Tag: minecraft

Using Minecraft as a Teaching Tool

This post is part of my work in the 2022 Minecraft EVO MOOC, some reflections on using Minecraft as a teaching tool. My own journey with Minecraft has always been tied to my students, if not teaching. I started playing with it in 2012 because I kept hearing my students talk about it. That’s usually how I find out about all the fun games. So I figured I’d give this Minecraft thing a shot. I really liked it and so I’d chat with my students about it, too! Sharing common hobbies is a simple way to build some rapport with your students, right?

Beyond that, talking about anything the slightest bit complicated in an authentic exchange is always going to produce language. And if it produces language, it can produce language learning! My students wanted to talk about crafting, describe their adventures (mostly killing stuff), or learn how to do cool things. To do that, we needed to speak in English, the lingua franca. So in the course of a natural conversation, attempting to make meaning, as human beings will do, I was teaching my students:

• Words like block, cube, build, rotate, creep, climb
• Names and descriptions of materials, colors, textures
• Idioms like “wasted a zombie” “scared the heck out of me” “nailed it”
• Skills like hedging (I think it was like this), speaking over vocab gaps with vague language or circumlocution (it was some kind of green thing), correcting (No, that’s not what happened)

 Mining Walkthroughs and Construction Guides for Language

From there I got interested in using Minecraft directly as a teaching tool. Instead of talking about Minecraft, how could we use language with Minecraft directly. I’ve always loved building in Minecraft. One way to learn how to build in Minecraft is to find instructions for cool buildings or creations. These used to be written and illustrated blog posts, but more and more you’ll find instructional YouTube videos. There are also a handful of books out there, such as these fabulous guides by Meghan Miller! Reading or listening to these guides and following them is pretty good language learning. Putting students in groups to work together adds a group work component, and has them talking to each other. Have students create their OWN building guide and you’ve added a writing component!

Another aspect of using Minecraft as a teaching tool is the adventure guide or walkthrough. The Minecraft EVO MOOC server for example has a number of interesting locations students can explore. But any world will have villages, cool natural formations, and other features. It wouldn’t take much to add your own touches whether they be statues or buildings or just tweaks of natural formations. You could even add signs or books to make a story for students to follow. Then write a walkthrough telling students where to go and what to do. Or have them chart their own adventure and write a walkthrough for others!

Tools to Teach Language in Minecraft

Then I got greedy. I saw some of the tools my colleagues in math and science were using to teach directly in Minecraft. A friend of mine did mathematical proofs building with Minecraft. I thought, is there any way that Minecraft can be used in the same way to teach English? Now this may be the nature of the difference between math and language, but I figured it was worth a try.

So I talked to a lot of educators, and I read a lot. I played with redstone machines and build weird contraptions like combo locks that required you to move levers or push buttons to answer questions. I played with command blocks and NPCs. My students created beautiful writing vistas where they could imagine themselves on top of a mountain or in a hut in the woods and write. These have been particularly fun in recent years, where they’ve added more scenery and interactions to Minecraft. My favorite writing vistas are in villages, underwater near a coral reef, and in the new Nether forests.

I also created some quest guides to help younger learners master the game, wrote ebook guides to Minecraft and made YouTube videos of my own.

Bringing the Classroom into Minecraft

I also read some articles and books about Minecraft for teaching, particularly Teachercraft and Minecraft in the Classroom, particularly James York’s chapter on his project teaching language with Minecraft. I loved how he created lessons in Minecraft and buildings that contained all the tasks and projects. There are a lot great ways to adapt classroom activities to Minecraft including info gaps where one student guides the other through a maze of pressure plates.

I was inspired to take one of my favorite vocab learning methods where students note how well they know a word on a worksheet. For each new vocab word, they might check off answers to questions such as

• Have you seen this word before?
• Do you kind of know what it means?
• Could you use it in a sentence?
• Can you manipulate it grammatically (if it’s a verb can you make it past tense or form the participle, e.g.)

Without too much trouble or redstone skill, I devised a vocab meter for each student. As they flip pages in the Minecraft book to say how well they know a word, the redstone lanterns light up. As a teacher, you can now see which words students know well and which they don’t. Students can also pair up to teach each other words the other doesn’t know.

Colleagues suggested I use these meters to measure progress in other areas-another great idea. Students could track number of tasks completed, units finished, or simply leave an indication of how confident they feel about their understanding of the lesson. Another great self-reflection technique involves students putting different materials in chests to indicate what they understand or don’t. Coal means they have no clue. Emeralds if they feel good. Gold if they still have questions, for example.

Furthermore students can leave actual notes for you or each other by writing books.  They can literally write in Minecraft on books. And you can leave them questions or directions in books.

Looking ahead

It often seems as if there’s a great debate in how to use Minecraft as a teaching tool, particularly using Minecraft to teach language! On one side are the explorers or the Krashenites. They prefer to see Minecraft as input. As students learn and play, language will naturally emerge. On the other side, the managers, who see Minecraft as a powerful tool to build tasks and projects and replicate classroom activities in an engaging way. More and more, I see myself as a follower of the middle way. Both approaches can work very well. But more importantly, when you give students tasks in Minecraft, you can also open them up to exploring the task itself and how it was built! Or the task may be to replicate a Minecraft structure. Instead of a scavenger hunt in the classroom, what about a Minecraft scavenger hunt?

We may never be able to build language blocks in Minecraft (ok, outside of education edition), the way math teachers can build geometry literally. But we can do a lot of work in Minecraft and guide as language emerges!

Easy Office Furniture in Minecraft

I don’t know why it’s satisfying to modern buildings and offices in Minecraft. You’d think we’d be tired of offices and want to use Minecraft as escapism. And the medieval castle urge is strong. But every now and then it’s fun to see if you can a modern workplace, including office furniture in the game.

So here are some ideas for making your office look good, including easy ways to make computers, desks, printers, bookcases, and file cabinets. You can use them in Minecraft skyscrapers, cities, or even your house! I’ve tried to avoid techniques that are too complicated so that kids can enjoy them (and some techniques involve pushing armor stands with pistons, which works in Java but not in bedrock anymore). So I’m keeping it simple! I’m also keeping my language simple for kids!

Share your own ideas for office furniture in Minecraft in the comments or even show how you used my ideas here!

Chairs

An easy way to make a chair is to use a stair. Try different kinds of stairs. Each one looks different. Wood stairs look like wooden chairs. Warped fungus and Crimson fungus are very colorful. Stone stairs can look like metal. Smooth Quartz stairs look like plastic. Those are the most modern, in my opinion. You can add signs to the sides of the chairs. That makes it look like an armchair!

Desks

An easy way to make a desk is to put down three wooden or stone blocks. I think the wooden blocks look nice. You can try different colors. Stone block can look like metal. You can even use wool blocks or concrete blocks to make your office colorful.

Attach trapdoors to the sides of the blocks. They look like drawers or cabinets. Pretty nice, right?

Another way to make a desk is with upside down stairs. You can make a long worktable next to a wall like this. Many offices, libraries, and schools have this kind of counter. To place stairs upside down, you have to aim carefully. Make the cursor (+) point at the top of the blocks behind the desk.

You can also add two sideways stairs to the end. Now it looks a lot more like a long desk. Putting a stairs sideways a bit tricky too! You have to stand in front of your desk, turn to the side, and aim the cursor (+) at the top corner of the wall next to the desk. See if you can do it!

Computers

An easy way to make a computer is to add a banner to a desk. Black, white, or grey banners look the most like computers.

Banners take up two spaces. The trick is to show only the top half of the banner. To do that, place a banner in the space above and behind the middle of the desk, right where that square is. If you do it right, it’ll look like a computer screen or monitor on top of the desk. Are you good with looms? You might be able to create a pattern on the banner that looks more like a monitor!

Want to have a desktop computer or tower? Many of the white, black and grey walls look like computers if you place them on top of desks. I like the Blackstone Wall or the Diorite Wall.

To make a laptop, put a piece of grey, black, or white carpet on the top of your desk. Then on the wall behind it, add a painting. Now when you put a painting on a wall, it will fill up the space. So if you place a painting on a big wall, it will make a big painting.

For your laptop, you want a painting that is one block big. So you need to have a wall that is one block big. You can do this before you build the rest of the wall. Or destroy part of the wall every time you make a laptop. Then rebuild it.

Printer

Here’s an idea for an office printer. Make a stack of two stone slabs.

Then add a white banner behind the stack, as we did for the desktop screen above.

Put a slab in front of the stack and add a white carpet above that slab! Looks like one of those big copy machine/printers now, right?

Other Office Furniture for Minecraft

You can also make a file cabinet. Make it out of stone slabs or wooden slabs or even iron blocks. This one is eight slabs tall and two slabs wide. Add item frames on the front. Put a gate in the item frames. Now it looks like cabinet drawers with handles.

Another fun idea is a water cooler. Put down an iron block. Add a button to the front. Put a blue glass block on top.

Another nice decoration to add is bookcases, and that is something that already exists in Minecraft. You also may want to add a big table or some kitchen furniture.

Check out our post on Kitchen Furniture for Minecraft and visit our Basic Minecraft for Kids page, too.

Hope you enjoyed these ideas for office furniture in Minecraft. Do you have any ideas to share?

Easy Kitchen Furniture in Minecraft

Whether you build a cool house, castle, or tower in Minecraft, you need furniture and decorations to make it look nice. Here are some ideas for easy kitchen furniture in Minecraft. You can put them in your house or restaurant or even an office building setting (and click here for ideas for office furniture in Minecraft too)!

Share your best furniture ideas in the comments or show how you used my ideas here!

Kitchen Chair

An easy way to make a chair is to use a stair.
You can also put two chairs next to each other. It looks like a couch.

Or make an armchair. Put down a stair with a stair. Put two signs on the sides of the char. Don’t write anything on the signs.

You can even make a big couch. Put 4 stairs next to each other. Put 2 stairs on the ends. One stair faces left. One faces right. You can make this very big if you want. This is probably better for a living room, but it can still be fun to do in a big kitchen!

You can even put a slab or carpets in the middle to make it a deep couch.

Here’s a cool idea for a chair I just learned about from @SheepGG: Put a campfire down. Put out the fire with a shovel or a splash bottle of water. Now put a sign on the back. I’ll take a picture when I can.

Kitchen Table for Minecraft

Make a small table by putting a fence down (it will look like a stick). Put a carpet on top.

To make a big table, put fences down. Put carpets on top of all the fences.
If you choose brown carpet, it looks like wood. If you choose another color, it looks like a table cloth. Put small chairs around the table if you want.

Another easy way to make a table is to use a scaffolding.

Refrigerator in Minecraft

A refridgerator is a key piece of kitchen furniture! Put down an iron door.
Put an iron block behind the door. The iron block should touch the door.
If it doesn’t touch the iron door, put it on the other side of the door.
Put another iron block on top of that block.

You can put a button on the side of the iron. This will make the door open and close!

Kitchen Cabinets in Minecraft

To make cabinets you need to make a wall.
Then you can put blocks on the bottom of the wall and also at the top. Some blocks can be cabinets. Some can be counters.

Barrels make nice kitchen cabinets or use wood and put trapdoors on them. Try different kinds of trapdoors.
See what looks good to you. Don’t be afraid to mix and match
If you want a big cabinet or closet, you can put a door on it.

Microwave

Put a block of quartz down on the counter! Now put an item frame on the quartz.
Put a glass pane on the item frame. Now put a button on the front.

Cutting Board

Put an item frame on a block. Put a piece of food in the item frame. This works with apples, meat, fish, any food really. You can also try this trick on tables. Put an item frame down and then some food, even soup. It looks like there’s food on a placement on the table!

Dishwasher

Put a block of quartz or iron or black concrete down.
Put a birch trapdoor the bottom part.

Oven and Stove

Put a block of quartz or iron or black concrete down. Put an iron trapdoor on top. This is the stove.
Put an item frame on the front. Put a piece of glass in the item frame. This is the oven.

Sink

A cauldron makes a good sink.

Put it all together to make a kitchen. Don’t forget a floor. Here I’ve done a checkered floor. Feel free to get more creative than I have.

Do you have any cool ideas for kitchen furniture in Minecraft? Share them in the comments.

Disclaimer: Some of these ideas I borrowed from various places online such as video tutorials or other how-to tutorials Sometimes I had an idea that many people also had. I may have adapted or changed the idea, or gotten some ideas to improve my creation from tutorials. However, I only present ideas here that I have either adapted or seen used in many other tutorials.