Now that Assignment 2 is safely tucked up in Ease-land, I’ve had a little more time to look at some articles of interest. I would like to share this link to the BBC magazine page which looks at the benefits of Minecraft and how its innovative technology adds up to being more than a video game.
I had to smile as I read “That’s all very well but I, like many other parents with Minecraft-obsessed kids, wonder if they are wasting their time. Surely the whole experience can be made educational?”
The article continues to unearth (no pun intended!) that yes – Minecraft can be used as an educational and social tool – computer programming and co-operative learning to name two skills that can be developed. It seems that the phenomenon is also a means of social connections within a school that may not have taken place if it hadn’t been for a mutual following of Minecraft.
A useful link to resourcing and implementing innovative ideas can be found at the Victorian Government’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development website. Innovation in Education The short informative video clip highlights the advantages of implementing as many innovative ideas into the curriculum in order to facilitate higher order thinking skills. I shall quote one individual from the link, which sums up succinctly, what innovative teaching should be:
“We teach them how to find out more about the things they’re interested in, rather than teaching more things to be interested in.”