Explore and create: Exploratory Creation lab 
Preregistration Required
The objective of this lesson will be to empower educators to harness the potential for building immersive digital learning environments using the popular tool Minecraft. For example, starting a unit on myths, teachers could create a small world which puts the user in the story, and they can follow the story along to learn more about a particular myth.
Another idea could be an escape room which helps consolidate recent learning in maths, or a build challenge of creating a sustainable village using only a select amount of resources.
At the end of the session the participants should leave with confidence to be able to create their own immersive learning environment, albeit a simple one at first, by using one of the provided Minecraft templates.
Participants will leave excited to share with colleagues their creations, inspiring their colleagues to also try their hand at applying these ideas to create and share their own templates.
Participants will have access to a website which they can contribute to to share their Minecraft creations, along with a place where students can also share their world files as well, globally connecting with other students from around the globe.
The evidence of success will be a thriving community of like minded educators sharing their templated worlds to the education community that link to a variety of ISTE standards.
As the session begins, attendees will be invited to join a multiplayer world on Minecraft, or install/download Education Edition so they can follow along.
After demonstrating an example of what we aim to create by the end of the session, I will set out the requirements needed to follow along once more, and go through why I believe immersive learning environments are a captivating and engaging form of learning. (10 mins)
Through providing templates, I will walk through the process of opening a template and some important aspects of using them (5 mins).
Then we will get straight on to adapting a simple escape maze. I will go step by step but will also provide some learning guides so if anyone turns up late or needs extra guidance that will be available. (20 -30 minutes)
In this time and additional ten minutes, I will be available to support with any questions or support and I hope to have some volunteers with me to help in this regard to.
Finally, we will finish with a showcase of my website where more minecraft templates are available and where others can share their work as well. (10 minutes)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03033421 Immersive learning technologies: Realism and online authentic learning
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131508001395
The use of ‘exploratory learning’ for supporting immersive learning in virtual environments
Mining Educational Implications of Minecraft
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07380569.2020.1719802
Power Up Your Classroom, Tolnai and Blass 2019
| Related exhibitors: | Microsoft Corporation |
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