Minecraft is Building an Education for Students
Recently, we discussed the Oregon Trail of our youth and the benefits of gamification but Minecraft goes much farther by bringing games to the classroom. Children across the globe have gone Minecraft crazy. What started as a two-person business in a small French town has now exploded and consumed millions of little brains with more than 200 million copies sold. Minecraft is distinct from other blockbuster games due to its blurry and cartoony graphics. The game is essentially about mining and crafting. You search for resources and then make use of them to construct other things. The first task is to construct a shelter to secure yourself during night time, which occurs every four hours. If you fail then skeletons, spiders and zombies will devour your brains and your character dies. Don't worry about it there's no blood or gore in Minecraft monster fighting. Very little of the above description sounds educational however, according to researchers, Minecraft can actually teach kids how to react in real-world situations. It's an "open-ended game sandbox" which means there are no rules and it may be confusing initially. Both adults and children are required to explore and try to determine what is happening inside the game. There are sites like Minecraft Wiki designed to assist curious minds navigate the game. My seven-year old daughter was browsing YouTube videos that she had found when she searched for Minecraft assistance. Kids can also find assistance from their friends who are fellow Minecraft players with the same goals to learn tricks and tips. The game's resources are extremely useful. Change is the end result of all true learning Other players could attack a character, end their lives (remember there isn't blood) and steal all their treasures. To avoid conflict, players must be aware of how to shield their possessions from the other players. When players collaborate, there is always a chance that one of the builders will get angry and ruin the hours of hard work. In the end, Minecraft is a dog-eats-dog world. As cruel as it seems the kids are still enthralled by the game and can spend endless hours working on their home, town or historical landmark, or any other thing you could think of. In Minecraft there are no rules and there is no limit to the creativity you can come up with. Through teamwork, social skills security awareness, creativity, research, problem-solving and determination, it is clear to see how Minecraft could easily translate into real-life solutions to real-life problems. This is precisely why many teachers have chosen Minecraft to use in their classrooms. Minecraftedu.com is specifically designed for educators and children in classroom settings. By providing thousands of licences to teachers, Minecraft has allowed children to learn important life lessons in a stimulating environment (what child doesn't like to play games?) Teachers are adding lesson plans every day to the foundation to make it function as an ensemble or a group.
As is evident in the video clip, digital citizenship is becoming more and more important as our reliance on technology grows. Children are needing to understand the importance of online safety, ethics, bullying and etiquette at an ever-smaller age. Minecraft is an app that encourages children to participate and engage them to develop digital citizenship skills in a controlled environment.
We are a major advocate for STEAM education (science technology engineering, arts and math). We encourage our local youths to get involved in technology as early as possible and see where their creativity takes them. Learn more about our STEAM initiatives here. Change is the end result of all true learning We take an elementary school and a plethora of awesome gadgets like the Raspberry Pi to discover what we can learn from each other.
