The role of Minecraft Education
Minecraft is often referred to as the great equalizer because it's easily accessible. The open gameplay makes it inclusive and collaborative, attracting players across wide demographic and age ranges. If your survey data suggests there may be students who don't have experience playing typical esports titles. Minecraft offers students a safe and welcoming first step into the esports domain.
To connect to Minecraft Education, both teachers and students need Office 365 Education accounts. Check your organization's eligibility.
- Each Office 365 Education user has free trial access.
- Students: 10 logins
- Teachers: 25 logins
Once you've used your free trial logins, you'll need to purchase Minecraft Education via an Authorized Education Partner or the Microsoft Education Store.
To collaborate and play in the same worlds in Minecraft Education, it's essential for players and teams to be part of the same Microsoft tenant.
Take action
Now it's your turn to reach out to your community to see who is interested in esports. Teach the various stakeholder groups about the benefits of Minecraft Education and the use of Minecraft Education in esports.
Use social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn to help spread awareness and engage with interested groups.
Next steps
Determine your intention:
- Get buy-in from your colleagues, IT at your school, and your leaders – having their support will be critical to your success.
- Survey students to understand who’s playing, what they’re playing.
- Ask them what elements of esports they love beyond gaming, and what they want to learn.
- These questions will help you refine your plan.
- Find a regular space to meet and determine what minimum equipment you need.
- Consider finding an educator buddy – it's always good to have a fellow educator join you on the journey.
- Invite students at your school to participate in an introductory meet-up.
- Gather insights and understand further about student needs and ambitions.
Make a plan with tangible goals:
- If you’re planning in your classroom to help teach something, what are your goals?
- If you’re planning after school, what are your goals?
You don’t need a lot of equipment. Sometimes educators must make decisions on what’s the best tool for the intended purpose:
- Thinking about and knowing which games your students will play is going to help you figure out what equipment you need to invest in.
- Most personal computers will do the job unless you're running a high-end graphics game.
- Use a student survey to know what type of games students are playing to know what devices you need to get started.
- Some games may not be cross platform, meaning that students can only play them on a specific gaming console, like Xbox.
- Pick titles that are universal or cross platform, but that can be challenging at times.
- Later, you may need other equipment like headsets, gaming chairs, keyboards, and mice.
- Investing in the right hardware for your environment’s needs is most important to getting started.
With Minecraft Education esports Make and Model worlds, for example, you can start play with a basic PC, a mouse with a scroll wheel, and earbuds. As your program grows, you may upgrade equipment as your gamers become more experienced or need to play more competitively.
In your classroom, there's a low threshold and a high ceiling. Purposeful planning, goal setting, practice, reflection, and grit are integral parts of scholastic esports. By applying your students' passion and expertise you encourage their agency and value their knowledge.
- Students who play Rocket League, for example, must work on their spatial geometry skills, and lines and angles of trajectory to get the ball into the team goal.
- Teams must focus on:
- Team skill sets
- Holding team meetings
- Reviewing footage of other players or teams
- Practicing independently and taking care of their physical health