Category: Blog

Marianist College Hermanos Amorós

Bilingual concerted school belonging to the network of Marianist schools in Spain. Founded in 1943. It has about 2000 students from 0 to 17 years old and 155 teachers. It is immersed in a process of pedagogical renewal that began strongly 6 years ago, which has extensively transformed kindergarten and primary school and is reaching secondary school. It is a very flexible center when it comes to innovating. He has piloted several projects in recent years that have been a reference for the network of Marianist schools in Spain.

The social and solidarity projection is worked from three fronts:
– Pastoral (education in faith)
– Tutorial action plan within the school curriculum
– Through our non-profit association PROYECTO AYUDA, which was born 37 years ago. It is coordinated on a voluntary basis by teachers from the center. Its mission is to collaborate with projects to improve living conditions in disadvantaged places, inside or outside of Spain.
Web: http://www.colegioamoros.org
Twitter: @colegioamoros
Phone: 915 11 11 30
Address: C / Joaquín Turina 29, 28044 (Madrid)

Pedagogical resources – Webs

Websites

Minecraft Edu

A version ready to be implemented in schools:  https://minecraftedu.com/

Minecraft Education Edition

The Microsoft version adapted to Education of this video game:  http://education.minecraft.net/

EsPossible.es

Tutorials, courses, downloadable maps:  http://minecraft.espossible.es 

We are all Gamers

Luis Fernando Jaimes, occupational therapist and professor at the University of Colombia, is the creator of the Colombian national initiative # TodosSomosGamers ♥ © for the promotion of social inclusion and digital citizenship through video games and the new information and communication technologies . Todos Somos Gamers is a non-profit foundation that works with Hogar Luz y Vida to prescribe technology adapted to children with disabilities so that they can achieve digital citizenship through video games.

Website: http://www.todossomosgamers.org
Twitter: @lfjaimesr

Press dossier of the Ciudad Esperanza Project

Europapress – Two worlds united by a video game

PDF:  Two worlds united by a video game. pdf

Comunicados.co – “Ciudad Esperanza”, a door to the digital world for children in vulnerable situations in Colombia

Source: http://comunicados.co/2016/08/ciudad-esperanza-una-puerta-al-mundo-digital-para-ninos-en-situacion-de-vulnerabilidad-en-colombia/

PDF :  City-hope-a-door-to-the-digital-world-for-children-in-situation-of-vulnerability-in-colombia -_- acis

Microsoft Colombia – ‘Ciudad Esperanza’, a door to the digital world for children in Colombia

On December 23, Luis Fernando Jaimes, director of the Colombian foundation Todos Somos Gamers, traveled to Spain to propose to Father Daniel Pajuelo, a teacher at the Hermanos Amorós school in Madrid, a project that would unite children from Colombia and Spain around creating a virtual city in Minecraft. After knocking on several doors in Europe, Luis Fernando found in Father Daniel a visionary, who like him believes in education and social inclusion through technologies and video games.

PDF :  microsoft-colombia-city-hope-minecraft

XATAKA – Blessed digital transformation: we return to school with this priest and his religion class in Minecraft – December 1, 2016

Original source:  http://www.xataka.com/videojuegos/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft

Replicas :

  • http://www.fmnatural.com/web/2016/11/30/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft/
  • http://radionewsbalcarce.com/web/2016/11/30/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft/
  • http://www.ciudadradio.net/2016/11/30/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft/
  • http://www.tecnoalcance.com/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft/
  • http://la100lasvarillas.com.ar/web/2016/11/30/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft/
  • http://tecnodig.com/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft
  • https://wordpres.protec.com.pa/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft/
  • https://obikuo.wordpress.com/2016/11/30/bendita-transformacion-digital-volvemos-al-cole-con-este-cura-y-su-clase-de-religion-en-minecraft/

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is an open world-type construction game, in which the player can create and destroy different types of blocks. Through a character -in a three-dimensional environment- structures can be built and artistic works can be made. Its creator was Markus Persson, the first version of the game was released in May 2009 and in September 2015 it was acquired by Microsoft. The video game is tremendously popular among young people from 9 to 14 years old, the YouTubers have contributed a lot to its popularity.

Twinning Features

The twinning takes place during the 2016-2017 Spanish academic year, although preparations began in March.

The pedagogical and social objectives to seek to achieve are:

Pedagogical and Social Objectives

Association Homes Light and Life

  • (1) bring children, young people and adolescents closer to the use of new information and communication technologies;
  • (2) enable social interaction with non-institutionalized external peers;
  • (3) promote socio-affective aspects such as cooperation, integration, friendship and teamwork;
  • (4) facilitate the acquisition of digital citizenship through the appropriation of new technologies;
  • (5) promote the social inclusion of the vulnerable population;
  • (6) improve teaching-learning processes and therefore academic performance-performance.

Marianist College Hermanos Amorós

  • (1) Develop a project that generates unity in the educational community, seeking to involve students of various educational stages: Primary, Secondary and Baccalaureate, the Asociación Proyecto Ayuda, and families;
  • (2) reinforce the training of the seven basic competences of the LOMCE: linguistic, scientific, digital communication, learning to learn, civic, entrepreneurial and cultural;
  • (3) reinforce Christian formation in values ​​such as love of neighbor, respect, sacrifice, and work for justice and peace;
  • (4) promote socio-affective aspects such as cooperation, integration, friendship and teamwork;

 Stages of the project

Stage 0 – Preparations

Both realities, Colegio Amorós and Hogar Luz y Vida, together with Todos Somos Gamers, plan the strategy to follow in their respective places, this includes:

  • Create work teams
  • Determine the ages of the children who will participate directly in the twinning
  • Prepare audiovisual material and awareness-raising tutorials about the project and the diverse reality that they will know
  • Establish the educational framework in which it will be developed: times, subjects, project work, tutorials, solidarity campaigns …
  • Develop several training sessions on Minecraft for teachers, therapists and children who are directly involved in twinning

Stage 1 – Awareness and recognition

It is hoped that through some videoconference sessions (Skype) and previously recorded videos, children from both countries (in a group and in some cases, individually) introduce themselves, meet and dialogue for the first time. An asynchronous communication channel will also be established between peers: children and educators.

Stage 2 – Conception and planning of Ciudad Esperanza

The work teams will jointly plan the pedagogical strategies, the tasks, the schedule and the general characteristics of the Ciudad Esperanza (initial plan). They will have the opinions and appreciations of the educators and children of each institution. In parallel, the server, the map, the mods, permits and operator training will be prepared.

Stage 3 – Presentation of the idea Ciudad Esperanza and proposed activities

Educators and children in each country will be presented with, in their specific context, the plan of the city of Esperanza and in a general way, the tasks and the work schedule.

Stage 4 – First activities in Ciudad Esperanza

Here, activities will be developed (in game) (multiplayer) for the recognition and interaction of the participants, on the Ciudad Esperanza map.

Stage 5  – C onstruction

In this instance, the participants will develop group construction activities for Ciudad Esperanza, the recording of gameplays, and the audiovisual documentation of the progress (interviews, video blog, web).

Stage 6 – Dissemination

Progress will be published on social channels and websites:  zonaminecraft.info and todossomosgamers.org; We hope to have the support of Colombian and Spanish YouTubers for the dissemination of the project. Press releases will also be made to inform the media.

Stage 8 – Face-to-face meeting

We value the possibility of closing the project with a face-to-face meeting between the two realities; these meetings would be accompanied by graphic reports that would allow educators and children to experience everything that happened closely.

Permanent stage – Registration / investigation and evaluation

Throughout the development of the project Todos Somos Gamers and Colegio Amorós will carry out the documentation, registration and evaluation of the process.

We trust that this twinning will open the doors to new educational and solidarity collaborations in the future.

Minecraft in the area of ​​Religious Teaching

The first objective of this project is “To introduce the Minecraft video game as a tool in the area of ​​Religious Teaching of Compulsory Secondary Education “. The basic idea is for students to build a Catholic temple in Minecraft with all its characteristic elements.

To achieve this objective I have developed the following teaching unit that I share below.

Educational programming

  1. Didactic goals
    • 1. Know the meaning of the Catholic temple and its importance in the Christian religion
    • 2. Value the wealth that our country has with the abundant presence of churches and the quality of its architecture
    • 3. Interpret the meaning of the different architectural options when building a Catholic temple
    • 4. Recognize each of the parts of a church, its function and meaning, as well as how to locate it correctly
    • 5. Learn how to use Minecraft in creative mode, as well as its installation and backup
    • 6. Design and build a Catholic temple with all its characteristic elements in Minecraft
    • 7. Record a gameplay for the project’s YouTube channel explaining the construction carried out
    • 8. Evaluate the constructions of classmates, weighing creativity, ingenuity, accuracy and presentation, as well as pointing out possible improvements
  2. Key competencies
    • Learn to learn (Objectives 3, 5, 6)
    • Linguistic communication (Objectives 7, 8)
    • Digital competence (Objectives 5, 6, 7, 8)
    • Awareness and cultural expressions (Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 8)
    • Sense of initiative and entrepreneurial spirit (Goals 5, 6, 7, 8)
    • Mathematics and basic competences in science and technology (Objectives 3, 6)
    • Social and civic (Objectives 1, 2, 8)
  3. Contents and standard criteria
    1. Content block I: The Catholic temple: meaning, history, architecture, characteristic elements
      1. Evaluation criteria
        • Recognize the structure of a Catholic temple and differentiate it from temples of other religions.
        • Differentiate between the different architectural styles most used for the construction of churches.
        • Know the meaning of the different architectural styles and their history.
        • Identify the elements that make up the interior and exterior of a Catholic temple and explain their meaning within the Christian faith.
      2. Learning standards
        • It expresses orally and in writing the meaning that the architect has wanted to give to a given construction.
        • He argues about the different variants when arranging the elements that make up a Catholic temple.
        • Know and point out the differences between a Catholic temple and others of Protestant and Orthodox denominations.
        • Shows interest in the history of the different architectural styles used in the construction of churches.
        • Know and respect the value of the religious symbols that are arranged in a Catholic temple.
        • Associate the conditions of personal experience of God with the environment that creates a Catholic temple.
      3. Timing: 2 sessions. If you visit a Catholic temple there would be 3 in total.
    2. Content Block II: Minecraft: Installation, Operation, Backup
      1. Evaluation criteria
        • Understand and run the Minecraft installation process.
        • Distinguish the file structure of the game and perform both a backup and its restoration.
        • Modify the game configuration parameters to adapt the requirements to the power of the machine used.
        • Understand the logic of the video game in creative mode.
        • Being able to learn by yourself by consulting the reference and help websites.
      2. Learning standards
        • It expresses the instructions to download and install Minecraft on the machine.
        • Know and understand the directory structure of the video game.
        • Make a backup of the selected world.
        • Restore a backup of the selected world.
        • Understand the relationship between settings and game performance on your machine.
        • Know and interpret the configuration parameters to improve the execution of the video game on the machine.
        • Orally explain the installation, copying, and restoring process in such a way that you can help other colleagues to perform them successfully.
        • He makes an effort to investigate the different possibilities of the video game and applies what he has learned to his constructions.
        • Know and respect the logic of the program.
        • Search reference websites and YouTube channels for tutorials to broaden your knowledge and apply it to your task.
      3. Timing: 3 sessions.
    3. Content block III: Construction of the Catholic temple in pairs.
      1. Evaluation criteria
        • Know and properly use the game controls.
        • Apply knowledge about the construction and arrangement of the elements of a Catholic temple in the construction of their own temple.
        • Respect the rules for placing the different elements to respect their meaning.
        • Apply creativity without distorting the meaning of construction, whether in the design of the architecture or in the use of materials and mechanisms that Minecraft offers.
        • Both students must cooperate to reach agreements and build the temple together. Joint planning, sharing of tasks, and mutual support will be valued.
        • Investigate on your own the possibilities that Minecraft offers to build.
      2. Learning standards
        • Knows, uses properly and is able to explain to another partner the controls of the game.
        • Prepare the ground for the construction of the architecture, either by selecting an extra-flat world, or by paving the way in a normal world.
        • Assess the different types of buildings and their size to suit the planned timing.
        • Calculate the measurements before starting construction.
        • Investigate the different possibilities of creating architectural elements with the tools that Minecraft provides: roofs, doors, domes, columns, altar, ambo, seat, tabernacle …
        • Use your imagination in the creative design of the temple elements.
        • Arrange the elements of the temple in their place respecting their meaning.
        • They distribute tasks among themselves to make work more efficient.
        • They take turns using the device when building.
        • Investigate the different ways to build complex elements such as columns, roofs, domes … or unique elements of the Catholic temple: altar, tabernacle, seat, ambo …
        • Get to know and use the official information channels (Minecraft wiki) and unofficial ones (YouTube video tutorials) to expand your knowledge.
      3. Timing: 2 sessions
    4. Content Block IV: Recording a gameplay: installing ScreenCast, writing the script, communicative qualities
      1. Evaluation criteria
        • Understand and run the ScreenCast installation process.
        • Prepare a script to present the work done through a gameplay.
        • Cooperate to make decisions together and allocate times for the presentation.
      2. Learning standards
        • Express instructions to download and install ScreenCast.
        • Know and use ScreenCast controls properly.
        • Prepare the common thread of the presentation and insert in it the explanations about the construction and the elements of the temple.
        • Use similar language that youtuber’s use to capture attention and make the presentation more meaningful.
        • It adjusts to the maximum time indicated for the duration of the gameplay.
        • They reach a consensus on the script and timing of the presentation.
      3. Timing: 3 sessions.
    5. Content block V: Learn from your peers: assessment and evaluation
      1. Evaluation criteria
        • Understand the need to evaluate to improve.
        • Value the work of colleagues.
        • Learn from the decisions, initiatives, and creations of colleagues.
      2. Learning standards
        1. Assesses the possibility of influencing the final grade of their classmates as a form of commitment to the general improvement of learning in class.
        2. Appreciates, respects and values ​​the work done by colleagues.
        3. Highlight the things you learn from peers’ work.
        4. It proposes ways of improvement for the evaluated works.
      3. Timing: 2 sessions
  4. Methodological guidelines
    I have prepared a Didactic Guide  where the actions and didactic suggestions are described in detail to
    address the contents of the unit. I present here the pedagogical intentions of each of the sections that make up the unit.
  5. Evaluation
    1. Continuous assessment: it is  carried out by the teacher during the development of each block, on the one hand assessing interest and effort and on the other the achievement of learning standards. This note will have a value of 25% of the total project.
    2. Punctual evaluation:  3 punctual evaluation moments have been established in which the work carried out is valued numerically.
      1. At the end of block 2, the teacher will collect the notebook to assess the notes taken in relation to the contents exposed in blocks 1 and 2. The note is individual and will have a value of 25% of the total project.
      2. The gameplay will be evaluated by the teacher according to the evaluation criteria. The note will be the same for the couple and will have a value of 40% of the total project.
      3. Students will assess the work of their classmates by viewing all the gameplays in class. This note will be the same for the couple and will have a weight of 10% with respect to the total project.

Possible improvements

This teaching unit is available to anyone who wants to use it. It can be enriched in many ways, here I propose some. I will be happy to collect possible improvements that other teachers will incorporate, sharing them here and making them available to everyone:

  • Detail necessary prior knowledge
  • Explain possible difficulties that students and teachers may encounter
  • Pay attention to diversity
  • Explain the cooperative techniques that will be used in the blocks in which this methodology is used
  • Provides a list of resources to expand knowledge of Minecraft to students and teachers
  • A technical guide for schools that explains how to install and maintain Minecraft in classrooms
  • Describe the methodology used in the evaluation that students make of their peers
  • Prepare an evaluation template / form for students and teachers to record the good and improvable things of the project
  • Adapt the project so that it can be taught in English
  • A list of the necessary teaching resources
  • Videos showing the development of the different blocks in a real classroom

Hopefully this is just the beginning and with the collaboration of more teachers we can mature this project even more.

Objetivos

The Minecraft Educational Zone (ZEM) project was born in September 2015 seeking to achieve three objectives:

  1. Introduce the Minecraft video game as a tool in the area of ​​Religious Teaching of Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain
  2. Document and publish the project by creating a  website so that other teachers can apply it in their curricular areas
  3. Generate media impact so that the project is the seed of new initiatives in more centers.

Media Impact

Parentsfrikis.com website – 09/6/2015

Today on Twitter I learned about the existence of the Minecraft Educational Zone . ZEM (according to its acronym) is a new YouTube channel that aims to encourage the use of #Minecraft in schools. You can see this channel by clicking here Open in a new window . The author is @smdani Open in a new window (as he calls himself on Twitter), who in addition to being an educator, is also a rapper, hacker, blogger, computer engineer, and Marianist priest. Life has spread to him, without a doubt; D …

13TV – Program: Outskirts, Section: Social Networks

La Razón Newspaper – Section: Society – 11/2/2015

“Sminter”, “Masila” and “Cracken200” are the pseudonyms of three Madrid students who have posted a video on YouTube to show us the parts of a Catholic church through “Minecraft”, a simple game to build and destroy buildings and structures which is currently all the rage among teenagers. A little over a year ago, after the success achieved, the giant Microsoft decided to buy the company that had created the game for almost 2,000 million euros to develop, among other potentialities, its application to education. They are in it, although there are already examples around the world that show that it is possible to teach a subject with “Minecraft”. There is one in Japan: the one recognized as the best Primary school, Aiwa Elementary School. And also in Spain: the Amorós School,

EFE – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsof, visits the Colegio Marianista Hermanos Amorós to learn about the Minecraft project. 

TVE2, Last Questions – Video Games in Education. Religion classes with Minecraft