網絡時代如何邊打遊戲邊學習 MinecraftEdu做到了

“We kept MinecraftEdu very open-ended to be a platform that teachers could create their own content on top of,” said Levin. “The secret sauce has been early-adopter teachers coming up with ingenious lessons and then sharing their lesson plans and curriculums with other teachers. Educators can find, discover and download this content and get them running in their own classrooms.”

萊文說，“我們將MinecraftEdu打造成一個高度開放的平臺，這樣一來，教師們就可以在其中創建自己的內容。該軟件的祕密武器在於，早期使用該軟件的教師會開發獨具匠心的課程，然後將其教學計劃和課程與其他老師分享。老師們可以尋找、發現和下載這一內容，並在自己的課堂上使用。”

In the U.S., history teachers are recreating ancient worlds in the game and then having students go on virtual adventures, talking to historical characters, or having students create historical landmarks based on what they learned in class. In Australia, a science teacher created giant 3D models of cells and neurotransmitters and let the class explore them. Other teachers have used the simulation aspect of the game, having kids do experiments with MinecraftEdu gravity and then comparing that to the real world and coming up with a hypothesis and proving it.

在美國，歷史教師正利用遊戲重建古代世界，然後讓學生們開始其虛擬征程，與歷史人物對話，或讓學生根據課堂所學重建地標性歷史建築。在澳大利亞，科學老師創建了一個巨大的細胞和神經遞質三維模型，並讓學生們對其進行探索。其他老師則發揮了該遊戲的模擬功能，讓孩子們利用MinecraftEdu做重力實驗，然後與真實世界的結果進行對比，從而提出假設並進行證明。

In Denmark, ESL teacher André Chercka used MinecraftEdu to help educate troubled teens. Kids can play the game in the classroom, but they have to speak only English. Because the game is so engaging, teachers find students pushing themselves and learning English.

在丹麥，非母語英語課程教師安德魯o查卡使用MinecraftEdu幫助教育問題少年。孩子們可以在課堂玩遊戲，但前提是隻能說英語。在該遊戲的強烈吸引下，教師們發現學生們一個個都在努力地學習英語。

“Book learning can only go so far,” said Levin. “You need to communicate to another person to solve problems and ultimately to succeed.”

萊文說，“從書本上學到的東西總是有限的。要想解決問題並最終獲得成功，人們得與其他人進行交流。”

Even at younger grade levels, the game has been successfully integrated into education. In kindergarten classrooms, the game is used for play like LEGOs. Around the second-grade level, instructors are using the game to teach children about how communities work and the different roles in society. The game is good at modeling things like asking a group of kids to build a town and assigning different tasks like chopping wood and making tools. That concept was taken to another level at one high school, where a government teacher let kids form their own society. They wrote a town charter and had a great debate about how to govern and how to divide labor.

即便是在較低的年級，這款遊戲也已經被成功地整合到教學當中。在幼兒園教室裏，孩子們像玩樂高積木一樣玩這款遊戲。在二年級，指導員利用遊戲向孩子們介紹社區的運作方式，以及人們在社會上扮演的不同角色。將事物模塊化是該遊戲的專長，例如讓一組孩子建設一座城鎮，然後分配不同任務，例如鋸木頭和製作工具。這一理念在一所高中得到了進一步昇華，一位公立學校教師讓孩子們根據自己的想法來組建社會。他們撰寫了城鎮章程，而且就城鎮管理方式和勞動分配方式進行了非常有意義的辯論。

“At the meta level if you have some programming skills you can change the game to add whatever you want to it,” said Levin, who noted that the game is also being used to teach programming at some schools. “I’ve seen videos from a calculus class where students were making shapes using MinecraftEdu blocks that conformed to the formulas they were studying. Other students built the Globe Theater and then stood on stage reciting Shakespeare.”

萊文注意到一些學校在編程教學中也在使用該遊戲，他說：“如果你擁有一些元級層次的編程技術，你可以對遊戲進行更改，並按照自己的想法增加任何組件。在我看過的一段微積分課程視頻中，學生們使用MinecraftEdu方塊按照所學公式來拼湊各種形狀。其他的學生則搭建了環球劇場（Globe Theater），然後站在臺上朗誦莎士比亞的作品。”

MinecraftEdu is helping debunk the stigma attached to video games—generally that they’re a waste of time or lead to addictive or negative behavior. Levin said there’s enough research out there that disproves this idea, including a recent study in the United Kingdom that tracked 13,000 kids over 10 years and was unable to show any negative effects from kids who played games when compared to those who did not.

MinecraftEdu正在爲視頻遊戲平反——人們過去普遍認爲，玩視頻遊戲是浪費時間，而且容易上癮或導致不良行爲。萊文說，有足夠多的研究表明，這一觀點並不正確，其中包括英國近期對1.3萬名兒童開展的長達10年的跟蹤調查。該調查顯示，與不玩遊戲的孩子相比，玩遊戲的孩子並未因爲玩遊戲而受到任何不良影響。

“It’s about whether the school is willing to embrace new teaching methods and education in the classroom,” said Levin. “By and large, schools all over the world schools are really looking for teaching methods they can apply to 21st-century learning.”

萊文說：“關鍵問題在於，學校是否願意在課堂上使用新的教學方法和教育模式。總的來說，全世界的學校都在認真地尋找適用於21世紀教育的教學方法。”

The cost of entry for educators is low at $391, which includes the software plus 25 licenses of the game. MinecraftEdu is only available for the PC, Mac and Linux, which fits in nicely with the classroom setting.

對於教學人員來說，使用這款軟件的成本低至391美元，其中包括軟件及25項授權。MinecraftEdu僅適用於桌面電腦、蘋果Mac電腦和Linux系統，而且可以很好地融入課堂環境中。