What happens when you mix one of the world’s most popular games with the serious business of teaching and learning? You get a training session that’s as fun as it is forward‑thinking. Our recent Teaching and Learning with Minecraft Education CLPL virtually brought together colleagues from across the City of Edinburgh Council to explore how game‑based learning can spark creativity, collaboration, and deeper understanding in the classroom.
Highlights from the Session
Curriculum for Excellence in action: Practical examples were given across all curricular areas of the Curriculum for Excellence. Attendees were able to explore real examples and resources that sparked their teacher curiosity to get the ideas flowing for how they could apply this in their context.
Literacy and Assessment Tools: Teachers were shown how to use tools which allow for immersive experiences. Such as how learners could pretend to be a lost explorer in the rainforest and keep a diary of their misadventures (all within the app with the helpful use of the ready-to-use biome worlds and the Book & Quill). This diary could be self-corrected by the pupil with helpful tools such as Immersive Reader to listen to their writing and redraft, before they export this evidence as a PDF to be saved and shared with a teacher for ongoing assessment.
Collaboration and Creativity: Participants saw how Minecraft Education Edition naturally encourages teamwork, communication, and shared problem‑solving, all skills that align with the curricular design principles on developing personalisation and choice to develop confident, capable and engaged learners.
Why It Matters
This isn’t simply about swapping worksheets for pickaxes. It’s about recognising that young people thrive when learning feels meaningful and connected to their interests. Minecraft Education Edition offers a playful yet powerful way to embed curriculum outcomes, nurture critical thinking, and make assessment creative and visible.
Watch the Recording
Missed the live session? Don’t worry, the full recording is now available. This means you can skip the bits you know, repeat as required and learn all about this from a place of your own choosing!
👉 Click here to watch the session
🔗 To slides and further resources (for CEC Staff)
Final Thought
As Edinburgh’s Teachers’ Charter reminds us, professional learning is about looking outwards, reflection, and impact. This session showed how Minecraft Education can support all three – giving teachers fresh tools to lead learning, assess progress meaningfully, and inspire students to build knowledge block by block.
Edinburgh Learns Digital | City of Edinburgh Council 