For about six months now, my students and I have been engaging in many conversations about MineCraft. Due to their interest, I thought it might fun to put myself in role of the learner and allow my students teach me how to learn MineCraft Pocket Edition (PE). Please note, that I am not what anyone would call a “Gamer” and my experiences with gaming really stops somewhere around Pac-Man. So I was both nervous and excited for my first MineCraft Pocket Edition (PE) lesson last week.
As teachers, we do a lot of critical thinking before and during the process of teaching something to another. Which is why I chose to make myself vulnerable and allow students to be the teachers here. A ton of critical thinking goes into deciding what, when, and how information will dispensed. Based on the nature of game and my abilities, my students discussions quickly became very focused on teaching me how to move around and build within MineCraft PE. When one student went to tell me about the hissing spiders and other aspects of the game, another politely reminded us that I need to remember to take one step at time. As he put it,"We don't want to freak her out or overwhelm her." Personally, I loved that at least one of them was reading my body language and the lost look on my face.
After that, the conversation became more about what to practice building and why. More critical thinking appeared as they justifying each of their strategies for building to stay safe. Due to the things that come out at night we talked about adding height, putting in doors, and using fire. I do believe some of my students might be adjusting how they play based on that discussion.
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