Minecraft and the Classroom

“We owe it to our students to bring what they’re passionate about into the classroom.”

–Chris Aviles, Fairhaven Schools, New Jersey.

Last week, we heard from some local students about one of the hottest new tech-developments in the middle school classroom. MineCraft EDU is an exciting new opportunity for teachers seeking to marry student video game interests with classroom learning. For those unfamiliar, “MineCraft” is a cube-based virtual world where players can mine, harvest and craft resources into a variety of products, tools or structures. While the graphics are low quality and the gameplay can feel a little clunky, MineCraft’s real appeal is its nearly limitless application. The sky’s the limit in terms of what players can craft or design. Want to recreate the pyramids? Just mine sandstone. Want to design an accurate model of 19th century London’s downtown quarter? With enough brick, mortar and time you can do just that. In MineCraft, your only limit is your time, imagination and computer’s processing speed.

To facilitate using MineCraft as an educational resource, the MineCraft developers have released a unique MineCraft experience catered to the classroom. According to MineCraft,

Minecraft Education Edition is a game-based learning platform that offers educators a transformative way to engage students using MineCraft, and ignite their passion for learning!” (education.minecraft.net)

As the students and their teacher showed us, the program can be used to illustrate scientific demonstrations, calculate mathematical equations, recreate moments from literature or even compose music. Students and teachers are essentially transported to a virtual landscape where lessons can be spatially rendered and collaboratively produced. Additionally, the games administrator has the ability to impose certain restrictions on gameplay to prevent students from misbehaving in the virtual world.

If I’m to be honest, I worry that this aspect of the program alone makes it unrealistic for my use in the classroom. The amount of time it would take me to learn how to navigate the MineCraft world and then the expectation to effectively police student involvement, personally, sounds like too much of a hassle. In this case, the granularity and complexity of the MineCraft EDU world work against my ability to use it effectively. However, as one teacher candidate pointed out during our debriefing, if my future students make a compelling argument for how the software could be used to improve their learning experience, I’d be more willing to make this sort of learning investment.

Indeed, as Michael noted, the middle school students who visited were clearly excited about the software and felt empowered to learn in a mode that complimented their interests.