Digital skills amongst younger students are improving as new teaching methods introduced in schools at an early age are proving to be more effective than traditional means of learning according to Neil Attard, Director at the Directorate for Digital Literacy and Transversed Skills within the Education Ministry.
“Minecraft Education is a case in point. Unfortunately, whilst some might still oversee this technology as games, they are not. This is why we need to raise more awareness by focusing on the benefits of using this technology in schools,” he said.
The Directorate, together with Microsoft Malta is launching a new national Minecraft Education competition across all public, private and church schools. The competition, ‘Schools Reinventing Malta” will bring digital literacy and sustainability together by enticing students to use Minecraft Education to re-imagine Malta as a more sustainable country.
“Digital Education Strategy soon to go into consultation stage.”
The chosen competition finalists will be showcased during the forthcoming Public Service Expo this coming May.
Mr Attard noted that to date, the issue has always been how to quantify the improvement being registered through such digital learning platforms.
“We are at a very exciting juncture as our new Digital Education Strategy will very soon be going into the consultation stage to ensure a strategy where every subject defines a set of digital learning outcomes. This will finally help us start quantifying the effectiveness of the technology in classrooms which should also remove the scepticism that still lingers when it comes to today’s tech-driven teaching methods,” added Mr Attard.
“There is no escaping the fact that today’s world is being driven by AI. Even more so, tomorrow’s world will be increasingly requiring employment driven by collaboration and creativity. This is what we are doing in Malta’s education sector through our investment with Minecraft Education in schools,” adds Kyle Anastasi from Microsoft Malta.
To enable more schools to adopt Minecraft Education in their educational curriculum, Microsoft has recently provided free licences to several private schools and is currently offering online training sessions to those teachers who have already shown interest in participating in this competition with their students.
The next online training session is going to be held on the 22nd of March at 18.00hrs.
“Microsoft’s investment in Malta’s education is in line with the commitment pledged to continue supporting the country through the values of Learning, Working and Innovating,” concluded Mr Anastasi.
All public, private and church schools are being invited to register their participation in the national Minecraft Education competition ‘Schools Changing Malta” by completing a simple form that may be requested via email digital-literacy@ilearn.edu.mt
