Minecraft In The Classroom

Assisi Catholic College, Upper Coomera is a P-12 College and a 1:1 digital device environment. Year Four students have parent owned and managed iPads.

Overview and Rationale

The use of video games in the classroom is another ‘tool’ within the teacher toolkit to implement and provides a useful adjunct to other digital tools. Research suggests that simulations and virtual works are increasingly being used to supplement ‘traditional’ teaching methods (Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2003) and can be used to enhance student engagement and provide scope to consolidate skills. Minecraft was used in the 4T classroom with the specific aim of engaging students in Mathematics.

Minecraft is a ‘sandbox’ game, where players are able to build and craft everyday

From class discussions and teacher observation, it was clear that the most popular and engaging app amongst a large proportion of students was Minecraft.

In a class survey, comments from students were positive and articulated the strengths of the game.

Students commented that

‘It’s really addictive....just watching people using it and seeing their creations is really entertaining’

‘Its fun, creative and what you can do is unlimited!’

‘A cool place to let your imagination run wild. You can build things that you can be proud of.’

‘It’s an amazing game for everyone to play and learn from’

The use of a video game may be perceived by students as being designed more for ‘entertainment’ than learning, and can be one of the initial reasons the use of Minecraft can be discounted as a legitimate learning. However, by being preemptive and defining the ‘game’ as an educational tool, having well-defined lesson aims and by constraining which elements of Minecraft are employed, students perceived the game as an educational tool within the context of the Mathematics unit in the

Initially I was concerned about the excessive amount of class time that may be needed to fully engage in the use of Minecraft. After utilising Minecraft within Mathematics and seeing how fast the students completed their constructions, how students remained ‘on task’, how motivated they were to complete tasks and how much they enjoyed sharing and reflecting on their learning with peers my concerns were allayed. I now feel more confident to include Minecraft as a learning tool in other content areas. Most significant was the increase in demonstrated student achievement.

This term, Year Four teachers will be using Minecraft with students who will collaboratively design a recreation area for their community that promotes health, safety and physical activity – linking to the new Year Four HPE Achievement Standard. They will then present their designs, tour and evaluate each other’s facilities and link to real-world examples on an excursion.

References

Kirriemuir, JK, McFarlane, A, [2003] Use of Computer and Video Games in the Classroom. Proceedings of the Level Up Digital Games Research Conference, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands. Retrieved from