(whip whizzing)
- You there, everybody?
I know it looks like I'm in Minecraft.
I'm really in New York City,
and I'm gonna walk you through what our experience has been
in utilizing Minecraft for education.
But I think before that,
it's important to note that I've long felt
that games played a pivotal role in teaching,
especially the teaching of students
who struggle with school in general,
which are the kinds of students that I teach.
You see, so many students get waylaid by school.
It's not because it's too difficult,
or because it's too challenging.
No, kids love those challenges when they're in a game,
digital or otherwise,
but they give up on school because it's boring, right?
So I want to always learn to incentivize school
and incentivize learning impactfully.
My name is Sean Arnold.
I've been in New York City Public Schools
for a good long while.
And throughout most of that time, for the last 16 years,
I've been in New York City's District 75,
which is citywide special education
for students with moderate to more advanced disabilities.
I've tried to learn any tool or technique
that could be meaningful for my students.
And that's included "Minecraft."
Now, I was using "Minecraft" for my students
long before it was a Microsoft phenomenon,
but since it has become an Education Edition,
it's brought so many new features in,
and it's made it much more accessible
for a lot of my students.
And I'll get into that.
But I think a lot of times, when we talk about technology,
and how it's impacting education,
we get into like, oh, here's what you do,
and the button that you click,
and what do we need to buy, and blah, blah, blah,
and not enough of background of why it's important,
even more so,
of who we're focused on making it meaningful for.
So I'm gonna spend a moment on who my students are,
why it's been meaningful for us,
and then I'll get into what we've done with it.
All right?
So our sort of why in our Minecraft story
begins with the whole concept of 21st century learning.
I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with it,
the seven C's, as it were,
in which instead of diving deep into curriculum,
which is not one of the C's, although it's important,
we're diving into the skills
that our students are gonna need,
whether all of my students are going to live
in an assisted living facility,
they're gonna work at McDonald's, if those jobs still exist,
or if they're gonna end up working at Google, or Microsoft,
or any other major technology company
that rules the world at that point, right?
So they're gonna need to learn
how to collaborate with other people.
They're gonna need to learn how to communicate,
even if my students use devices to communicate for them.
They're gonna have to learn to think critically
in whatever capacity that takes them on, right?
Those are the skills they're gonna need.
So we want that challenge-based learning
that's always been meaningful,
and in the way that "Minecraft" is digital Legos,
it's literally, you don't get more creative than that.
You don't dive into challenges any bit better than that.
And game-based learning as a whole
has been shown to be immensely effective,
especially for students with learning challenges.
Games are just meaningful for bringing students back
into the educational experience
who'd wanted to give up on it.
But for me, there's a couple of key reasons
why it's been meaningful.
So much of learning and education
has been about the external extrinsic motivators, right?
That outside stuff, "Here's a grade."
"Here's some stickers."
"Here's some points," or, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And that kind of stuff is meaningful
for ensuring productivity in the short term,
but it kills creativity almost immediately,
and even productivity waxes over a time.
But if you can tap into those intrinsic motivators,
those internal things,
like a sense of purpose in what you're doing,
a sense of play,
a sense of connection to other people
if you're into social things.
Clear goals,
a challenge that you've accomplished,
that kind of stuff is what drives longterm creativity,
long term productivity,
and gets kids to remember stuff
they need to remember, right?
Games are powerful motivators for that.
And beyond that, I think games really help
to redefine failure in learning.
So that same kid, who in "Super Mario,"
like falls off the cliff 16 times,
is gonna jump a 17th time, because they learned,
"Maybe I just gotta jump just a half-second later
and I can make it across the cliffs."
Or, "I have to bounce off that Goomba," right?
They're learning from their prior experience,
which is literally what learning is,
making it meaningful for them,
learning to work harder, and work smarter, all right?
And beyond all that, it's important to note, though,
that not all games are equal, right?
There's this phenomenon
called the Chocolate Covered Broccoli paradox.
And in this context, I like broccoli,
but let's think school lunch broccoli
where it's mushy, and nasty, and gross, and nobody wants it.
Maybe you got nicer school lunches than I do? I don't know.
But just because you put chocolate on it
doesn't make it good.
So like when I was a kid, things like "Math Blasters,"
yeah, it was better than flashcards.
I'll give you that.
But it was just flashcards with flashy lights,
whereas an intrinsically motivating game,
let's say a "Carmen San Diego,"
where it was just straight-up fun, and you wanted to play,
and you just happened to be learning
about social studies as you did it.
Those are the kinds of games that are meaningful.
Kids want to play "Minecraft."
And then the learning just becomes intrinsic,
and part of the experiences.
It's awesome when you can have students learning that way.
And in doing so, we need to know who our students are.
First rule of teaching,
good teaching is always know your students well, right?
And that's the same with games.
So different games incentivize in different ways,
whether students want to explore, or achieve,
or get something in the game,
whether it's social experience,
or they want to sort of take something apart,
and rebel against the game structure.
Again, you can dive deeper into that
with some other materials.
But I think it's important to note all of that.
So in my experience in New York City,
how do we get "Minecraft" happening with students?
Well, here's the cool thing.
The teachers do not have to be good at Minecraft
to teach with "Minecraft," right?
You are the ones setting goals.
You are the ones setting the learning objectives, right?
That's what I'm doing.
I wasn't good at Minecraft.
The students were, when we first started using it,
way, way back in the day
before it was a thing in education-wise.
But that was the thing.
I could create the design challenges,
and say what my expectations were,
even if I couldn't have met those expectations yet,
of building in Minecraft.
I would only learn that stuff over time.
But that's what's cool about it.
The kids were incentivized to do it,
and go beyond what I even asked of them.
So usually where I start with students,
especially a lot of my early learners,
and students with more intense needs,
is a sort of personal narrative structure.
That's a really great place to begin,
because they're already beginning
with stuff they know, themselves.
And in this world I've created, they can go ahead,
and go ahead and build for me
their perception of themselves,
their perception of their family,
perceptions of a physical structure
that indicates things that are important to them,
hobbies, their home, interests.
And I also often have them build something
that they're worried, or nervous,
or don't really like, or are fearful of for the year.
And yes, that's all a cool thing,
about how they indicate, it's great,
all these items, and are able to build it, and portray it.
But the best part of it is
is that I make it a social experience.
So they actually give tours of their world,
either through a video, or live,
if we're doing it on a collaborative world, to their peers.
And that's where it becomes really intense,
because that's where the students are made to express
all that they are internally,
and there starts to build empathy for these students
who aren't always really good at that kind of thing.
So that's why it's a really great starter
for a lot of my students.
It's where I like to go right off the bat.
I know it may seem simplistic,
but it's really meaningful for what our kids do.
And then we get into more traditional
type of narrative things that happen in "Minecraft."
Yes, we use it tons for math, and science, and construction.
And we build story settings, too,
where we'll have some of the older students
build complex settings for the stories that they're doing.
And then the younger students
can go ahead and travel throughout it, and experience it.
Beyond that, though, some of the coolest things
I think we've been doing inside of "Minecraft"
are accessible design,
and universal design for learning experiences.
And so our students with disabilities,
when you have them, physical disabilities,
are building worlds that are accessible
to other people with disabilities.
And we model that within the "Minecraft" world.
- [Narrator] Directions, path to right towards home.
Path straight, towards school.
- [Sean] This particular world,
along with other accessibly-designed spaces,
like a school, and a supermarket,
gives directions to visually-impaired players
of where to go.
- [Narrator] Six steps towards home entrance.
- [Sean] It allows students to experiment,
and determine the design they'll need for the real world.
- [Narrator] Entrance. Welcome home.
- But then we start to design outside of it, too.
So that's a nice, easy space for the students to start,
and get the understanding of what is it like
to empathize with other people
who might not have the same challenges I do,
who might have different ones,
and meet the world differently?
What is it like
for people who can't just walk to school, right?
Work on having easy access to a bus.
What is it like for people who can't see?
How are they going to get through this world?
And so all these different types of things
are built within those structures, ramps, elevators,
voice communication systems are really powerful.
We build all these structures
for a universally-designed space in "Minecraft."
We can start in the "Minecraft,"
and then we start building structures
that are accessible in the real world.
And so that's really cool
that we can build off that experience.
Students can start building some simple accessibility tools,
like a Braille map that can be experienced physically,
some accessible fabrication materials
that help for like students with motorized chairs,
for ramp access,
things to help students with physical challenges
more easily open up their book bags,
and even more complex 3D printed materials
that we get into later on,
often in the year.
Granted, we were doing a lot of the 3D printing
when we were totally remote,
but we have been able to dive back into some of that
now that we're in a more hybrid, and blended,
and in-person environment.
And beyond that, now that it's in an educational space,
Microsoft has helped a lot
in making it much more accessible.
Yes, there is the Microsoft controller, Xbox controller,
which I highly recommend.
Super awesome, super accessible.
You can tap in all these switches, and things to it.
And there are a lot of other accessible controllers
that we use.
If you're interested, reach out to me,
and I can share more on that for you,
but there's also a lot of built-in accessible features
for the games,
whether it be the special blocks,
or other accessibility features, like text-to-speech,
or screen readers that interact with the NPCs
or text displays to read everything out
to any visually impaired player
item descriptions in the screen,
zoom features that are accessible,
and the ability to document what's happening within the game
for students with some more cognitive challenges.
That's really meaningful, too.
Now, I really want to dive into
some of the really cool stuff we've done recently.
One of the really neat things we've done
is I was able to help coordinate
a citywide, New York City "Minecraft" design challenge,
where students were asked to design an accessible,
sustainable space within the city,
or redesign an existing space.
And we had so many students submit amazing work.
And they honestly didn't have that much time.
They only had a few weeks
from the beginning of this challenge,
when we started training teachers all across the city,
again, they didn't have to be experts,
because the students got the game part.
The teachers were explaining the structure.
and I have to say, some of the teachers
were having some fun playing, too.
So in that, some students made amazing things.
I want to show you a few examples.
Here's one from a student who's in eighth grade,
who redesigned a space that was damaged recently.
And I think it sort of speaks for itself.
- [Glenn] My name is Glenn Tatum,
and I have redesigned the Inwood Hill Nature Center
in Manhattan's Inwood Hill Park.
The center was damaged in 2012 by Hurricane Sandy,
and never repaired.
Located on a peninsula in the park, and surrounded by water,
this new public space
will be called the Inwood Hill Culture and Nature Center.
(mellow digital music)
The new center has subtle features
in its two-story plan.
At the front entrance,
there is an art exhibit,
and there are several areas of seating.
There are multiple nature exhibits,
along with an area for group instruction,
and the book library.
Going back down the hallway,
you can see many windows to allow in natural light
and views of the park.
At the end of the hallway,
there is an ADA elevator to go to the second floor.
There is also a new outdoor deck over the water.
Heading back from the deck
into the Nature and Culture Center,
and past the registration desk,
we have the staircase to the second floor.
Here, there's a multi-purpose area
that can be used for exercise instruction,
music concerts, and small parties.
Heading back down the hallway,
there is also a small outdoor deck for people to relax
and enjoy views of the water.
The new Inwood Hill Culture and Nature Center
will be a great public space
for the people of New York City
to come and enjoy with their families and friends.
(mellow digital music)
- But if you think it was just that,
we have students at all levels.
So this is a first grade student.
"A whole lot of fun," their world,
but you see that there's a lot of meaningful things
happening in it as well.
- [Penelope] Hi, everybody.
My name is Penelope, and I'm in the first grade.
This is my public space.
This is my garden.
It is calm and peaceful.
Now, let's go to the pool.
Here's the pool, here's the cafe.
Here's the aquarium on the roof.
Here is the obstacle course.
Be careful. The floor is lava.
Now we're here at the petting zoo.
We have pigs, horse, and chickens.
Finally, a nice beach, with umbrellas and boats.
This public space is important
to get exercise,
and to have fun.
- [Sean] Now who thinks if I had made her write an essay,
while it was fully remote,
that would be half as good, right?
But we're here just in time for the fireworks.
- [Penelope] Thanks for watching.
(fireworks hissing)
'Bye.
- It shows how, when they're incentivized,
they just take it to a whole 'nother level
all by themselves.
Beyond that, we've even had partnerships
with other organizations.
So we've put together sort of "Minecraft" museums.
One of the really neat ones we did
was with the Newark Museum of Art, which had to close down,
obviously, because of the pandemic,
but we were able to rebuild
the Newark space with the students.
And then we were able to rebuild
a bunch of the designs within it.
We'll just show you a little bit of what that looked like.
The Newark Museum of Art
has had to close its doors temporarily,
but that doesn't mean there aren't ways
you can still experience the museum,
and the art itself, virtually.
Yes, the museum, and examples of some of its great pieces
now exists inside a "Minecraft" version of the museum.
You can explore familiar places, like the Ballantine House,
the Museum Garden, or the Horizon Plaza.
You can view art of the ancient Mediterranean, the Americas,
the arts of global Africa,
or just check out the old stone school house.
If you get lost, there are guidebooks, maps,
and museum guides.
And if you want to dive deeper,
they'll connect you to further resources,
but that's just the beginning.
We want you to be part of the museum team, too.
You can create and display
your own work of art in the museum.
And there are many other ways we've used it.
Of course, the computer science is always awesome.
You can start with some of the really simplistic
"Minecraft" coding experiences on code.org,
and then you can take it in-game
and do much more complex stuff.
And the tutorials that they have
made it really easy for the teachers, honestly.
Yes, we would have their kickoff trainings.
Yes, I would record a bunch
of short form tutorial videos for teachers
to help them get involved,
and understand all the things that we were doing.
But more than that, it just...
They took it and rolled with it,
because the kids are having such an amazing time.
I think it's important to note
that we also had many teachers go into next steps,
'cause they were motivated to do so,
and taken it on and then become certified
in the Minecraft community.
We've even had a couple of other teachers beside myself
become Minecraft mentors within the city,
which is really, really cool.
And then yes, we can't have Minefaires in-person,
but we have had these sort of virtual ones here.
We used to be able to tap in with students,
and I had my students,
and my own children come and participate
in these awesome events of creativity,
and collaboration, and critical thinking, even,
with escape rooms.
But we're able to do it even digitally now
where we have digital Minecraft escape rooms.
We have digital Minecraft parties for students,
where they show off their creations.
They show off the exhibits.
It's a whole lot of fun.
And so I guess I'll just leave with this,
that I always sort of end with,
is that know, obviously,
whenever you take on anything that's new,
or that's challenging,
it's never going to be immediately successful.
This Special Olympics oath sort of speaks to that.
You will not always win,
but you can always bravely attempt
whatever it is you're working for.
And for us,
it was trying to make learning meaningful,
engaging, and just worthwhile
in a time where there was so much challenge
for our students here in New York City,
and so much sadness that it was great to bring out
this sort of light in them.
And we're really grateful for it.
So I hope this was meaningful for you,
and feel free to reach out to me beyond this.
Have a great day, everybody.
(uplifting digital music)