“You have to play Minecraft for an hour for grad school?” my son gasped as he looked over my shoulder. While it wasn’t exactly like the Minecraft I have seen him play, I enjoyed spending an hour learning how to string a list of simple commands into a program and then watch Steve carry it out. I learned how to make Steve go forward, turn, cut down trees, mine, and shear sheep. Then, I used these skills to help him stay away from Creepers, build a house, and plant a garden. I just barely scratched the surface when my hour was up, and I forced myself to leave Steve with his garden half planted. It was fun, but I had promised myself. . . just an hour!
Honestly, I did understand why my son would wonder what the connection was between Minecraft and Library and Information Science. Even growing up programming mice to find cheese and programming OzBots in elementary school, he still thinks of libraries in terms of books and research papers. However, the roles of the library and the librarians within are changing. The ALA explains, that CT, computational thinking, is a kind of literacy, and just as reading teaches text based literacies, libraries provide opportunities for kids to “engage with youth of all ages to support a range of literacies from text-based literacies, to media literacy, to financial literacy, and more. In fact, library staff integrate a variety of essential literacies into the activities and resources they provide.” (ALA n.d.) My playing Minecraft was , in fact, honing my computational literacy skills.
My mind immediately goes to my future library and what I will offer to my students. What will my school system expect of my library? What do I expect of myself? Gone are the days of the librarian just reading a story and checking out books. I will be responsible for providing children the opportunity to develop skills in a variety of literacies. I will have the responsibility, the challenge, and the pleasure of introducing children to coding because “computer coding helps develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and these are at the core of our professional mission: to help people understand how to solve problems using information effectively, which are skills that support people as lifelong learners.” (Moen, 2016)
References
American Library Association. (n.d.). How computational thinking fits within library services. How Computational Thinking Fits Within Library Services | Libraries Ready to Code. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://www.ala.org/tools/readytocode/how-computational-thinking-fits-within-library-services
Moen, M. (2016, September 30). Computer Coding and Literacy: Librarians Lead the Connection. International Literacy Association. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2016/09/30/computer-coding-and-literacy-librarians-lead-the-connection
Nice! I almost chose Minecraft too. Now I wish I had! I didn’t get a certificate of completion!
My brain was so focused on 3D printing that I didn’t even consider Minecraft. My son has just joined the Minecraft era this year, at 6 he could teach me way more than I could explore on my own. I will have to play with him a little this week while we are on vacation to learn more about coding.
Well done! I like how you varied the layout in your blog. It looks very nice. I did the coding too but not Minecraft so no certificate. The ones I played, Dance Party and Harry Potter, wouldn’t play back what I coded on the final modules either. 🙁
Great job, Cathy! That was really impressive and even more exciting to me that you enjoyed it! I’m surrounded by Minecraft so maybe I will have to give it a shot to show my girls that their mom is cool. It was also refreshing to hear you say that it would be a pleasure to introduce your students to coding. That’s so inspiring to me. I am going to give it a try!
The questions you have as a future librarian are very thought provoking. You are correct that just reading stories and checking out books is not the total of what a library offers anymore. A library is so much more!
I hear students talk about Minecraft all the time, and I will admit I’ve never actually learned more about the game. I am now learning that it is quite possibly one of the better choices in games as it could teach those computational thinking skills we would like children to learn. I hope your son is able to see that continuous learning and grad school can have some perks too. 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
Ha, I love that your son was very curious and involved in this assignment! And you have the certificate to prove you did something! Too funny! I always find these certificated humorous after completion of a PD assignment. Nice work on this post! Looks great. I should give coding more of a chance! I haven’t played around with it too much.