Learning2gether with EVO Minecraft MOOC and Gamification of Teacher Professional Development

LEARNING2GETHERWITH
EVO MINECRAFT MOOC:
GAMIFICATION OFTEACHER
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
Vance Stevens presenting at the
Connecting Online Conference, Feb 7, 2016

A CONVERGENCE OF
MINECRAFT AND
TECHNO-CLIL
Vance Stevens presents on EVO Minecraft MOOC
to theTechno-CLIL EVO session, Feb 3, 2016
This version has been revised slightly from an earlier presentation entitled

HTTP://SLIDESHARE.NET/VANCES
This is where you can find all my slide presentations
and follow along with links to URLs
encountered in this presentation

What is Minecraft?
A foreboding but benign view from Jeff’s castle on the EVO Minecraft MOOC creative server
Vance Stevens EVOTechno-CLIL Feb 3, 2016

Minecraft basics
Creative
■ Users can fly
■ Unlimited inventories
(build anything, try anything)
■ Monsters are benign
(no risk of sudden death)
■ Fanciful builds are possible and
common (examples follow)
Survival
■ Users can jump, no flying
■ Players harvest resources to
– get sticks, make planks, crafting
tables, larger objects,
– Mine for resources to craft weapons,
pickaxes, supply light and power
■ Must devise shelter for night to avoid
monsters (cause you to respawn)
■ You must maintain health by eating and
avoiding pitfalls
■ Players enjoy challenge to survive;
other players prove helpful
Each user purchases a user ID for less than $30,
User and server software is free to download
The game has two modes, creative and survival.
A night / day cycle is 20 minutes
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/10208/are-the-days-
and-nights-in-minecraft-of-equal-length

How can Minecraft support education?
Unlike other computer / video games, Minecraft is
■ Player vs. game (not player vs. player)
■ Infinitely Creative – (unlike Second Life, everyone is a builder there)
■ Minecraft has been called aTOY for
– embedding content in a gamified matrix
– learning languages; see …
Smolčec, M. and Smolčec, F. (2014). Using Minecraft for Learning English,
with an introduction byVance Stevens. TESL-EJ 18, 2:1-15. Available:
http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej70/int.pdf and http://www.tesl-
ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume18/ej70/ej70int/

Marijana and Filip Smolčec, co-authors
Filip Smolčec developing his presentation skills by presenting hisYouTube videos on Minecraft
at the age of 11 at 2014 RSCON online conference
https://sas.elluminate.com/drtbl?sid=2008350&suid=D.3F83255C4DDFF6BD54C70F58111C4E

EVO Minecraft MOOC’s hidden agenda
■ EVOMC16 is not so much about
Minecraft as
– It’s about gamification
■ EVO Minecraft MOOC session lets
educators experience
– being in a game that that looks like
Minecraft,
– but is in fact a Game space where
they can
■ meet other educators who are
learning how their students can
benefit from gamified environments

Big G and little g games
From Gee, J.P. (2008) “Learning and games.” The ecology of games: Connecting youth,
games, and learning. Edited by Katie Salen.The John D. and CatherineT. MacArthur
Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.Cambridge, MA:The MIT Press. (pp. 21-
40). Available:
http://ase.tufts.edu/DevTech/courses/readings/Gee_Learning_and_Games_2008.pdf
■ The little g game is “the
software in the box and all
the elements of in-game
design”
■ The Big G Game is “the
social setting into which the
game is placed” (p..24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnEN2Sm4IIQ

How EVOMC16 inculcates gamification
EVO Minecraft MOOC participants learn through a model that includes
■ Going to a Google+ community “game board” and figuring out from there what they
have to do to play the Big G Game of EVOMC16
■ Practicing in the little g game of Minecraft in creative mode,
■ Then graduate to honing understanding of Big G Gamification by coping with survival
and cooperating with other players in the more challenging little g game
environment.
The 'aha' moment occurs when the players succeed and realize that if what they
were trying to teach were placed in such a context, it would not only become more
engaging to the learners, but their students would be taking their own learning into
their own hands.This can create a powerful learning environment, and educators
need to experience it for themselves in order to understand its implications. (Stevens,
2016)
http://advanceducation.blogspot.ae/2016/01/week-3-playing-big-g-game-of-evo.html

How to play the Big G Game of EVOMC16
The Google+ Community
“game board”
(explained in next slide)

How to play the Big G Game of EVOMC16
■ Start at http://evosessions.pbworks.com and find EVO Minecraft MOOC
http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/103533067/2016_EVO_Minecraft_MOOC
■ This points you to the Google+ Community
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/112993649763396826671
■ Find the sidebar to the right of the community page.
Here you can figure out how to:
– Access the syllabus http://tinyurl.com/evomc16-syllabus
– Enroll in the course: http://goo.gl/forms/zALHMWsPGX
This is essential in order to be whitelisted on the EVO Minecraft server
– Find your missions to accomplish each week
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/

Weekly Missions
to Accomplish
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/

Big G Game Missions Accomplished
■ Those participating are able to find this sheet and play the Big G Game by filling it in
with links pointing to evidence of their EVOMC16 missions accomplished
■ As they accomplish missions, they record them on our open Google Doc spreadsheet
http://tinyurl.com/evomc16-badgetrack
■ Accomplishments are openly viewable, links verifiable, badge criteria credible

Big G Game Endgame
Accomplish Missions, Earn a Badge
Weeks 1-2
Orient, Declare
■ Introduce yourself on our Google+
Community
■ Install and enter Bb Collaborate
■ Fill in the Google registration form
■ Reflect on your activities forWeeks 1-2
■ Join our MissionsAccomplished
Google sheet
■ Join us in Minecraft creative mode
Weeks 3-5
Network, Cluster and Focus
■ Explore networks in Minecraft
■ Reflect on experience in Minecraft -
Last week in Creative Mode
■ Engage survival mode in Minecraft
■ Final reflection on your experiences
■ Contribute to a crowd-sourced
document of resources

Examples of potential for learning
■ Sun Jan 17 - Jeff Kuhn on Minecraft:An Introduction toWhat's Possible
http://learning2gether.net/2016/01/17/learning2gether-with-jeff-kuhn-on-minecraft-
an-introduction-to-whats-possible/
■ Sun Jan 24 - Bron Stuckey and EVO Minecraft MOOC: Projects and challenges –
designing and building http://learning2gether.net/2016/01/24/bron-stuckey-and-evo-
minecraft-mooc-projects-and-challenges-designing-and-building/

Thorsten Groß's students conduct tour
of Ricarda-Huch-Schule for EVOMC16
http://learning2gether.net/2016/01/31/thorsten-gross-students-conduct-tour-of-ricarda-
huch-schule-for-evo-minecraft-mooc/
Shows evidence of student learning of
micro skills necessary to
• plan and construct complex build
• organize and sustain the project
• Communicate in English on a world
stage about their accomplishment
https://paradigmagnus.wordpress.co
m/2016/01/14/minecraft-mooc-
tumbling-down-the-world-of-cubes/

Flying around Ricarda Huch-Shule

We ride on participant Mircea Patrascu’s
Amazing Roller Coaster
https://youtu.be/nJQhvLjtQn0
https://evominecraftmp.wordpress
.com/2016/01/28/a-day-in-evo-
minecraft-world/

Mircea in early stages of building
the Roller coaster

Networking:
Mircea’s other
world

Playing the little g game of Minecraft
on the EVO flat map creative server
Jeff’s castle, view from fire cluster on top

EVOMC16 Participants in the little g game
https://plus.google.com/1098946180201
89345959/posts/epWNDxXccVG

ParticipantYvonne Harrison
Yvonne Harrison
documents
some impressive
structures on
her Flickr feed,
linked from here
http://yvonneh.e
dublogs.org/201
6/01/26/evo_mo
oc-minecraft-
server-5/

EVOMC16
Participant
Beth Evans
https://eslbeth.wordpress.com/2
016/01/25/prepping-for-survival/

EVOMC16 Participant Beth O’Connell
http://booklady9.edublogs.org/2016
/01/24/inworld-maps-in-minecraft/

EVOMC16
Participant
Ellen Clegg
https://mcecsite.wordpress.
com/2016/01/23/finally-
getting-to-play-around-
woo-hoooo/

My son Dusty and
Dad build a house
This one was designed and mostly built by Dusty,
who was responsible for the pool and very very hot
tub. Dusty is over 30 years old.
Dad learned properties of liquids in Minecraft by
helping to add those substances
Minecraft is an excellent toy for parent-child
creative collaboration

Beware Filip’s Evil Rabbits

Aaron’s
Zombie Pit
Safe, enjoyable practice for survival mode

In weeks 4-5 to come:
Survival and Gamification
Survival helps us understand gamification
■ When you enter survival mode you learn important life skills
– You assist and are assisted by others in world
– With cooperation and help you stay alive and learn
■ So gamification turns out to be learning through
– teamwork
– mutual support
– meeting challenges
– and achieving your goal, whatever it is

Why is EVO Minecraft MOOC a Game?
■ The Big G Game of Minecraft MOOC has rules with
– Flexibility,
– Goals
– Challenges
– Awards in the form of badges
■ Participants have to figure out these rules,
– The Game is designed to let them to figure it
– As in any game, it it's more fun if it doesn't play out the
way anyone especially anticipated.

In this game you set your own goals
By achieving your goals in the game
■ Light bulbs go off in your head and light your way to
some realization of
– how what you are learning in EVOMC16
– might work to meet your real world challenges

VANCE STEVENS
HTTP://SLIDESHARE.NET/VANCES
http://advanceducation.blogspot.ae/2016/01/week-3-
playing-big-g-game-of-evo.html

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