Why Education Needs More Minecraft
Minecraft is a simple 3D sandbox game released in 2009 by a Swedish developer named Markus Persson, but later on, Minecraft was acquired by Microsoft in September 2014. The game Minecraft has many different uses, you can play survival where you or a friend gather resources and build shelters to survive and go through a loose story about defeating a dragon. The other is a creative platform where people can build or recreate anything they want. Take this video for example, where someone builds the Empire State Building! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnhHns7XUk0
In November 2016, Microsoft launched a new version of Minecraft, Minecraft: Education Edition. To quote the official Minecraft Education website, Minecraft: education edition is “A game-based learning platform that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive digital environment. Educators in more than 115 countries are using Minecraft: Education Edition across the curriculum!”
Now, why videogames? Why Minecraft?
Minecraft can act as a platform for a wide range of learning outcomes from a range of subjects. Let’s take history as an example. As touched on above, Minecraft can have many different “maps” or “worlds” where people can explore and create. Teams of people have come together to recreate and submit historical sites and events into Minecraft: Education Edition. Like the City of Florence, Italy:
This allows students from any grade level to explore and learn about this historic city, and there are many other Minecraft map recreations of famous places and events to explore. This allows for an interactive 3D experience that can help engage students in learning as well as encourage collaboration.
Another subject from the wide range of subjects Minecraft: Education Edition can cover is chemistry. There are add-ons to this edition called “Resource packs” which allow custom elements to be added to the game. This Chemistry Resource Pack allows students and educators to play around with the building blocks of matter, combine elements into useful compounds, and create in-game experiments using the tools provided.
Those with homeschooling education aren’t excluded from this idea either. Minecraft could also work as a long-distance learning tool for both homeschooled students and students who can’t attend the physical class, think of this radical idea; parents bringing their children into an online education-based sandbox that could act as another teaching tool. With the added bonus of having other homeschooled students working together, they can create and learn collaborative skills in a more interactive environment, The Microsoft class of 2030 report says “Teachers in 11 countries cited collaboration, decision-making, and communication as top skills cultivated by Minecraft.” These skills and many other skills like problem-solving, and computational thinking skills could fit within the learning outcomes you’d get in public school.
Minecraft also has one big plus to it, creativity. There is a slew of videos online where many different people have created amazing art and/or sculptures in this blocky world or used an element in Minecraft to create something wild.
Take this example of a built-in phone in Minecraft! This crazy idea was brought to life by Verizon and Blockworks. Together they created a custom application called ‘Boxel’ which takes the web and videos and turns them into blocks within the game.
The person demoing the cellphone is Captain Sparklez who is well known for his Minecraft content on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdlZRhKmWJY
This project shows how versatile and flexible this sandbox game can be. Students can create anything they wish, in this game the sky is the limit!
With all of these ideas being brought to life, it’s no wonder this game has been sticking around. It works as a relaxing game and also as a source for education, covering everything from Art & Design to History, and Chemistry. There is a lot of potential for this style of learning in an educational environment. Having Educators in-game and in-person can help structure this idea, bring more fun into the school environment. Having 1x1 recreations of famous sites and events to explore will bring a new level of interaction that’s immersive and helpful can strengthen the learning outcomes and the takeaways.
Sources used:
https://education.minecraft.net/how-it-works/why-minecraft/
https://education.minecraft.net/wp-content/uploads/13679_EDU_Thought_Leadership_Summary_revisions_5.10.18.pdf
https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/the-city-of-florence-italy/
https://www.cnet.com/news/verizons-working-minecraft-cell-phone-makes-blocky-video-calls/
