BLOG 2 | TASK 2 - Design Based Thinking in Education

Contemporary teaching practices offer clear advantages over traditional methods. With networked projectors, interactive online resources, pre-designed lesson plans, and instant online assessment, teachers and students have access to a wealth of information and activities. Emerging technologies provide deeper and more varied learning experiences within a familiar digital environment (Tait, 2013/2016, pp. 204–218).

Design Thinking is one skill teachers might introduce and integrate into their classrooms to assist and encourage students to view learning from a new perspective. It is a process that involves individuals utilising both analytical and creative thinking to explore, experiment, create, prototype, gather feedback and redesign models (Razzouk and Shute, 2012).

Figure 1: Stephanie Baseman Design Thinking Process Diagram (n.d).

As a teacher, it can be challenging to keep children and students engaged in the classroom. However, utilising a fun, interactive and emerging platform like Minecraft Education can reinforce the concepts they are learning.

Students can explore a virtual world, where players can build structures and explore their surroundings using virtual pixelated blocks. Minecraft Education not only nurtures a passion for play, but it also encourages children to use their imagination, as they select and filter through a variety of construction pieces to build their virtual map and accessories to use for their characters.

Figure 2: My Minecraft character “mining” and creating a base for a house. (Original author content. Rabi , 2023)

How can it be used in the classroom?

Minecraft Education can be a valuable tool in developing students' systematic thinking, collaboration, and computational thinking skills, while also promoting social and emotional learning such as teamwork, communication, time management, and self-motivation in the classroom. Additionally, this platform can help students learn about digital citizenship and develop empathy. Teachers have the ability to monitor students' progress by viewing their maps and communicating with them via the chat feature. They can also provide access to assessment tasks or resources via links.

Figure 3: Accessible resource link URL for students and teachers to use. (Original author content. Rabi, 2023)

Minecraft Education promotes cardinal direction and map skills, as well as reading, sequencing, and math reasoning. It benefits various subjects, such as math (area, perimeter, patterns, ratios), geography (diverse environments, coordinates), and English/literacy (narratives). However, while Minecraft Education has benefits, there are also some drawbacks that come with it. Despite the fact that students may be actively participating in the program, they may also become distracted from the assigned task in the classroom. Thus, it is important for teachers to be watchful and ensure students remain focused on their work.

Figure 4: Laying down bricks for my Minecraft house with assisted controls on the left. (Original author content. Rabi, 2023)

How can we use it in a lesson?

Minecraft Education can be utlised in an English and Literacy lesson, where students are grouped together to encourage collaboration. In this lesson, they will be tasked with writing a short narrative in the first person point of view. Based on their narrative, the group will then present it to the class to showcase their storytelling skills.

To conclude, utilising Minecraft Education as an educational tool yields numerous benefits for students, such as fostering motivation for learning. Additionally. we anticipate a growing trend of incorporating digital games in the classroom to augment traditional teaching methods and maintain student engagement.

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REFERENCES

Baseman, S. (n.d.). Design Thinking Process. Stephanie Baseman. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.stephaniebaseman.com/design-thinking-process

Razzouk, R., & Shute, V. (2012). What Is Design Thinking and Why Is It Important? Review of Educational Research, 82(3), 330–348. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312457429

Tait, G. (2016). Making Sense of Mass Education. (2nd ed., pp. 204–218). Cambridge Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 2013)

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EDIT HISTORY

28/03/2023 AT 4:00 pm - Modifications made as per suggestions from Davis and Anna.