Teaching ESL Students World-wide English thru Minecraft :: Online Business :: TEFL/TESOL

[Ben M]

Greetings,

The purpose of this post is to network with a community of like-minded Minecraft teachers and students as I seek to create a Minecraft-based in-game ESL English learning curriculum.

Firstly, about me, I hold a 4 yr. BA and an internationally recognized TELF Certificate for teaching English. Furthermore, as purely a hobby, I create YouTube Minecraft gaming videos, host my own website for fans, admin the "UberForums", operate and manage a survival Minecraft server with over 50 mods installed, work with coders on modding projects, spearhead a small growing community of fellow Minecraft enthusiasts, and much more. Again, all as a hobby - yeah. That's not time consuming is it?

Anyway, I have a great desire and goal to start my own online business that aims to teach English using Minecraft to the youth (and even adults) of the world. Because I love Minecraft and I have been TEFL Certified I thought the two could work amazingly together when I have read so much about how effective Minecraft can be in the classrooms of our current technological day and age - even worldwide to non-native English speaking peoples.

My goal is to create a complete Minecraft-based ESL English curriculum that can be taught in-game. With my extensive experience as a Minecraft YouTuber (just a fun hobby of mine) I know everything to make this a reality using various mods, setting up my own Minecraft server, and customizing various "ESL English Lesson" worlds. Because Minecraft is so widely loved in the world and because it is an open sandbox game with countless mod support and a thriving community of contributors, I know this has huge potential. I know I can successfully create a controlled learning environment for any class size or even 1 on 1 tutoring via VoIP software, a Minecraft server with mods, and an internet connection.

As stated before, I want to network with the already existent thriving Minecraft teaching community and students. Although I have no website for my future online business yet, I do have a strong Minecraft persona establish via YouTube, Twitter, my website, and more. I hope to leverage that to my business advantage and also contribute my efforts to the teacher's Minecraft community.

Do you have any advise on how to get this idea off the ground and soaring into a reality to actually help students world-wide learn English online through Minecraft? Perhaps you know of certain people I can network with to inquire more. Can you tell me if this has been done before or if I can work with or take note from an already existing project similar to mine? And lastly, can you refer me to any resources out there now that could help me? I'm really just hoping to get any info or help on this as I plan.

And most importantly, do you know anywhere I can meet prospective students who would be interested in this? Maybe you are an ESL teacher and you would like for your students to take this future course I will create. Perhaps we can work together to help your students learn even more using Minecraft!

Best wishes in all Minecraft-Teaching endeavors,

Ben M. (aka Hero887)

[Nicholas Sandoval]

Hi Ben. Our organization, Createpurpose.org is expanding into new Baja California orphanages. We plan to launch Munecraftedu in July 2016 to 25 abandoned children living in Tijuana. It will be our 3rd orphanage and first introduction to tech as a vehicle to learn. One of our major goals is to teach these children English. I am just starting to research this program and looking forward to what it can do. We could be a potential resource for prospective students. 

[Zachary Hausrath]

Hello Ben,

Great email - it sounds like you're really interested in pursuing this seriously. There are several ways to do it, but the field will be changing now that Microsoft has thrown their hat into the ring.

A few years ago, as part of a graduate degree in TESOL, I wrote a business plan outlining how I would sell licenses to virtual worlds within Minecraft to the education community. You'll want to put several pieces of information together - feasibility, rationale, the "nuts and bolts" of what and how you would sell, legality, target markets and plan for growth, barriers to entry, etc. I'd be happy to chat with you about it, if you'd like.

Best,

Zack