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Explore what is being referred to as 'The Refugee Crisis' through addressing attitudes and beliefs that learners may see as irrelevant or abstract. This world, created by Immersive Minds, comes with an accompanying OneNote to support teachers

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Number and Algebra

Use Minecraft blocks to model fractions, decimals and percentages. For example, create a wall of 100 blocks and shade 25% of it with a different colour. Ask students to identify the fraction and decimal equivalent of the shaded area.

Investigate algebraic patterns and relationships using Minecraft functions and variables. For example, use the /function command to create sequences or series of actions, or use the /scoreboard command to assign values to variables and manipulate them with operators.

Geometry and Measurement

Explore geometry concepts such as symmetry, angles, shapes and transformations using Minecraft tools. For example, use the fill command to create symmetrical patterns or shapes, or use the clone command to rotate or flip objects.

Apply measurement skills such as length, area, volume, perimeter and time using Minecraft units. For example, measure the dimensions of different structures or biomes, calculate the area or volume of buildings or landscapes, or estimate how long it takes to travel from one point to another.

Statistics

Solve problems involving statistics and probability using Minecraft data and events. For example, collect and display data on the number of different mobs or items in a world, or calculate the probability of certain outcomes such as finding diamonds or encountering a creeper.

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Noun. The agent is a mob that helps players learn coding, by getting players to code the actions on it. The agent can be programmed to execute several tasks, like planting and harvesting, mining, chopping trees, and building.

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https://youtu.be/4eVe1FzQfN4

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Using Slash Commands in Minecraft: Education Edition

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Inspired by 3 Minecraft biomes, players explore the possibilities of setting in narrative writing.

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Settings for Stories | Minecraft Education Edition

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Living World

Explore a biome: Compare the desert biome in Minecraft to one of the world’s largest deserts.

Geology: Learn about the materials used to craft. What are they like in reality? Where in the world can the different types of rock be found? Have any of these materials been used to build your own house? What are the differences between how these resources are mined in Minecraft and in reality (there’s a huge difference!).

Agriculture: Plant a field of crops in Minecraft and help it grow. Certain crops require more effort to successfully grow and harvest. Large plants like melons or pumpkins will require more care. Find out what your crops need. How much time does it take to grow? What is the best way to harvest the crops? How does that compare to growing crops or a small garden in your yard?

Physical World

Laws of Motion: Have your students design and build a working roller coaster in Minecraft. Do experiments on acceleration and velocity.

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Culture & Identity

Explore Ngā Motu (The Islands) and learn about indigenous language, culture and people of Aotearoa

Reimagine famous artworks

Use the Museum of Me concept to get to know your class on a deeper level. Encourage them to incorporate elements into their builds around their values and what guides them to make decisions in their lives, e.g., who their role models are and why, how their histories have shaped them as individuals

Place & Environment

Recreate a historical event and tell the story from different perspectives using NPCs to encourage exploration of localised content

Build a scale model of a scene depicting the climate crisis, e.g., the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (shout out to the amazing students at BHS for coming up with this one)!

Explore biomes and compare and contrast their impacts to real life examples

Choose an issue in the world where humans have impacted negatively upon the environment in a particular area (local/national/global) and create a build to give a solution to this (e.g., overpopulation, pollution, overfishing, deforestation etc)

Take a trip to a local retirement home and interview the residents there. Tell their stories through M:EE. You could recreate your town through their eyes and create challenges for players aligned with their experiences of place and time. This could be a larger project which is collaborative and gives voice to the perspectives of multiple groups of people on the same events

Use one of the biomes and demonstrate how we can embrace Kaitiakitanga more holistically in that setting. Build in elements of real life activism, e.g. recreate a local roto, populate it with native species, then using NPCs, communicate to players how they can play their part in nurturing the flora and fauna through their everyday habits and behaviours

Government & Organisation

Create an interactive timeline of major historical events that had an impact on your area/country. Use boards/NPCs to engage your audience in a simulated decision making scenario that could change this timeline

Consider how you can positively contribute to society using the 'Starter Town' template to host a multiplayer world for your class and have them add a build that would foster community engagement

Reimagine parliament to encourage dialogue about democracy, voting, and government. See this NZ case study!

Economic Activity

In a similar way to the Starter Town example above, create shared farming experiences and trade products with other players. Students could create quests around this concept of the need to buy, sell, and trade with others in order to survive and thrive

Consider sustainable structures from the place and environment section - the Climate Futures series is a great resource to tap into for this curriculum link

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Exploring Matariki with Minecraft Lesson Plan

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See this unit plan complete with Matariki world download.

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Use this template to help you plan out a lesson with built in assessment opportunities

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SHARED | Minecraft Education Edition Lesson Planner

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Creative mode is the easiest way to build in Minecraft. Players have immediate access to almost all blocks and items, are invulnerable and immune to death, and have the ability to fly. The purpose of this game mode is to create/design unique worlds.

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Any user can 'host' a multiplayer world with up to 40 players at one time. Multiplayer games can take place between users
within the same Office 365 Education tenant. For most users, this means the part of your
email address after the “@” symbol matches that of the other players.

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With Minecraft: Education Edition, students can create within an engaging virtual world and demonstrate their learning of key concepts by using tools to capture progress and document learning adventures.

📷 Camera is a tool used to take pictures in-game

🧾Portfolio is a tool that houses images and captions

📝Book & Quill is a tool that houses longer text and images

👩‍🏫 Chalkboards comprise of slates, posters and boards used in-game for direction or information

👾NPCs are characters set in-game which provide information

🔗RESOURCE LINK is a button that you can add for in-game use to direct students to other websites to allow students to curate and create

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The current Microsoft agreement provides schools with software licenses that include the Microsoft 365, Windows operating system and Minecraft Education Edition. Google school? No worries - you can have your sign on configured for Minecraft easy peasy and we can help, get in touch via email.
See more info here: Microsoft software for schools – Education in New Zealand

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Using the 'Buildability' world, students can learn about the 5 barriers to accessibility and explore their real-world impacts in the context of school and community environments.
Use this Jamboard with your students to unpack and share knowledge about what you've learned from Buildability and then break off into groups for a collaborative build challenge in the 'Accessibility Park' world.

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Noun. Abilities granted to certain players by typing them into the chat (example: /help is a command that will list other commands). Most (but not all) servers will not allow normal players to use most commands.

Using commands allows me to teleport to another player's location.

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/wb

To toggle between creating (teacher view) and engaging (student view), use this command (i.e. for spawning NPCs)

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Start a Minecraft blog - class or solo - and document learning journies through personal recounts

Create biographies for the characters in your worlds to build their backstory and link them using the Resource Buttons on an NPC

Construct a collaborative class library in a multiplayer world

Use the Portfolio to document step-by-step a build process so that other players can recreate your build

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Exploring Food Chains with Minecraft Education Edition

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Ngā Motu: Transforming how students learn Māori with Minecraft

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Educators around the world are using Minecraft: Education Edition to teach concepts like coding, reimagining fairy tales, building habitable colonies on Mars and modeling renewable sources of energy. As educators begin to explore ways to use Minecraft to create richer and deeper learning experiences, we turned to some of Global Minecraft Mentors to garner tips on classroom management and creating a positive classroom culture when using game-based learning modalities in the classroom. Here are some of their tips. Join the conversation and let us know what works best for you.

#1 - Create a list of Classroom Community Guidelines with your students.
Inspired by the Minecraft group's Jokaydia Community Charter Mentor, Trish Cloud, created the expectations below with her club. Providing students with the opportunity to understand and practice classroom community norms and help create those guidelines is a powerful way to set a good foundation when using digital tools. Additionally, your norms for a players in a Minecraft world should mirror your norms for students in the classroom. The disconnect may cause unnecessary confusion for students.

#2 - Take the time to prepare your world before you use it with your students.
Mentor Brett Smith, recommends preparing your worlds before students connect. For his science classes he adjusts the game settings, plans how he wants his students to work, establishes working spaces for them, and prepares his class groups offline. Think clearly about what you want your students to achieve and how the Minecraft world you will use serves this purpose. For additional settings consider using Minecraft: Education Edition's Classroom Mode.

#3 - Support your online work with offline documentation/instructions and tasks.
Mentor Michele McColgan suggests having a paper copy of the activity instructions, math problems, questions, or prompts that students can use as an offline record to show their work. This helps in connecting the IRL classroom to the Minecraft Classroom. Another idea to reduce frustration and encourages collaboration is take a break every 30 minutes and ask students to share with the class one example of how they're successfully completing the task and/or where they are struggling.

#4 - Build unstructured time into your lesson.
A number of mentors found that allowing students to have a portion of the class period just to play significantly reduces or eliminates negative behaviors during the lesson. These 5 to 10 minutes might also be rich with opportunities for teachable moments. An example of how to this could be a build challenge to unleash creativity in your students. Need some ideas? Check out our activities of the week.

#5 - Teach students how to play.
Just like with other learning activities, if a student does not know how to use the tools required to complete the learning task, then that student is more likely to misbehave and distract other students. Spending some time to make sure every student acquires the skills necessary to succeed will pay off, just like teaching students classroom routines. Mentor, Kristine Holloway recommends pairing novice players with experienced players to facilitate collaboration.

#6 - Create alternative assignments.
One way to reduce misbehavior is to develop assignments that accomplish the same learning goal but do not require Minecraft. This strategy is useful as a consequence for students who misbehave in the game, but it is also a useful tool for differentiation. Some students may not want to play Minecraft, so students can be offered a choice which will subsequently limit misbehavior.

#7 - Balance structured activities with choice.
Mentor, Mike Johnston notes that when working with a tool like Minecraft, it is important to let the game be a game to retain student engagement while maximizing the potential of the tool. This moves Minecraft from a gimmick to a legitimately enjoyable learning experience. However, there are times that teachers may want to assign a strict step-by-step process or place the students in a pre-built map. Balancing these activities with those in which students are offered more in-game choices and control over the learning experience will do wonders for student learning.

#8 - Use Classroom Mode.
Mentor Andrea Tolley suggests trying the companion application to M:EE. Classroom Mode offers teachers tools essential to managing a digital Minecraft class. Features include an overhead map of student locations, settings to adjust player damage, use of TNT, the cycle day and night, and changes to the game's difficulty settings.

#9 - Try, Reflect, Reset.
These tips may or may not work for your classroom. Be open to trying different strategies for management and eventually you'll find what works for you and your students. Just like teaching anything else, it may take some trial and error before you find the solutions that work best for you and your students.
What tips of your own would you add to this list?
Global Minecraft Mentors Simon Baddley, Alexis Beard, Trish Cloud, Kristine Holloway, Chris Rozelle, Jennifer Sigler, and Brett Smith worked together to produce the above post.

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Classroom Management Tips from Minecraft Mentors | Minecraft Education Edition

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Educators around the world are using Minecraft: Education Edition to teach concepts like coding, reimagining fairy tales, building habitable colonies on Mars and modeling renewable sources of energy. As educators begin to explore ways to use Minecraft to create richer and deeper learning experiences, we turned to some of Global Minecraft Mentors to garner tips on classroom management and creating a positive classroom culture when using game-based learning modalities in the classroom.

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After randomly being spawned in a new world, players have to try to survive by gathering material, building shelter, gaining experience, and fighting off hostile mobs.

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Troubleshoot the Unable to Connect to World Error – Minecraft: Education Edition Support

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Any organization can purchase licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition, including eligible academic institutions, other organizations (like camps, clubs, and homeschools), and even individuals. This article provides information on how you can purchase licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition.

Two types of licenses

Now that Minecraft: Education Edition is open to all, there are two different license types: academic and commercial. The difference between an academic license and a commercial license is in purchase eligibility, price, and the process to purchase and manage licenses. The Minecraft: Education Edition game itself has the same features and functions regardless of the license type.

Academic license eligibility

Academic licenses are only available to eligible academic institutions. To see if your organization is eligible to purchase academic licenses, check your organizational email at the Office 365 Education page. For more information on what organizations are eligible academic institutions, check out the documents on the Licensing Terms and Definitions page.

Purchasing academic licenses

Eligible academic institutions can purchase individual licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition directly from Microsoft or can connect with a partner for volume licensing.
Note: Check with your IT admins before purchasing licenses as your school may already be licensed for Minecraft: Education Edition.
Commercial license eligibility

Any organization can purchase a commercial license. This is the license option available to any organization (like a camp, club, after-school program, etc.) that is not an eligible academic institution. It is also available to individuals and homeschoolers.

Purchasing commercial licenses

Individual licenses can be purchased for use by anyone. See Purchase Commercial Licenses for more information on purchasing commercial licenses.

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Purchasing Options for Minecraft: Education Edition Licenses

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Any organization can purchase licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition, including eligible academic institutions, other organizations (like camps, clubs, and homeschools), and even individuals. This article provides information on how you can purchase licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition. Now that Minecraft: Education Edition is open to all, there are two different license types: academic and commercial.

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Noun. That which is perceived to have its own distinct existence.

Any entity in the game, including the player, which is able to move under on its own.

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/weather [weather type]

e.g., /weather clear

Sometimes the weather can be an integral part of the story you are building within a world. You can set it to clear, rain, thunder, or snow.

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How a School in Puerto Rico Brings Chemistry to Life with Minecraft: Education Edition

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Ngā Motu - The Islands

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Engage your students' creativity and strengthen 21st century skills with easy-to-implement activities for your classroom.

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Players interact with objects (levers, buttons) and mobs to complete an adventure.

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Anyone can purchase commercial licenses of Minecraft: Education Edition - including camps, clubs, homeschool s and other organizations. To purchase licenses, you need to have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account. If you do not have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account, you can set one up for free. This article provides information on how to:

Microsoft 365 Admin Center is where you purchase and manage your licenses

Your Microsoft 365 Admin Center account allows you to purchase licenses and manage the users that will access Minecraft: Education Edition. It is free to set up an account and does not obligate you to any subscriptions or purchases unless you specifically authorize them.

Check if you have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account

Follow these steps to check if you have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and determine how you will purchase licenses.

1. Navigate to the Minecraft: Education Edition Purchase

2. Enter your organizational email address and click Next.
Note: If you don't have an email address from an organization, enter your personal email address.

Set up with a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account

Select Sign in and access your account.

If you have permission to make purchases and want to purchase additional licenses, see Make a first-time purchase of licenses for an existing Microsoft 365 Admin Center account.

If you do not have permission to make purchases, contact your IT administrator to purchase licenses.

Not set up with a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account

Select Set up account and then follow the instructions below in the Create a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and purchase licenses section.

Create a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and purchase licenses

The process for first-time purchases of licenses includes the process for creating a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account. This section walks you through the stages of creating your Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and purchasing Minecraft: Education Edition licenses.

1. If you haven't already, follow the steps in the Check if you have a Microsoft 365 Center account section to start the account creation process.

2. Provide information about yourself and verify your identity.

Provide information about yourself and your organization. All the fields in this section must be filled out to continue setting up your account. If you aren't part of a company or organization, enter your personal contact phone number as your business phone number and your last name as your company name.

After you provide the information about yourself, click Next. Then select your preferred verification method (call or text) and follow the instructions provided to complete the verification process.

3. Set up an onmicrosoft.com domain and create your Microsoft 365 Admin Center user ID

Provide a name for your onmicrosoft.com domain. Ideally, this should be a simple, easy-to-remember name as it will be part of your Microsoft 365 Admin Center user ID.

After you enter a name, click Check availability. If the name you provided is available, select Next and follow the instructions to finish creating your Microsoft 365 Admin Center account user ID. Your user ID will be a combination of the domain name you provided, the name you provide in this section, and 'onmicrosoft.com'.

Example: If you entered Doe as your domain name and John as your username, your user ID for Microsoft 365 Admin Center is John@Doe.onmicrosoft.com.

Once you have provided a name and password, select Sign up. After you select Sign up, your Microsoft 365 Admin Center account is set up.

IMPORTANT: Make note of the user ID and password you create here. This will be used to sign into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, where you purchase licenses and manage the users that will access Minecraft: Education Edition.

4. Select the number of licenses to purchase and provide payment information

Select the number of Minecraft: Education Edition licenses you want to purchase and select Add payment method. Continue through the account creation wizard to finalize your purchase.

Once you select Place order, your Minecraft: Education Edition licenses are purchased and can be managed in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Select Get started to log into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and start creating users and assigning licenses.

Note that if you created a new email/domain during this process, which is common, you'll need to login to the Microsoft Admin Center using that email and the password you created for it.
Congratulations! You've now purchased a Minecraft: Education Edition subscription! There are just a few last steps before you can log into the app.
5. Create users in the Admin Center

If you're going to assign licenses to people other than yourself, you'll need to first create users for them under your Microsoft 365 account. If you only want to assign a license to yourself, skip to section number 6, "Assign users Minecraft: Education Edition licenses" .

1. After selecting Get Started and logging into the Microsoft Admin Center with the Microsoft 365 account you purchased under, you should see a navigational menu on the left side of your screen. Select and in the drop down menu select Active Users .

2. The Active Users screen is where you can find any existing users. If this is a new account, you'll only see your administration account here. To create a new user, select in the center horizontal menu on this page.

3. In the pop up page, you'll need to fill out some basic information for this new user, including a username they'll use to login to their account (and Minecraft: Education Edition). If you'd like to create a password instead of generating a random one, uncheck Automatically create a password and fill that in. When you're done, select Next at the bottom of the page.

4. Here, you can skip having to manually assign licenses later by ensuring Assign user a product license and selecting Minecraft: Education Edition below under Apps. Select to continue.

5. On the following page, you can add Administrative permissions or profile info, which is all optional. Hit to continue.

6. Review the info on the final page and if everything looks correct select Finish adding on the bottom of the page!

Result: If you opted to assign this new user a Minecraft: Education Edition license, they should be able to login using the email and password you created here! If you opted not to yet, continue in the following section to manually assign a Minecraft: Education Edition license.

6. Assign users Minecraft: Education Edition licenses

Assigning licenses to existing users is also done in the Microsoft Admin Center.

1. To assign an existing user a Minecraft: Education Edition license once it is purchased, select on the left navigational menu in Microsoft Admin Center and then select Your products in the dropdown.

2. You should see Minecraft: Education Edition listed under your products, click on the name to open a new page.

3. From this new page, select Assign licenses under the Licenses assigned from all subscriptions section.

4. Here you'll see your various users listed. Select Assign licenses in the horizontal menu above the users.

5. In the pop up window, enter the name of the user you'd like to assign a license to.

6. Once you've selected the correct user, under Turn apps and services on or off, ensure Minecraft: Education Edition is checked. Then select .

Result: This user should now be able to sign into the Minecraft: Education Edition app.

Make a first-time purchase of licenses for an existing Microsoft 365 Admin Center account

Follow these steps if you already have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and have not purchased Minecraft: Education Edition licenses.

1. If you haven't already, follow the steps in the Check if you have a Microsoft Admin Center account section to access your account.

2. Review and update your organizational profile as needed.
Note: If you aren't part of an organization, use your personal address, phone number, and email address.

3. Review and update your payment method.

4. Select the number of licenses to purchase.

5. Select Place order.
Result: Your Minecraft: Education Edition licenses are purchased and can be managed in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Select assign users to your new subscription to start creating users and assigning licenses.

Purchase additional licenses

Follow these steps if you already have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and have purchased at least one Minecraft: Education Edition license.

1. Sign in to your Microsoft 365 account.

2. From the left-hand menu, select Billing > Your products.

3. Select Minecraft: Education Edition > Buy licenses.

4. From the Buy licenses menu, select the quantity and click Save.

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Anyone can purchase commercial licenses of Minecraft: Education Edition - including camps, clubs, homeschool s and other organizations. To purchase licenses, you need to have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account. If you do not have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account, you can set one up for free.

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Noun. A detailed list of all the items in stock.

Created from four iron ingots and one redstone, the compass works both in the user's hand and in their inventory.

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/say <your message>

This will send your message to all players currently in your world. Good for guiding students when they are not all in the same room.

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Minecraft Science: Gravity with Boats, Carts, Lava, and Water.

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Understanding the ANZAC SPIRIT | Minecraft Education Edition

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How to Host and Join a Multiplayer Game in Minecraft Education

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Noun. A mob is an AI-driven game entity resembling a living creature. The term "mob" is short for "mobile entity". All mobs can be attacked and hurt (from falling, attacked by a player or another mob, falling into the void, hit by an arrow, etc), and have some form of voluntary movement. Different types of mobs often have unique AI and loot.

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/gamerule globalmute

The chat is on by default in each world. If you forget to turn it off when you create the world use this command.

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ANZAC Parade re-creation | Minecraft Education Edition

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Understanding Player Permissions in Minecraft: Education Edition

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Defintion 1 - Short for "modification", a mod is a player-made re-write of certain game features, to either add new things (new items, blocks, tools, mobs, structures, etc) or change existing ones.

The mods made by the teacher allowed the students to utilise cameras already in the world.

Definition 2 - "moderator", or the person/people in control of the server.

When hosting the world, the teacher is the mod.

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/gamerule allowdestructiveobjects false

To stop things exploding or being destroyed within your world with items such as TNT.

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Minecraft Education Across the Australian Curriculum

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This series of videos was created by Australian educators to demonstrate how Minecraft: Education Edition can be used across all learning areas in the Austra...

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The Classroom Settings screen includes a collection of commonly used world settings and the ability to link to an external resource like Flipgrid, Microsoft Forms, or other web tools. This article provides information on what each of the classroom settings does and how to add a link to an external resource.
The Classroom Tab

The Classroom Settings can be modified at any time by the player who starts or hosts the world. The settings can also be accessed by a user who joins a hosted world with Teacher permissions. This enables educators to quickly adjust settings and support student gameplay in multiplayer projects. To read more about profile types and permissions, see the  Profile Types and Permissions  article.

These are the details for each setting.

On by default.

When enabled,

Classroom Settings are editable.

The Activate Cheats toggle in Game Settings is enabled.

Commands (also known as slash commands, console commands, and cheats) are enabled for use in the world.

To learn more about how to use commands in-game, visit the  Essential Commands and Commands in Depth articles.

On by default.

When enabled, Code Builder can be accessed by pressing the key or tapping the icon at the top of the screen for touch users.

Off by default.

When enabled, users can interact with blocks but not destroy them. For more information, see the Immutable World section of the Essential Commands article.

On by default.

When enabled, border blocks, a wall that acts like a force field that extends upwards and downwards forever, emit tiny red particles, alerting players to their presence and location.

Read more about border blocks in the  Specialty Blocks (Allow, Deny, Border, Structure)  article.

Resource Link

Adding a link to a resource is a great way to add an assessment tool, Flipgrid topic, Microsoft Forms quiz, or website to your world. Adding a resource link creates a custom button on the Pause menu so players can access the resource at any time from within the world. The button opens the URL in the default browser.

Resource links can be added from the Classroom menu or when sharing a lesson from the in-game library.
Example of a resource link

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The Classroom Settings screen includes a collection of commonly used world settings and the ability to link to an external resource like Flipgrid, Microsoft Forms, or other web tools. This article provides information on what each of the classroom settings does and how to add a link to an external resource.

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Noun. AI in the game that you can interact with but not play as.

I travelled through the world and was given direction on my quest from the NPCs.

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/immutableworld true

Adventure mode lets you interact with blocks but not destroy them. In Minecraft EDU it is called ‘Immutable World’ and only the operator of a world can set it. This is great to lock all the student’s work in place so they can explore the world, but not tamper with it.

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Noun. The visual appearance of your character in-game, that you either make or download from external sites.

Changing my skin allows me to compliment the setting of the world when exploring.

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/tp [target player] x y z
e.g. /tp bjones 173 49 -2

/tp <victim: [target player]> <destination: [target player]>

Great for worlds where students can get lost. Teleport them back to your position using your current coordinates (x y z) or to another player.

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Noun. A collection of items in your hotbar from the inventory. You can have duplicates of some materials, and they still only take up one slot in your inventory; other items are “unstackable,” meaning there is only one item per slot.

A stack of dirt is 64 blocks of dirt (the maximum number possible for one slot). But milk is unstackable, so one milk takes up one slot.

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/gamerule dodaylightcycle false

This will stop the time from rolling through the hours and keep your world in the desired time you have set.

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Noun. Kind of network database, in this case one that holds information about the game.

The moderator, or mod, of the server has some control over a variety of settings and rules of that world in Minecraft.

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/weather [weather type]

e.g. /weather snow

Sometimes the weather can be an integral part of the story you are building within a world. You can set it to clear, rain, thunder or snow.

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Blank templates to help get started creating lessons in Minecraft Education. Biomes, specifically, are regions distinguished by unique geographical features, plants, and animals.

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/remove @v

Or to remove your own - /remove @c

Often the students spawn the agent and then the agent is in the way of their build.

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/set time [time number as below]
eg: /set time 18000

18000 - night

12000- dusk

6000 - midday

1000 - day

0 - dawn

This is great for if you want it to be night, day, dusk or dawn for a specific purpose, e.g., a light festival at night-time.

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In this episode we discuss a range of topics including:

* The place of data in education and a discussion around assessment
* What role does educational research research play in schools
* Learning analytics and data driven schooling
* Blended learning and advice on how to move forward post COVID and school closures

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Minecraft Innovative Assessment Practices: Part I - Using Technology Better

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It can be a constant struggle to find ways to engage your students while you assess their learning. In this two-part blog, you'll learn how to leverage the power of Minecraft's in-built assessment tools to better understand your learners, improve student agency, create two-way feedback opportunities and document authentic evidence of their learning.

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Minecraft Education Preview - Official app in the Microsoft Store

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THIS APP IS FOR SCHOOL AND ORGANIZATIONAL USE. Minecraft Education Preview allows you to experience upcoming new features, fresh from the development team at Mojang Studios! Please note the following information about Minecraft Education Preview: - You will not be able to join non-Preview player’s games - Most settings will not be preserved from the retail version of Minecraft Education - Any worlds played in Preview will not transfer to the retail version of Minecraft Education - Lessons from the Library will work in Preview - Preview builds may be unstable and do not represent final version quality Minecraft Education licenses can be purchased with Admin access to a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account. Talk to your Tech Lead for information on academic licensing. Terms of use: The terms that apply to this download are the terms that were presented when you purchased your Minecraft Education subscription. Privacy policy: https://aka.ms/privacy

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Getting your students engaged can often be an uphill battle. But Minecraft is a surefire way to get them riveted.

In Minecraft Innovative Assessment Practices: Part I we explored three in-game assessment tools (1 Camera, Portfolio, and the Book & Quill 2 Chalkboards and 3 Non-Player Characters) that can help you gain a deeper insight into student learning.

In this blog, Minecraft Innovative Assessment Practices: Part II, we’ll explore two additional tools you can add to your Minecraft toolkit:

1. Flipgrid
2. Classroom Mode

Flipgrid

The beauty of Minecraft: Education Edition lies in the worlds that students can explore, mine and craft. However when you are facilitating this gameplay with a large group, it can be difficult for teachers to find time to connect with every student in the group to provide feedback and engage in those meaningful learning conversations.

This is where you can implement the Resource Link button, using Flipgrid as your tool. After selecting the world you will assign your students, go to the Settings Menu and click on Classroom on the left panel and complete the details under Resource Link. This will add a new button to the Pause Menu so that students can access the link throughout gameplay. Alternatively, you can add the same style button to an NPC (non-playing character) which can be a great way to provide students instructions alongside the resource button.

This allows students to use Flipgrid to record their screens and take teachers and peers on a virtual tour through their world. In their narration, students can demonstrate what they have learned through their choice of language, how they articulate problem solving solutions or even talk through how they collaborated with peers.

What I really love about this assessment pathway is that students and teachers can engage in ongoing dialogue about learning. We know from educational research that video and audio feedback modes improve useability and personalisation of feedback for students, so this tool is fit for purpose and enables peer to peer feedback too.

The best part? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the Flipgrid topic either. In the Discovery section of Flipgrid you’ll find a whole host of topics already built out by Minecraft Education Edition for you to copy and link for your own students, it really couldn’t be easier.

Classroom Mode

Because students are never solving the same problem or focusing on the same thing at any given time it can be tricky to capture snapshots of learning across the board. Managing multiplayer worlds is made simple using the Classroom Mode companion application for M:EE.

This central interface allows teachers to manage game settings, map and teleport students. These features allow educators to get an overview of how students are progressing through worlds and redirect learning when students are off-track.

The super handy chat function means that you can provide timely feedback to individuals and groups, as well as use commands to scaffold new learning.

The Last Word on Assessment

Minecraft Education Edition provides endless ways to engage students and I guarantee that after a play with some of the tools in this blog, you will be just as captivated by the variety for programme implementation as much as your students will be.

Click here >  Innovate Assessment Practices with Minecraft: Part I
Click here > for more on M:EE for the classroom

Click here > Learn on Demand Minecraft Education Edition course
Click here > Live online Minecraft Education Edition workshops

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Minecraft Innovative Formative Assessment Practices: Part II - Using Technology Better

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If your workflow is still clunky and classroom engagement isn’t where you want it to be, follow these 3 simple tips to streamline your workflow and boost student engagement. Easy peasy.