Reposted from Round Rock ISD Press Release 2/25/15
Round Rock ISD teachers are re-envisioning the educational value of video games after Minecraft has successfully integrated into language arts, social studies and math curriculums across the district. A pilot program to use Minecraft as a tool was started in 2013 at Laurel Mountain Elementary School and Canyon Vista Middle School. Since its success, the…(Read More)
Round Rock ISD is currently piloting the educational version of the popular Minecraft game at four campuses. Integrating this popular game for students into the educational setting is catching on world-wide making it hard to get a seat at the recent SXSWEDU conference. It seems to be natural fit to add educational activities into a game that students enjoy to play. We have witnessed firsthand the increased level of engagement of students who are learning while using the strategy of gamification. A few observations from staff working with the pilot are below:
- Students who are normally very quiet and reserved will go into great detail about what they are learning using Minecraft.
- Students who normally do not talk to each other will quickly begin collaborating with each other.
- Not only is the project student friendly, but it is also spreading among teachers as they become more familiar with how they can use Minecraft as a tool to teach and reinforce concepts.
The campuses involved in the pilot are Canyon Vista Middle School, Hernandez Middle School, Laurel Mountain Elementary, and Pond Springs Elementary. Click on the school name to learn more about their pilot. More information on MinecraftEdu can be found at http://minecraftedu.com/page/news.