Imagine being able to travel back in time to fully immerse your pupils in the time period you are studying. We achieved this virtually through Minecraft.

We were lucky being based in Exeter that the local museum, RAMM, had worked with the university of Exeter and The Common People to recreate the city in Minecraft during various periods of its past. As well as Tudor and 18th century recreations, conveniently there was a Roman map of the city. We combined this with Ben Spieldenner's recreation of the Roman city of Bath and we were able to essentially go back in time to a virtual school trip to Roman Bath and Roman Exeter.

Wandering round the virtual cities allowed pupils access to something that would impossible in the real world. We often think of Minecraft as a place for building and creation but it is also fantastic for exploring the creations of others. In our case, we were extremely lucky that these recreated virtual cities had been produced to such a fantastic standard - to scale and with extra details to make the experience more real.

Setting up the world in adventure mode prevented pupils accidentally destroying parts of the virtual Roman cities. This allowed them to be transported as a group to Exeter. We all explored, took photos with our cameras and put them in the portfolio that we could export and save later on. Then we were all transported to Bath where we did the same. Being able to instantly compare and contrast the different cities was so valuable. The impressive stone architecture of Bath complete with shrines to goddesses and a recreation of the baths complete with Roman NPCs enjoying them added to the experience. In Exeter, pupils could interact with NPCs and learn about the trades of the city.

As a learning experience, it was incredibly valuable and memorable and I would recommend it to anyone learning about the Roman period with their pupils.

You can read more about it and how it and how to set it up yourself on the Hello World site or by downloading issue 14 of the magazine.