Minecraft teaching -- Black Friday and Cyber Monday.excitement

If you have read any of my previous posts -- away back in the past -- you will know that I am one of those people who sees a benefit to the use of Minecraft, the sandbox game, in education. In the time since I wrote my last post, there has been a veritable explosion of educational products related to Minecraft. Amongst these products are servers which are actually devoted to using Minecraft to teach. I thought, given that it is "that" time of year, that I would share the two that I am most familiar with -- along with any special deals they might have. (I do not gain any personal benefit nor can I speak to the actual utility of these sites. I know people whose children have gained a lot from them, however. I suspect it is a matter of what you put into it...)

So, with that in mind:

1) The first and, perhaps best known, is Skrafty: http://whenyouriseup.com/

    They have a special going right now: I wanted to remind you all about the SKrafty Black 
    Friday weekend sale which ends on Sunday night at midnight!  Have you been wanting 
    to add some SKrafty classes to your homeschool? Now is the time since we have a nice
    discount for you today. ALL classes are 20% off with the code BLACKFRIDAY.

2) http://minecrafthomeschool.com/
    
    From their page: 

                       Benefits of Minecraft Homeschool

• Learning is FUN! Students are assigned weekly lessons that include online videos, informational websites, and Minecraft assignments to apply their learning.
• Teamwork is required! Students must learn to work together and respect each others space to maximize results.
• Technology is here to stay! Typing, TeamSpeak servers, Minecraft servers and understanding the basic workings of the server/client relationship are side effects of living in a Minecraft world.
• Fits Your Schedule – You can study, perform tasks, and work with classmates on your own schedule. Each week we expect you to do the out of game work first, and then login to the server to perform the week’s in-game tasks.

 Both of these servers have been up and running for quite awhile. They have been providing services and have been, to the best of my knowledge, been quite satisfactory in their provision of those services... so if you don't feel quite up to being in charge of Minecraft education just yet, these servers may offer you an attractive alternative.