared a Sway presentation about life in Russia. During the call, learners discussed cultural similarities and differences between children living in Russia and Wales. As well as singing popular songs from each country, students taught each other phrases in Russian and Welsh.

“Using Skype in the classroom breaks down barriers and opens up our classrooms to a world of truly global collaboration and communication.”

Skype Master Teacher Darren Hurley

Supporting skill development

Learners from Year 5 and 6 took part in digital collaboration that supported younger learners from other schools to develop digital literacy skills. Using Microsoft Teams, learners read books to classes from other schools. As well as developing reading skills, we found these calls really engaged all learners and helped them understand the power of digital connections. This activity also promoted the use of Teams for meaningful collaboration to other schools in Wales.

Gamifying learning worldwide

One of the highlights of the Microsoft Global Learning Connection was taking part in the Kahoot Cup. This unique pop culture competition involved teams from 25 countries across the world. Each school represented their country to answer questions using Kahoot and points were added to the national total. Team Wales, led by Paul ‘Lanny’ Watkins eventually finished in 4^th position behind eventual winner Team Canada.

“This is a truly unique opportunity for collaboration with students from other schools across Wales. Students love competition and learned so much about other countries during the Kahoot cup.”

James Protheroe, Assistant Headteacher and MIE Expert

Learning through virtual field trips

Skype in the classroom, provided learners with opportunities to learn from experts through virtual field trips.  Leaners enjoyed learning practical first aid skills from the Red Cross in a hands on session. They also developed an understanding of how charities work to support people all over the world.

“It’s important for students to understand the work of charities like the Red Cross and what better way to do this than learning new skills which they can relate to their everyday life,” said Sophie Mills, ICT Leader.

In addition, learners visited Ranjitsinh Disale, a teacher in India to learn about climate change and the impact it is having on our environment.

“It was interesting to hear how the teenagers are planting trees to help stop climate change in India,” said a Year 5 pupil.

“An important part of becoming an ethically informed global citizen is having the opportunity to ask questions to experts and think of solutions to solve problems that we all could face in the future. Through utilising Skype in the classroom, all our learners can do this,” added Protheroe.

Connecting students across the globe

Over the two-day event, we made sure every learner from Darran Park Primary took part in Microsoft Global Learning Connection. Many classes communicated with classrooms from across the world playing Mystery Skype. The idea is to develop effective questioning, problem solving, and map reading skills by getting students to ask questions to locate where the other class is located.

Mystery Skype is also an effective starting point for discussion and can often lead to future collaboration between schools.

“I didn’t know how similar we are to children in other countries. I love using Skype because you can learn new things and talk to children you wouldn’t meet in real life,” said a year 4 pupil.

Younger learners took part in mystery animal Skype, asking questions to find out which animal the other class had chosen.

Building vital digital skills

In 48 hours, learners engaged in purposeful collaboration with students and experts from over 40 countries using Skype in the Classroom and Microsoft Teams. Microsoft’s Global Learning Connection helped our students understand the power of global connections and improve their digital literacy.

“It is so powerful to watch learners developing student voice through sharing ideas, collaborating and questioning children and experts from across the globe. Skype in the classroom and Teams have made this possible!”

Darren Hurley, Skype Master Teacher

The students of Darran Park Primary School are excited to learn more from people across the world through continuing their digital global connections using Skype and Teams.

Find out more

Discover Skype in the Classroom

About the authors

James Protheroe is assistant headteacher at Darran Park Primary School, South Wales. As a Microsoft Showcase School, the school has placed digital learning at the very heart of teaching and learning. This has included developing effective pupil digital leaders who have supported teachers and learners across Wales to develop effective approaches to teaching and learning with Microsoft tools.

As a lead practitioner for Central South Consortium, James has supported schools from across the region to develop effective leadership in digital learning. James is an MIE Expert and Minecraft Global Mentor.

Darren Hurley is a key member of the digital strategy team at Darran Park Primary School. As a Skype Master Teacher, Darren has brought the curriculum to life through opening up classrooms on global scale. He has collaborated with educators from across the world to create truly memorable experiences for students and develop authentic pupil voice. Darren is an MIE Expert and Minecraft Global Mentor.

The post Creating a connected and collaborative learning experience for students across the globe appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.