The school closures caused by the Corona crisis and the necessary conversion of teaching to online learning have made it clear that schools and teachers need new learning opportunities and pedagogical-didactical concepts in the digital world that supplement regular language lessons or, if necessary, in the case of School closures can be used as an additional offer to online lessons in the virtual classroom.
For this reason, Coasscit/Saar eV is launching "Italian with Minecraft", a new learning environment that enables students to learn Italian in a fun way by integrating digital teaching processes into the teaching and learning process.
The basis is the educational version of the very popular computer game "Minecraft" from Microsoft, which is now also at home on all mobile devices.
Minecraft Education as a learning game.....
Minecraft Education consists of a three-dimensional digital world of blocks, resources, materials, and tools that is specifically structured and programmed to enable teachers to guide and guide students in learning situations.
The worlds of "In Italian with Minecraft" are created on the basis of language-relevant situations with a vocabulary that, for us, is initially based on the "Common European Framework of Reference" for levels A1-A2-B1 and the curricula for language teaching in Saarland .
The development of the virtual worlds as well as the definition of the learning content and the implementation of the games were the result of a joint effort by programmers and teachers.
The project was also preceded by a training course for language teachers, in which they learned how to use the Minecraft platform and how to acquire the skills to build and manipulate virtual worlds. The teacher is then free to integrate the game into the teaching concept.
The project is intended as a supplement to the classroom.
Experience has shown that using Minecraft Education in the classroom can foster specific skills: motivation to learn, creativity, and collaborative and problem-solving skills.
In the introductory phase, Coasscit/Saar eV will cover the cost of acquiring the student licenses so that there are no additional costs for the students.
The participation of the students takes place with the involvement of the parents and taking into account the current GDPR regulations.
Coasscit/Saar eV is a non-profit educational institution recognized by Microsoft.
The project takes place under the auspices of the Italian Consulate General (Frankfurt am Main).
