A Student-led Minecraft Professional Learning Experience

Students at Sterling Middle School crafted an educational experience for the Specialized Instructional Facilitators – Assistive Technology (SIF-ATs) teaching them all about how they use Minecraft EDU to support their learning. The 45 minute experience started with a brief slide show presentation presented by two students. Then students paired with each facilitator to guide them through navigating the environment, managing inventory, and building structures in a virtual world. Using what they learned, the SIF-ATs joined together to take the image displayed below as a Thank You which was sent to the student educators for helping to make a meaningful contribution to the world!

Many avatars in Minecraft standing in front of block built into the words Thank You

Immersive Reader in Minecraft EDU

Minecraft EDU is a tool which provides learners with the ability to build in a sandbox environment. Learners can create anything using a robust library of building blocks. One aspect of Minecraft is creating signs for other participants to read. Participants can press the letter I on the keyboard to launch Immersive Reader which provides text to speech support for someone who might need to listen to the text displayed on the sign. This video provides a detailed description of how to use Immersive Reader in Minecraft. Have fun exploring a more inclusive virtual world using built-in tools like Immersive Reader!

Two signs in Minecraft. The first one reads This is a sign in Minecraft. Pressing I opens Immersive Reader. The second one reads Immersive Reader will read text aloud helping people decode.

Signs in Minecraft

Immersive Reader with the text Immersive Reader will read text aloud helping people decode!

The text on the sign in Minecraft displayed in Immersive Reader