网络时代如何边打游戏边学习？风靡全球的MinecraftEdu做到了

    莱文说，“我们将MinecraftEdu打造成一个高度开放的平台，这样一来，教师们就可以在其中创建自己的内容。该软件的秘密武器在于，早期使用该软件的教师会开发独具匠心的课程，然后将其教学计划和课程与其他老师分享。老师们可以寻找、发现和下载这一内容，并在自己的课堂上使用。”

    在美国，历史教师正利用游戏重建古代世界，然后让学生们开始其虚拟征程，与历史人物对话，或让学生根据课堂所学重建地标性历史建筑。在澳大利亚，科学老师创建了一个巨大的细胞和神经递质三维模型，并让学生们对其进行探索。其他老师则发挥了该游戏的模拟功能，让孩子们利用MinecraftEdu做重力实验，然后与真实世界的结果进行对比，从而提出假设并进行证明。

    在丹麦，非母语英语课程教师安德鲁•查卡使用MinecraftEdu帮助教育问题少年。孩子们可以在课堂玩游戏，但前提是只能说英语。在该游戏的强烈吸引下，教师们发现学生们一个个都在努力地学习英语。

    莱文说，“从书本上学到的东西总是有限的。要想解决问题并最终获得成功，人们得与其他人进行交流。”

    即便是在较低的年级，这款游戏也已经被成功地整合到教学当中。在幼儿园教室里，孩子们像玩乐高积木一样玩这款游戏。在二年级，指导员利用游戏向孩子们介绍社区的运作方式，以及人们在社会上扮演的不同角色。将事物模块化是该游戏的专长，例如让一组孩子建设一座城镇，然后分配不同任务，例如锯木头和制作工具。这一理念在一所高中得到了进一步升华，一位公立学校教师让孩子们根据自己的想法来组建社会。他们撰写了城镇章程，而且就城镇管理方式和劳动分配方式进行了非常有意义的辩论。

    莱文注意到一些学校在编程教学中也在使用该游戏，他说：“如果你拥有一些元级层次的编程技术，你可以对游戏进行更改，并按照自己的想法增加任何组件。在我看过的一段微积分课程视频中，学生们使用MinecraftEdu方块按照所学公式来拼凑各种形状。其他的学生则搭建了环球剧场（Globe Theater），然后站在台上朗诵莎士比亚的作品。”

    MinecraftEdu正在为视频游戏平反——人们过去普遍认为，玩视频游戏是浪费时间，而且容易上瘾或导致不良行为。莱文说，有足够多的研究表明，这一观点并不正确，其中包括英国近期对1.3万名儿童开展的长达10年的跟踪调查。该调查显示，与不玩游戏的孩子相比，玩游戏的孩子并未因为玩游戏而受到任何不良影响。

    莱文说：“关键问题在于，学校是否愿意在课堂上使用新的教学方法和教育模式。总的来说，全世界的学校都在认真地寻找适用于21世纪教育的教学方法。”

    对于教学人员来说，使用这款软件的成本低至391美元，其中包括软件及25项授权。MinecraftEdu仅适用于桌面电脑、苹果Mac电脑和Linux系统，而且可以很好地融入课堂环境中。（财富中文网）

    译者：Xiang

    “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.”

    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.

    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.

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

    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.

    “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.”

    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.

    “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.”

    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.