Week 3 Essential Question

How can we use Minecraft to create a sound and robust learning experience for students?

As the creators, we need to make Minecraft a game that will be engaging to the students. When creating the game, we want to think of the types of interactions we want the students to have during the experience not what we think the game should be about. We want our students to be “navigating the world, building their own creations and collaborating with each other to explore and solve puzzles” (Levin). A “common mistake among novice game developers is that they think of a new game in terms of the topic they want to include in the game and not the interactions driving engagement” (Kapp, 2014).

Minecraft has all four types of games within it such as “Agon, Alea, Mimicry and Illinx” (Kapp, 2014).  With Agon there’s competition. In someways Minecraft can be competitive when playing with multiplayers. Who can build the fastest house or nicest house. When playing as a single player, it’s competitive to who can build the fastest house before dark and stay safe. Alea is chance. There is a fifty% chance your house will be built correctly, or when building it will be completed in enough time. I know when I was playing minecraft I had a difficult time building. My blocks would be placed in some other area instead of the building location. I would have to break them and retry. This would take time, so I can see how Minecraft could be challenging to students. It would definitely keep their interest and help them set goals to build a house. The other type is Mimicry. Minecraft is a virtual world. It’s a game in 3D and we are building houses with blocks. Illinx is integrated in Minecraft, we are not moving to music, but we do fly in the game and can jump and run during the game.

The other way to keep Minecraft a sound and robust learning experience for students is to make sure each different kind of player will enjoy the game. I know after playing Minecraft I’m definitely an achiever and explorer. I was somewhat socializing to get information on how to use the game and help others when needed, but mostly working to achieve my goals. The only time I was a killer was when I had to cook food.

Minecraft creates many different situations for all players to enjoy the game. There are two types of minecraft students can play. Minecraft students can be “connected to the same server and share the same world” and in MinecraftEdu the “teachers and students can connect together in the same virtual space.” To have a sound and robust learning experience we need to set goals and expectations for our students. Students need to be given “specific tasks to accomplish or puzzles to solve” (Webster, 2011). Students need to work together to achieve these goals and to make Minecraft an extraordinary learning experience in their classroom.

References

Kapp, K. M. (2012). The Gamification of Learning and Instruction : Game-based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Levin, J. (2011, February 2). GETTING STARTED WITH MINECRAFTEDU. Retrieved September 17, 2014, from http://educade.org/lesson_plans/getting-started-with-minecraftedu

What is MinecraftEdu. (2011, April 7). Retrieved September 16, 2014.

Andrew, W. (2011, April 3). Educational building blocks: How Minecraft is used in classrooms. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/04/educational-building-blocks-how-minecraft-is-being-used-in-the-classroom/