Setup

I have begun to formulate how this will actually work in my classroom.  I did a lot of research into alternatives to Minecraft and due to the limitations of technology in our room, I a going with Minecraft PE on our Nexus tablets.  I would much rather use MincraftEDU, however the price is an issue and we don't have enough computers to accommodate the entire class.

I have been thinking about ways to get around the fact that only 5 people can be on a single world at a time and the fact that I cannot possibly observe each child's construction at the same time.  My solution is to group kids into a team of students that all work on one world at a time.  I have designated "World Builders" who are responsible for creating the world that their team will join.  These students are ones who I know are responsible and will help keep the world regulated (no mobs) for our purposes.

Next, I began listing expectations and protocols for my students all available to them on pour Google Drive account.  My students will be able to easily refer back to them each time that we use Minecraft and we won't have to waste a bunch of paper.  This document can be found here.   After discussing it with the kids, we decided to make revisions as needed in a morning meeting.

The biggest part that I am stressing to my students is that this is all about collaboration and cooperation.  They must take turns, share equally, and participate for this to work.  My example was that one child does the building, then afterwards, the other does the blogging.  The next time, they switch roles.  That was just my suggestion, I am going to leave it up to them and see what develops.

We will start today, so wish me luck...