Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Category: games

  • Podcast 436: The Technology Director Speaks

    11 topics in 67 minutes! In this podcast recording, Dr. Wesley Fryer shares some updates about his new position this year as a school technology director, previews “iPad Media Camp in a box” for summer 2016, shares his current favorite podcasts and audiobooks, discusses lessons learned about fiber optic cabling, and lessons learned from seven videoconferences…

  • Our Daughter Plays Minecraft with International YouTubers

    Our youngest daughter, Rachel, has become a pretty amazing Minecraft guru in the past year.  I initially taught her to play, but the HOURS she has invested in playing, watching Minecraft YouTuber videos, and creating her own videos have catapulted her far beyond my own meager Minecraft skills into the digital stratosphere. She’s recorded some…

  • How Much Minecraft is Too Much Minecraft?

    Do you have kids at home who love to play Minecraft? Our (now) 12 year daughter definitely fits into that category. This past summer we paid for her to participate in Connected Camps’ “Summer of Minecraft,” and Rachel really enjoyed it. Last night we recorded a 20 minute podcast, in which she reflected on her camp…

  • Podcast430: Minecraft Summer Camp with Connected Camps

    This podcast is an interview with 12 year old Rachel, who participated in the July 2015 Minecraft Summer Camp sponsored by Connected Camps of California. Rachel shares some stories about things that happened in Minecraft Camp and what she enjoyed about the camp. Check out the podcast shownotes for links to the official Connected Camps…

  • Gameification is SO Much More Than Badges

    Today at lunch in Philadelphia during the “Hacked Ed” pre-event for ISTE 2015, I had an opportunity to interview Michael Matera (@mrmatera). Michael is presenting two workshops at ISTE this year about gameification. He’s a 6th grade social studies teacher at the University School of Milwaukee, and his classroom website from last year (realmofnobles.com) is totally…

  • Great Class Castle Build in MinecraftEDU

    This afternoon after school we had our first meeting of “Makers Club” at our school for the semester. Generally we learn something new together and then students break up to work on different projects in our STEM classroom “Maker Studio.” Today, however, we opted to build a 64 x 64 block castle together (or at…

  • Exemplary MinecraftEDU Water Challenge Build

    One of my 5th grade STEM students this semester, Phoebie, did a great job in the MinecraftEDU station of our Maker’s Studio this month. Students used the “Water Challenge Remix” world and project in MinecraftEDU to create irrigation canals and cultivated fields where they could grow wheat and make bread to survive. Phoebie did an awesome…

  • Substitute Wood for Coal in Minecraft

    I absolutely love being able to stay in touch with my 4th grade daughter using the free iOS instant message app Kik, as she does not yet have her own phone. This is a message she sent me today after making a new discovery in Minecraft after school. I also love how Minecraft encourages so…

  • MinecraftEDU student computer (client) configuration

    This quick video (2 min) shows the steps for configuring our school computer lab computers for MinecraftEDU so they can readily connect to the 2 computers (1 Dell and 1 Apple/Mac) we use as MinecraftEDU servers. This video is included on my MinecraftEDU resources page of my STEM curriculum site under “My MinecraftEDU Tutorial Videos.”

  • Load Saved MinecraftEDU World on School Server

    Today I’m making final arrangements and tweaks to the “MinecraftEDU Orienteering Challenge” my 4th and 5th grade STEM students will be completing this week in class. As I moved this saved world to the school computers I’m using as MinecraftEDU servers I recorded a short (just under 5 minutes) screencast, using Screencast-o-Matic, showing the steps…