EVO_Minecraft_MOOC_2021

Page history last edited by Vance Stevens 4 years, 11 months ago

Session Title

EVO Minecraft MOOC (#EVOMC21)

Logo

Abstract

(50 words)

This session invites interested teachers to join us in playing Minecraft. Through meaningful play, we will learn all we can about playing Minecraft alone and together. We will learn and understand through play how Minecraft can be used effectively in language learning. We'll learn by doing and from one another.

Target audience

Join us if any of these ring true. You are ...

A teacher with a gaming problem -
Are you a teacher who wants to learn how to gamify your students' learning environment but aren't quite sure how it works? With us you can experience how that works by immersing yourself in the participatory cultures surrounding the game of Minecraft, supported by EVO Minecraft MOOC community members.
A gamer with a teaching problem -
Already a gamer with some ideas about how you would like to leverage your skill and your proclivities in your classroom? You've come to the right place.
A teacher of gamers with a learning problem -
Do you think your students would like to play a game like Minecraft but you aren't sure how to make it fit your curriculum? Fortunately, your curriculum is somewhere in Minecraft already. Join us and we'll help you figure out how and where?
Or join us if you just want to learn more about how to use meaningful games and the participatory cultures associated with such games with your students.

But keep in mind that you'll need to play Minecraft with us in order to enjoy the experiential benefits.

Session objectives

By the end of the session, participants will have:

explored and played with Minecraft
curated resources relevant to them relating to Minecraft
shared their discoveries and what they have accomplished with other participants
created spaces in Minecraft where desired learning outcomes can be promoted
learned to build and survive in Minecraft
expanded their personal learning networks by befriending colleagues who can help each other continue their exploration of Minecraft as an environment for staging and enhancing learning

Session participants will learn about Minecraft in the same way they would expect students to figure it out and adapt it to their own learning goals; that is, we will learn by playing and sharing what we discover. We will learn, as Joel Levin puts it, how to 'limit' the game; that is how to create spaces there where we can promote desired learning outcomes. We will point each other to resources (there are thousands of them, so we'll have to curate for one another). We can create YouTube channels for our work and create videos showing what we accomplish in Minecraft and how we might use the worlds we create with our students. We will learn from students and kids who join us, in a server space created just for us.

Syllabus

Weekly Content

Our 5-week syllabus is patterned on Dave Cormier’s 5 steps to success in MOOCs: orient, declare, network, cluster, focus, https://youtu.be/r8avYQ5ZqM0

From screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/9ltyAlkAmz

Week 1: Mon-Sun, Jan, 11-17, 2021

Time to get-acquainted and practice with session tools during the first week.

Orient - Participants come on board, figure out how this works, who we are, and why we are all here (we’ll all post to community spaces set up for this). We’ll view tutorials to learn the basics, meet in world in creative mode to help each other learn and practice.

Participants will have to invest $27 if they wish to join us in-world by purchasing a login to Minecraft from http://minecraft.net (the login credentials are a once in a life-time purchase; all Minecraft software is freely downloadable; no proceeds are collected by or go to EVO or EVOMC MOOC moderators).

Week 2: Mon-Sun, Jan. 18-24, 2021

Declare - Still with us? Start your blog or wiki and share your experiences with Minecraft, what you’ve learned so far, and how you intend to learn more. Tag your posts (relevant to this session) #evomc21

We’ll meet in-world where we can play in Minecraft, speak to each other using Discord (a separate online voice tool) and start crafting and building. We’ll learn how to create artifacts and experiment with YouTube videos from screen-captured Minecraft activities.

Week 3: Mon-Sun, Jan. 25-31, 2021

Network - Meet in Minecraft and learn how to work with one another. Participants continue to blog and share builds and resources. We plan to record some or our activities and share and YouTube video embeds with one another. Wherever you play, you’ll need friends online to help sustain you in survival mode. Make friends in world and you'll be ready for it!

Week 4: Mon-Sun, Feb. 1-7, 2021

Cluster - Identify others in the MOOC with like goals and start working in subgroups within the MOOC. You’ll have to collaborate in order to stay alive in survival mode! Participants continue to blog and share builds and YouTube video embeds with one another, and more importantly, help each other out in-world and contribute to one another's learning and appreciation of the affordances of the game in education.

Week 5: Mon-Sun, Feb. 8-14, 2021

Wrap-up and session evaluations.

Focus - Participants share plans for carrying the work started here beyond the current EVO session and MOOC. Participants are welcome to participate in an end-of-session showcase event.

Media

How will you communicate with participants during the session?

Interactive space = https://www.facebook.com/groups/1473050936163127/
Content space = http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/
Live meeting space in Minecraft itself, using voice through Discord;
Events for 2021 will be announced on FB and posted at our content space:
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142133859/2021_Live_Events

Other technology tools:

Participants keep blogs or wikis, content aggregated on #evomc21 tag
Synchronous meeting spaces

Minecraft ($27, unavoidable if you wish to play with us in our Java edition world)
Discord app for voice communication while in world
Webinars in Zoom, with Minecraft screenshare, streamed on Facebook

Asynchronous tools

Video capture e.g.

YouTube
Our Facebook and wiki syllabus pages, noted below

To join this group

Fill in this registration form for 2021: https://forms.gle/K2WhQAZNUg698ZCV7
Join this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1473050936163127/
Follow instructions on our syllabus page: http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/

We accept join requests from educators (and sometimes their students and/or their children) whose profiles appear to link to identifiable people who could become potential colleagues as opposed to gamers apparently using pseudonyms, and whose reasons for joining us would likely be incompatible with our goals and passions, which relate to gamification in education, not just playing Minecraft for hedonistic reasons. As we are a community of practice interested in assisting each other in using Minecraft creatively and constructively with students, we might reject profiles that appear irrelevant to our goals or indicate no evidence of shared aspirations.

If you are a bona fide educator wishing to join us, and for some reason we reject you, please send an email to the primary contact given at the end of this proposal, explaining why you feel you fit in with our community, and we'll sort it out.

Sponsor

TESOL CALL-IS

Moderators

Name (last, first)	Email address	Location (country of residence)	Biodata (not more than 50 words)	Photo
Aaron Schwartz	aschwar@gmail.com	USA	Aaron Schwartz teaches ESL courses as well as public speaking, writing and rhetoric, and computer assisted language learning (CALL) at Ohio University. He's a former chair of TESOL's CALL-IS, where he has been quite active with the Electronic Village. He was a moderator for the Minecraft MOOC in 2016-17 and runs the EVO Minecraft Server.
Don Carroll	abufletcher2@gmail.com	Japan	Don Carroll has been a professor at Shikoku Gakuin University in Japan for over 20 years. Prior to Japan he taught EFL and/or Applied Linguistics at universities in Mexico, Oman, and Kuwait. Don joined us as a newcomer to Minecraft and online communities in general. Every community needs an open-minded skeptic.
Jane Chien and Mattie Tsai	ychien@gmail.com	Taiwan	Jane Chien is an assistant professor of TEFL and has been on the faculty of Children’s English Education, National Taipei University of Education since 2005. Her research interest focus on Minecraft as a medium for English language learning and communication.
Jeff Kuhn	jkuhn72@gmail.com	USA	Jeff Kuhn is one of the original co-moderators and guiding lights of EVO Minecraft MOOC, having hosted our first Minecraft server in 2015. He recently earned his PhD at Ohio University where he is researching games and learning. An avid Minecraft player, Jeff has worked with teachers on using games in the classroom in the U.S., Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela.
Kim Harrison	k4sons@gmail.com	USA	Retired Instructional Technology Specialist (coach) in a K5 school. Virginia Society for Technology in Education member, VSTE Virtual Environments PLN leader. Playing Minecraft since 2012. Partner on East Coast Miners, a server for 6 to 16 year olds. 2015 VSTE Innovative Educator of the Year award winner. Grant winner for Minecraft Education Edition for her entire school for 2017-2018!
Laura Briggs	laurabtrt2@gmail.com	USA	Laura Briggs is an educational consultant and retired technology integration teacher and staff developer from northern Virginia. She has served on the board of directors of the Virginia Society for Technology in Education and as a VSTE Minecraft Coordinator/Trainer and a VSTE Island in Second Life facilitator. She continues to design and facilitate online learning courses using Minecraft and other technology tools.
Marijana, Filip, and Domagoj Smolčec, Croatia	msmolcec@gmail.com Domogoj is Filip's younger brother, a welcome addition to the Smolčec team	Filip Smolčec is a highschool school student, Minecraft expert and a Youtuber, interested in gaming and creating videos. The youngest EVO moderator in 2015 and a co-author of TESL-EJ article Minecraft and Language Learning.	Marijana has been an EFL teacher for 18 years at Gimnazija i strukovna škola Bernardina Frankopana. She is a proud Webhead who has been involved in EVO since 2011, eTwinning group moderator, project coordinator, avid user of web 2.0 tools,co-author of TESL-EJ article Minecraft and Language Learning, passionate about teaching Edtech, and being a mom and a wife.
Mircea Patrascu	mircea.patrascu@gmail.com	Romania	Mircea Patrascu is an IT professional teaching kids to code during his free time. He loves to play Minecraft, but he also uses it as a learning environment for Scratch and JavaScript.
Rose and Emanuel Bard	rosebard@gmail.com	Brazil	Rose Bard is an EFL teacher and teacher educator, Google for educators Group Leader, Itdi Mentor/Blogger, and runs her own blog. She's also working in Higher Education, in researching and supporting professors implementing new methodologies, including based on games and game mechanics, on problems, through projects and blended learning.
Vance and Bobbi Stevens	vancestev@gmail.com and bobbi_stevens@hotmail.com	Malaysia	Vance Stevens is an EFL teacher now retired in Penang, Malaysia. Founder of Webheads in Action, he has been an EVO coordinator since 2002. He is founder of the podcast series Learning2gether, and On the Internet editor for TESL-EJ where he and co-moderators have co-authored an article on Minecraft and Language Learning.	Bobbi Stevens has taught young learners in Saudi Arabia, Oman, USA & UAE for over 30 years and has adapted to changes of styles and methods of teaching children over the years, especially as pertains to educational technology. She was a co-moderator of the original EVO Minecraft group in 2015 and looks forward to participating again this year.