Microsoft shared a webinar on their official launch in South Africa. The Microsoft partners that are contracted to Buccleuch Primary School had already implemented Minecraft.Edu at another school and told me the story of children standing in queues before, during and after school to get into the computer centre.

After an introductory meeting with the management staff at Buccleuch Primary School, we decided to implement Minecraft in class and as an extra mural for students that are interested in learning new skills that Microsoft Education Edition has to offer.

Scadco, the schools Microsoft partner assisted the school with licensing and configuring student accounts.

The day the school announced that a Minecraft club would be a new extra mural in the 3rd term, there were over 300 students who came to eh information session held during break.

School management decided to draft a letter to get parental sign off due to the face that there were only 35 seats available in the computer centre.

I drafted a Microsoft Form during the first session that served as an attendance form and a quiz to check at which level the students were.

Grade 5, 6 and 7 classes were selected to start the first series of integrated lessons. Before this could happen a skills assessment needed to take place as some students had never had exposure to a first person gaming environment.

The tutorial world was a great place to start with individual assessments conducted. Students that needed additional time for familiarize themselves had the opportunity to make use of the centre after school or during planned breaks.

Our plan is to involve educators with the initiative. Making use of Microsoft’s Educator Portal will set the ground work in explaining the underlying concepts that need to be understood before going into the classroom.

Training sessions with educators will be scheduled and run by the resident Microsoft Innovative Trainer.