In this episode, Minecraft EDU creator Joel Levin talks with Vicki about Minecraft in schools. Want your school to use Minecraft? This is THE episode to share! Get those kids excited about learning! You can use Minecraft!

Important Takeaways for Listeners

• Minecraft makes great student-centered student-led projects. Joel gives examples.
• How do you talk to kids about Minecraft in the classroom?
• What are the differences in Minecraft EDU in the classroom and the traditional Minecraft?
• How you can lead even when students know more about Minecraft than you do.
• Joel rants a bit.
• How machinima is changing.
• How to turn students from consumers into creators.

If you listen to one show on Minecraft, this is it. Scroll down for 2 quotes for you listeners out there who love to pin them! ;-) 

Educator Resources

• Minecraft Educator Summit – The first Minecraft educator summit was held in early 2015. Joel gives us the skinny on what happened.
• Minecraft EDU – Joel shares: ways teachers configure Minecraft, resources, and one group every Minecraft teacher should join.
• Minecraft Educator Portal -Microsoft bought Minecraft and unveiled this teacher portal.
• Minecraft Builder Bowl – Joel mentions the emergence of live gaming events. Here’s a Minecraft competition happening summer 2015.

Interview Links

• @MinecraftTeachr

[tweetthis]Results come from fostering a great relationship with your students @MinecraftTeachr[/tweetthis]

What Teachers Say

The conversation exploded about this show on the ECM Awesome Educators Network on Facebook. Some highlights. Listener Joli Barker Erwin says,

“I use minecraft edu as an assessment tool and a project tool. I’ve used it for measurement, as a virtual lab, as a digital diorama for books, as environmental science exploration…sooo much. Students even created games for a global empathy project.” See Theheartcode.wikispaces.com

Listener Michelle Baldwin says,

“My kids ask to use it to demonstrate something they’re curious about. One year, we were talking about how people organize themselves into different types of governments. One group wanted to learn about oligarchies and said they could share what they were learning by building a capital city in Minecraft. They could articulate a LOT about what they had learned as they shared their city (these were grade 3-5 kids): http://architectsofwonder.edublogs.org/…/our-capital…/“

Teachers shared Zoe Branigan-Pipe‘s blog post “Proud to Be a Minecraft Teacher.” Minecraft transformed Zoe’s classroom. Some people labeled her, though. (I wonder if people do that to excuse themselves from giving it a whirl?)

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Want to talk about Minecraft

If you want to talk about the show, join the conversation on Twitter or Facebook.

You’re invited! Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook.