Author: Katie Piatt

Katie is the eLearning Services Manager at the University of Brighton.

Crafting slowly

Katie Piatt on

An initial group within Information Services met to look at the logistics of using Minecraft Education Edition at the university. Initial findings were disappointing:

  • Minecraft EDU Edition requires Windows 10 or OSX (El Capitan), neither of which are currently available on university computers
  • Staff and students are on different O365 addresses (@brighton.ac.uk and @uni.brighton.ac.uk) and Education Edition does not allow shared games to cross these domains
  • The Education Edition does not support servers, plugins or ownership controls meaning all users are equal a teacher cannot control the environment in any way (all work could be destroyed)

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That said, the email asking interested parties to get in touch had a great response and some interesting case studies of existing practice emerged such as the Biosphere project in conjunction with BlockBuilders (Arts and Humanities). These staff and researchers will be followed up with over the coming weeks.

The team are also looking at possibilities of using a Minecraft PE server along with the app versions of Minecraft as a possible route to allow students and staff to collaborate on projects.

Follow this blog for updates.

Minecraft at the University of Brighton

Katie Piatt on

Triggered by the recent release of Minecraft Education Edition, the eLearning team are beginning to coordinate a project looking at the potential of Minecraft for the University of Brighton.

Following an initial meeting (10/10/2016) the project group have set the aim of assessing the extent to which Minecraft can solve teaching and learning issues within the university. Initially we will look at the potential for the Education Edition (which is free until Nov 1st, $5 per user after this).

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The plan is to install Minecraft Edu Edition in a couple of spaces such as Watts G6 Training room and a more portable set of laptops in order to engage academics and students with the conversation (see sample resources and lesson plans).

We will also promote the free offering (get started) to staff and students via the free software pages on the IS website.

The group will investigate existing Minecraft practice with the university and also review good practice elsewhere in HE.

The project evaluation will go Blended Learning Sub Committee (BLSC) following the university processes of what is recommended for university wide support in learning and teaching.

The group also discussed Minecraft Pi and hosted Minecraft which we will consider in more detail once we have understood the potential for the free offering.

Do you use Minecraft in your teaching? Would you like to explore the potential of Minecraft for your course? If so, please leaves a comment below to make contact. Regular updates will be posted on this blog.