Playing Games for Education!

Month: December 2020

I went to the Nether!

December 3, 2020 / / 0 Comments

I went to the Nether!

 

So I have been watching this video about making machines with redstone and I figured I’d try making the first one for this week’s post.

 

However I instantly ran into a problem because I need an observer to make it and to make an observer you need Nether quartz

 

 

Okay, new goal! Get a working Nether portal. I have actually been mining really close to two busted portals but I didn’t realize what they were until a couple weeks ago. So I figured I would break down the worse off of the two so I could rebuild the other.

 

 

So I salvaged what I needed and headed to the more complete portal!

 

 

Then I was ready to try it out, but I didn’t have any  with my flint and steel. So I had to spend time running around to get that. But THEN I was ready! I stocked up with weapons, food, extra flint and steel, materials to make a shelter if need be. And I tried to start the portal but ended up setting myself on fire.

 

Then I decided to check out the bricks that were lighting up and bits of stuff were flying off of. A quick search revealed that there were crying obsidian and needed to be replaced for the portal to work again. Thankfully I still have more obsidian from the other broken portal, so I hacked the crying obsidian away and replaced it. Now I was ready to start the portal.

 

 

Yeah!! But the night cycle was about to start and I had no idea if that would affect things in the Nether so I decided to sleep and go in the morning.

 

After one last gear check I was, once again, ready to go through the portal

 

 

This video is pretty long and is basically me going to the Nether and being freaked out by the weird noises I was hearing and doing a mad dash for the closest materials I could mine. Eventually I come back victoriously and make my long awaited observer!

 

 

Alas, my time was up and I needed to stop playing Minecraft and move on other things. Maybe next session I’ll have everything that I need to make my sugar cane factory machine. But for now I’m happy that I took an unexpected trip to the Nether tonight.

 

Until next time?

EDCI 336 Final Class

December 2, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Final Class reflection

 

For our last class we discussed games in education and did a bit of a wrap up for the course.

 

I was especially interested in the topic today because it ties in so closely to my free inquiry. I was actually inspired to play Minecraft for my inquiry because it is part of a program for the summer camp I worked for last summer. I was working as a sub for that camp so I didn’t need to know anything about Minecraft but it made me want to try it out. I suppose I was just blown away by the idea that a game this popular could be educational. I wish we could have had the chance to connect with the teacher from Colquitz who runs a Minecraft lab. From what I heard in class they are doing some really interesting stuff with the game. 

 

We also got together in Google docs to brainstorm games that we have seen and/or experienced in classrooms before. When it was pointed out that these were mostly math games I felt a bit silly for not noticing this before. It makes sense because math (at elementary levels) is an undisputed topic, and probably easy for game companies to deal with translation, internationalization, and localization of these types of game so they can find a larger audience (because profit). 

 

I like the video that was included in the slides about Minecraft being the ultimate educational tool 

 

I really think that games in the classroom is going to become more and more common, especially seeing large companies like Google and Microsoft making pushes to get into schools. 

 

However I do agree with what was said in class about how games are currently used as reflection, review, or practice and maybe not as a teaching tool. There is much more to this topic than what we covered in class and there is a part of me that thinks this will be changing quite a bit during my teaching career. Games in classrooms is definitely something I will be keeping my eye on during my degree and once I start teaching.

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