Chromebook Guide to

Start Teaching with Minecraft

Minecraft on a Chromebook

What is Minecraft

Game Based Learning

Minecraft as an educational tool

Features of Education Edition

Teacher Efficacy

Find Lessons

Aligning to Standards

Try a Tutorial

Creative, Adventure, or Survival Mode

World Options

Cheats

Open Play

Students Submitting Work

Collaborative Learning

Using Signs and Chalkboards

Slash Commands

Export Your World

Coding with Minecraft

Start Using Minecraft

Created by Alice Keeler

for Chromebook

Install Using Google Play

Minecraft: Education Edition can be installed through the Google Play store on Google Play enabled Chromebooks.

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

Minecraft: Education Edition (M:EE) works on the Chromebook. This is an Android app installed on the Chromebooks by the Play Store and typically pushed to student devices by the IT department. Take advantage of Minecraft on the Chromebook to engage students in learning experiences.

Created by Alice Keeler

M:EE on Chromebooks

Interacting in Minecraft: Education Edition on a Chromebook is similar to other platforms such as PC or Pocket Edition utilizing the mouse and keyboard for movement. For touchscreen Chromebooks, M:EE allows for touch mode controls; switching from mouse and keyboard controls to on screen touch controls.

To access Minecraft, students will open Minecraft: Education Edition from the Play store. Once opened, the Minecraft icon will appear down in the shelf along the bottom. Right click to pin the app to the shelf.

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

Minecraft is an open-world game that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive environment where the only limit is the player’s imagination. For educators around the world, Minecraft is also an engaging learning tool that delivers learning outcomes across a wide range of subjects. In the game, students interact with a virtual learning space and creatively demonstrate their understanding of learning objectives.

Created by Alice Keeler

What Is Minecraft?

In Minecraft, students build in a world made of blocks that are constructed to build virtual spaces or representations of learning. Students can use Minecraft as an alternative to a poster, project, or other activity through which students explain or model a topic. Students can also design, engineer, and model solutions to challenges. Teachers can download a premade Minecraft world, or build their own, to allow students to engage and explore in an instructive virtual environment. Students can engage with the worlds shared by their teacher either individually or collaboratively.

"Minecraft: Education Edition is an excellent tool to engage students in learning, collaboration, and critical thinking." - Common Sense Media

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

Created by Alice Keeler

Game Based Learning

Game Based Learning (GBL), unlike gamification, is when the game itself enhances the learning. Minecraft is a game based environment where students interact within the virtual world to better demonstrate their understanding and learning of a topic.

The Minecraft world is referred to as “the game” and students are “players.” This mindset along with the immersive contextual environment created by Minecraft increases student learning and motivation.

“Don’t just teach a lesson, create an EXPERIENCE.” - Dave Burgess “Teach Like a Pirate”

Engagement increases student learning. Engaging with a game provides students an active way to interact with the concepts. You may not have previously considered using games, or were unsure how to tightly integrate a game into a lesson, but Minecraft: Education Edition offers an open ended experience that can be tailored for any lesson or topic.

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

While traditionally thought of as a game, Minecraft: Education Edition (M:EE) is used in schools to create game based learning experiences. To get started with Minecraft as an educational tool start with the resources, tutorials, and pre-made lessons available on the website:

Created by Alice Keeler

Minecraft is an excellent platform for STEAM learning, project based learning, game based learning, and providing a context for students to demonstrate 21st century skills. You may hear Minecraft referred to as “a game” or “in the game;” in her book Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal, games expert, defines a game as anything that has a goal. In Minecraft, students use the platform to achieve learning goals. Students using Minecraft play the game through tackling challenges that are student or teacher created.

education.minecraft.net

Minecraft as an Educational Tool

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

Minecraft: Education Edition (M:EE) is designed for use by educators and students using Chromebooks, PCs, iPads, or Macs. The school IT administrator will need to sign up the school for a free Microsoft O365 tenant. A free trial is available on education.minecraft.net that limits the number of student and teacher logins. Many schools with Office 365 licenses already have Minecraft: Education Edition included at no additional cost. Schools without a license may purchase one for $5 per student per year. Minecraft: Education Edition offers several features that are unique to this academic version of the product:

A simple and secure sign in. M:EE requires an O365 login and only students from the same O365 tenant can collaborate in the same Minecraft world.

Ability for up to 30 students to join collaboratively in the same world simultaneously.

Integration with Code Builder where students can learn to code using block-based coding, Javascript, and Python.

Camera: to enable students to take in game pictures.

Book & Quill: inventory item to enable students to journal in the game and export to PDF.

Portfolio item to enable students to caption and manage in game photos as well as submit their work via PDF.

Chalkboard to post instructional materials around the interactive learning space.

NPCs (Non Player Characters)- characters in a Minecraft world who can add instruction, guidance, and build narrative within a Minecraft world. NPC’s are capable of having a button linking to external websites/resources or executing commands.

650+ Lessons ranging across subjects from early education math to high school chemistry, social emotional learning, coding, history, culture, language arts, and more.

Created by Alice Keeler

Features of Education Edition

education.minecraft.net/get-started

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

It is important to realize you do NOT have to be an expert in Minecraft to effectively teach with Minecraft. Many students already are familiar with Minecraft through playing it at home or on their mobile devices. Students are generally eager to help you and classmates with how to navigate the virtual world.

Created by Alice Keeler

Teacher Efficacy

You do NOT need to know how to play Minecraft to teach with Minecraft.

A place to start is a willingness to allow students to use Minecraft as a project choice. “Create a poster or use Minecraft to demonstrate what you learned about…” Before feeling that you need to be able to create lessons in Minecraft: Education Edition, start with ones that are shared on the education.minecraft.net website.

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

Created by Alice Keeler

Title

Description

ELA Grades K - 4

Fairy Tale Reimagined

In this lesson, students will recreate a fairy tale inside of Minecraft and demonstrate an understanding of digital storytelling.

Math Grades 3 - 5

Rod Trains

Adapted from youcubed out of Stanford, Rod Trains allow students to create their own digital manipulative and explore patterns and combinations.

Science Grades All

Science Island

Science Island was designed to allow students of all ages to formulate, test and modify a hypothesis before generating a rule which they believe true.

Art Grades 4 - 8

College of Art

Students learn about elements and principles of art in creative portal regions, then build an artwork in a collaborative gallery space.

Coding Grades All

2019 Hour of Code: A.I. for Good

Self-directed introduction to block-based coding and A.I. for students who are just starting to learn how to code.

ELA Grades 10 - 11

Macbeth: A Journey

Students experience the classic Shakespearean text of Macbeth like never before as they talk with characters from the story.

Find Lessons

Find premade lessons on the education.minecraft.net website by clicking on class resources at the top. Lessons for nearly every subject for grades Pre-K to 12th grade are available. Review some of the lessons already created to use, modify, or inspire you for ideas to incorporate Minecraft into your lessons.

education.minecraft.net/class-resources/lessons

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

For practically any standard M:EE is an excellent fit. In addition to nearly every state standard, Minecraft: Education Edition addresses every ISTE standard for students: Empowered Learner, Digital Citizen, Knowledge Constructor, Innovative Designer, Computational Thinker, Creative Communicator, and Global Collaborator.

Created by Alice Keeler

Aligning to Standards

Standards aligned lessons are freely available on education.minecraft.net. See standards aligned math lessons for grades 3 - 5 here. In addition to Minecraft being a tool that allows you to address any of your subject matter standards, M:EE covers all of the 21st century skills as well: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking.

“If you are okay with kids submitting a video for their work, you can teach with Minecraft” - Jon Corippo “EduProtocols”

Chromebook Guide to Start Teaching with Minecraft

Created by Alice Keeler

After logging into Minecraft: Education Edition on the Chromebook the welcome screen will invite you to Play. Select the library to find hu