Minecraft and Education

At the Connect 2013 conference I attended a few weeks ago, I saw a group of middle-school aged kids walking around.  The conference was mostly attended by teachers, administration and salespeople so I was a bit confused as to why they were there.  Turns out they were a group of Grade 7 students from a school in Hamilton that were there with their teacher hosting a poster session on a really cool project they worked on: redesigning Hamilton's West Harbour... using Minecraft.  Apparently, they presented their design to city officials.  This CBC article has a slideshow of the creation process.  Unfortunately, I missed the poster session and found out about it from my supervisor later (she was super excited about it).

What is Minecraft?

In case you haven't hear of it, Minecraft is an extremely popular 'sandbox survival' game.  What does that mean?  You build stuff out of blocks and try not to die.  There are 2 main modes to play in: creative and survival.  In creative mode you don't have to worry about the dying part so you can just create. Further explanation here if needed.

Minecraft and Education...

I am a gamer.  I love video games. I think they are a largely untapped source of educational potential so when I hear video games + education I get really excited.  As a  player of Minecraft, I can see tons of ways the game can provide fun and entertaining ways of teaching math and science.  

Just to be clear, Minecraft and Education is not a new idea.

In fact, there is a version of the game called Minecraft EDU that is specifically tailored to education.  Teachers have more flexibility with the environments their students create in.  Here's a video about the growing Minecraft EDU community:

As mentioned in the video, the creator of Minecraft EDU is Joel Levin, the Minecraft Teacher.  Most of his work is directed at elementary level students.  Check out some gameplay footage from his YouTube Channel.

Playing in the Sandbox...

In the documentary Minecraft: The Story of Mojang. Peter Molyneux (famous and sometimes controversial ex-Microsoft game developer) compares the evolution of video games to the evolution of Lego.  

Lego used to be a bunch of blocks that you dump on the floor and build whatever you want with.  Now, it is a kit made up of a bunch of specialized pieces that you follow the instructions to build.  After you finish building it, you put it on a shelf and leave it there to collect dust.

Similarly, Molyneux states the best selling video-games have overwhelmingly become linear, polished products.  Though they serve their own purpose as a form of interactive media, they generally leave little room for real creativity or creation.  When your done playing it, you put the game it in its case and put the case on the shelf to collect dust.  

On the other hand, there is Minecraft.  Notch (the creator of Minecraft) has done the exact opposite.  There are essentially no set goals or creative limits (other than gravity).  Minecraft has brought gaming back to the original lego bricks; back to playing in the sandbox. 

I like to think this analogy applies to education as well.  We generally have courses with predetermined outcomes and use the same lessons year after year for different students.  So much of what students learn feels useless to them after they pass the exam.  Instead, we should be providing students with the tools and environment to create and continue to learn by themselves.  Minecraft is one such environment and toolbox that enables students to set their own goals to create without limits in a highly collaborative environment.  

Teaching with Minecraft in High School...

The Hamilton West Harbour and Joel Levin's classroom are examples of elementary school Minecraft projects.  Would the game be able to engage high school students in the same way?  I think so.  Because the game is so open-ended, I believe a teacher could potentially come up with projects that addresses the curriculum from any course.  Some projects having to do with physics and math that immediately come to mind are:

Physics

• Find gravity in the game by experimenting with falling objects.  How does it compare to gravity on earth?
• Measuring momentum and velocity of a mine cart
• Measuring friction on a mine cart track
• Study circuit operation using redstone
• Examine gravitational and potential and kinetic energy and use it to design and build a roller coaster track

Math

• Find optimal ways to mine for diamonds (related to maximizing surface area)
• Cost to build different numbers of things (related rates)
• Surface area/volume relationships of structures
• Analysis of how the random world is spawned based on a seed (ties into Computer Science)

I'll try to explore these ideas and others in coming entries.

Why Minecraft?

The creation of a product is an integral part of the 21st Century Learning framework, especially for Knowledge Construction, Real-World Problem Solving and Use of ICT to be authentic and transformative.  If this is the case, why use Minecraft at all?  Why not physically build something?  Having a physical product isn't always practical.  Time, money, material and size constraints limit what is possible in the physical world.   

Resources and space are practically infinite in Minecraft.  Fairly complicated works can be built fairly quickly, especially when there is effective Collaboration.  In addition the game itself is cheap, user friendly and is available on almost any platform.  Its accesibility makes it appealing from an equity standpoint. In addition, students on the same server are accountable for their actions and interdependent on the cooperation of all players.  After all, there is nothing stopping from one student from completely destroying the work of the rest of a class.

Minecraft has potential for awesome Self-Regulation as well.  The game responds to the players actions as opposed to telling the user what to do.  Students can challenge themselves with goals they collaboratively set with the each other and the teacher.  

Basically, Minecraft is able to tie in all the neXt Lesson competencies.

Learning from Minecraft...

In addition to using Minecraft to teach, educators can learn from the game's success in engaging players and inspiring creativity.  This article from teachthought.com called '5 Lessons to Learn from Minecraft in Education' highlights some of them.  I would add 'Be Collaborative' as number 6 the list.  Though Minecraft does not have to be played collaboratively, some of the world's largest and most intricate Minecraft constructions are a result of the combined efforts of groups of people.  

Education should be about providing students with the tools to create and share their creations.  What those Grade 7 students in Hamilton accomplished is an example of how transformative 21st Century Learning can be.  Minecraft is just one platform that makes this kind of creation and collaboration possible but it sets a new standard on the possibilities of education.