A few weekends ago (November 22-23, 2014), the Toronto Reference Library hosted the Toronto Mini-Maker Faire (www.makerfairetoronto.com, #mmfto on Twitter). It was a wonderful event. I volunteered to help my talented colleague, David Hann, by supervising his booth while he squeezed in some time to look around. Aaron MacKinnon was my boss during this time. He was Mr. Hann’s student last year and now attends S.A.T.E.C. @ Porter Collegiate in the TDSB. When we weren’t answering questions about the projects on display (which were student-made working pinball machines that integrated language, math, history, and STEM – you can read part of the interview Aaron gave here), we talked Minecraft with each other.

15873446615_3738b6ee9f_m (2) (photo appears courtesy of Brian Smith, @smithwithclass)

 

Minecraft and MakerSpaces go together like peanut butter and jelly. Take a look at the building blocks used here at one of the kid-activity centers. Look familiar? Not only can you make things in Minecraft, you can make Minecraft things or make things to run Minecraft, as Liam’s Kano adventures show. You can create mods or develop your own YouTube channel on an aspect of Minecraft like Saman, a teen I met at ECOO. Minecraft unleashes creativity and innovation in a special way. Melissa Jensen’s blog post on her experience at #mmtfo made the obvious connection between Minecraft and Makerspaces too, in way that doesn’t intimidate me as much as picking up a soldering tool might. My hope is that I (and others) will be inspired by making in Minecraft to make more, make elsewhere, and maybe even make a difference.