As a gamer myself, I have been a staunch advocate of introducing games and gamify elements such as badges (achievements, accomplishments) to learning since I first entered the field of instructional design. I would like to discuss gaming in education, and cognitive learning science, utilizing Minecraft: Education Edition as an analogy and metaphor (Thagard, 2019). Minecraft: Education Edition is a game that allows students to collaborate to build projects and solve problems. Through the use of Minecraft, students can apply problem-solving strategies in an environment that promotes critical thought, receiving continuous feedback through trial and error. According to Karou (2016), an environment that is safe to fail in or make mistakes in, while promoting problem-solving through “doing”, can be defined as a “culture of gaming”.
About Minecraft: Education Edition
Classrooms of up to 30 students can play in a world together, or students can work together in pairs or groups simply by joining their classmates' Minecraft world. Educators can create character guides that players interact with that give instruction, hints, or anything the instructor types out. Minecraft: Education Edition has a camera and folio feature that allows students to submit work as evidence/artifacts from within the game. Teachers can even host entire classrooms in a virtual Minecraft classroom. In addition to allowing educators to create scenarios and objectives, there are also purchasable lesson plans that educators can purchase and customize.
Between the purchasable lesson features, and ability to customize anything in Minecraft: Education Edition, a teacher can literally have an entire class taught in the video game. Why use Zoom when you can meet synchronously in Minecraft: Education Edition and have class in a 3D classroom/world instead? It’s almost like being the classroom, while still being a remote learner.
Learning Examples in Minecraft: Education Edition
One learning/teaching example that can be done in Minecraft: Education Edition is to make use of the game’s chemistry/element features. Students could be allowed to safely play with dangerous chemical elements to see what happens when mixed in the confines of the game. Students could see which combinations amalgamate and which ones explode.
Another example would be to help demonstrate and build on student leadership skills. An instructor can create an escape room with a timeline and objectives where teammates need to work together to solve puzzles to progress. This example allows for educators to put transfer into practice. Transfer allows for students to take all of their skills and knowledge, and apply them inside and outside the classroom (Karou, 2016).
Cognitive Science & Minecraft: Education Edition
Through the use of gaming in Minecraft: Education Edition, students are exposed to a wide variety of cognitive learning theory approaches in learning. Some of those theories, as sourced from Thagard, (2019) are:
- Logic-based learning – Problem solving skills are required to complete a lesson in Minecraft.
- Rules – The confines of the scenario in the Minecraft lesson define what can and cannot be done, the rules that need to be followed to succeed or fail.
- Concepts – Utilizing scenarios or metaphors in the design of a Minecraft lesson allow for students to form frames of references and draw connections.
- Analogies – The escape room scenario above is an analogy that allows educational transfer of leadership skills. The 3D environment allows for all types of analogies to be conceptualized and utilized by both learner and educator alike.
- Images – Minecraft as a 3D game utilizes images as part of the environment.
Game-Based Learning in Practice
Let’s use Minecraft: Education Edition to teach writing skills as an example and analogy to demonstrate game-based learning in practice. The Minecraft lesson will start by having students log in on a beach, stranded, with a limited inventory of items. Students will be instructed to gather materials from the beach to place in their inventory to prepare for travel, so they can escape the beach. The students can then reflect on the materials they selected, why the materials are important, and how versatile the materials are. The assignment criteria will require students to take a screenshot of their inventory and use explanatory writing to describe why they chose the supplies they selected.
Note: This Minecraft lesson can be purchased from the lesson plan shop – click to view. This lesson plan follows the four principles of game-based learning, as defined by by Karou (2016).
- The first principle is known as problem-based learning. Instead of being told what to do, the learners are presented with a scenario they need to work through to solve, which engages and incentivizes the learners to solve the problem.
- The second game-based learning principle is to learn by doing (Karou, 2016). The students in the stranded beach scenario are exploring by utilizing multiple pathways until they succeed. This process ties into the culture of gaming concept, which states that games promote an environment where mistakes and failure are part of the learning process (Karou, 2016).
- The third game-based learning principle is known as informative feedback (Karou, 2016). While exploring and succeeding/failing, the game itself reveals when an error or mistake occurred, which is a form of continuous feedback to the learners, allowing learners to apply that feedback to the learning experience.
- The fourth and last game-based learning principle is known as progressive growth (Karou, 2016). Well-designed games start easy and progress in difficulty. We entice learners with the low barrier to entry, and then challenge them to progress and continue onwards. As a game increases in difficulty, the learner continuously builds off of their prior progress, which in some regards, is a form of educational scaffolding.
With Minecraft: Education Edition, there literally is no limit to what can be taught. Effective use of Minecraft: Education Edition all depends on the design of the content, and the imagination of the developer. I would like to close this post out by sharing a video that demonstrates how Minecraft: Education Edition plays, to better orchestrate the true strengths of this really cool and fun game. Wouldn't it be amazing if an entire college course was taught in Minecraft? Hey, I work at a university where I design learning experiences, if I pester my Dean enough maybe she will let me teach the first Minecraft course at my institution! Ha, I can dream. There are no limits in Minecraft...
References:
Karou, K. [MIND Research Institute]. (2016, September 20). Using Game-based Learning in the Classroom to Develop Productive Struggle [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WlP8NNo4CU
Thagard, P. (Spring, 2019, Edition). Cognitive science. In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy.
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Learning Design