Minecraft is where a lot of people spend their leisure time, irrespective of age or gender (although it is more popular amongst the pre-teens). As a teacher I've lost count of the number of times I've heard children speak to me and each other about the game, I am a gamer and know Minecraft well however a lot of the children know the Minecraft world better than they do planet Earth. As part of BBC's 'Make It Digital' initiative, to inspire digital creativity across the UK Jolyon Jenkins asks why our children are hooked on the game Minecraft. The radio show is very interesting and for the uninitiated very informative, for those in the know it is just a consolidation of what you know but it well worth a listen. As for the parents who say that the game makes their children irritable, consider not allowing them play it non stop over the weekend maybe.
Why Minecraft Persists!
Minecraft has been here for years, for many young gamers it is hard to imagine a time before it. Simon and I have already discussed the importance and educational aspects of Minecraft before (links to these are at the bottom of this article) but I want to discuss why Minecraft still persists.
Minecraft is at a fixed premium price on iOS yet has been in the top position in UK charts for many many weeks. In fact over the Summer holidays Minecraft was the number one selling game on consoles, beating AAA heavy hitters like Watch Dogs, Grand Theft Auto V and Mario Kart 8. In other media like music and films you do not get old films staying at the top of the charts for years, so why does Minecraft still persist?
I am no stranger to online gaming, playing Age of Empires way back and more recently COD but this is different. This is not gaming, this is a parallel world for children and adults alike. The collaboration, commitment, creativity and community that Minecraft inspires within children in particular is jaw droppingly revolutionary. In this over-protected, dumbed down, congested, polluted, corrupted world that we have handed to them the children have found something that we elders could only ever dream of... a magical Never Never Land where anything is possible. Through the various mods and updates Minecraft renews and refreshes itself- it adapts and evolves to each persons personal preference. It is not a craze or fad, it is not going away. It is a multimedia juggernaut that sells cosplay equipment and books that have topped the charts across the world. Anything that encourages this level of creativity in children is okay with me, long live Minecraft.
LINK- Minecraft Still Dominates Charts
The Power of Minecraft- by Anjum Razaq
On the 17th June 2013 Minecraft surpassed 22 million downloads (based on numbers on all platforms). That is a heady amount but what is it that makes Minecraft such a popular game? As a gamer I can say why Minecraft appeals to me but why does it cross spectrums and appeal to a wide range of people, particularly younger children. As a teacher it has been interesting to see Minecraft emerge from being a quiet indie title into the phenomenom it is today.
In my opinion Minecraft is a gaming masterpiece that has transformed the
way we think about games. In time I believe Minecraft will prove to be a
landmark title, in much the same way that Mario 64 is today.
Minecraft has entranced so many people because it appeals to so many people on so many different levels. It is creative from the get go, click on the rectangular ‘Create New World’ button and a new world appears, instanced just for you. You have a virtual sandbox where the world is yours and yours alone. As a result no walkthroughs or youtube tutorials can tell you exactly what to do. You can learn the basics in minutes but to truly thrive and flourish takes many hours, experimentation and research. It is no coincidence that the Minecraft Wiki is one of the largest in the gaming world, second in gaming only to World of Warcraft.
Minecraft unlocks the creativity and imagination of the player, handing you a hoe and pick and saying on that very first night, 'Go forth'.
As an educational tool it really is amazing and Simon has done some work with it already. Above I have linked to an interesting video which discusses Minecrafts educational uses. Also I have placed a video of some incredible structures that people have made… the possibilities of what can be made are truly endless.
Next year Simon and I hope to create a series of lesson plans which incorporate Minecraft, as always we'll post our work and plans on here!
Exploring the world of Minecraft - by Simon White
Around 2 and half years ago I started to hear news surrounding a small indie game development team called Mojang from Sweden. The concept of the game sprung out at me, imagine Lego + sandbox video game. This game was going to allow me to build structures just like Lego did and also let me create and tell my own story. Already Minecraft was starting to sink its teeth into me and had no intention of letting go.
Minecraft is a sandbox game, when you are first dropped into its “blocky” world your first task is to find/build shelter. With no materials to hand you have to gather wood by running up to trees and punching them until its drops a block. This block can be picked up by the player and then crafted into tools, say an axe. Use the axe to then gather more wood quickly and then you can create more tools such as a spade, pickaxe or a sword. This all sounds quite surreal, so just below is a video of me playing the first 20 minutes.
Minecraft has come a long way since I first started playing its early Alpha/Beta stages. Hundreds of new features have been added over the years to keep the game fresh and appealing. This is why I have a love for Minecraft and its eager and committed community. Updates for the game arrive every month which include new features and bug fixing. The community is always growing and with over 9 million copies of the game sold to date and it looks like it’s not stopping anytime soon. As Minecraft got bigger and bigger more people started to look at what it had to offer. As part of the Redbridge Games Network, I was interested to see how Minecraft could play a part in the classroom. Just over a year ago I stumbled across Joel Levin better known as MinecraftTeacher on Twitter and Tumblr. He began his own Minecraft club at his school in New York. I started looking at the work he and his pupils were creating and instantly I wanted to follow in his footsteps. His idea was to create a self-built community by the children whilst looking at different aspects of learning. They were covering Literacy, Numeracy, PSHCE (Citizenship) and even Design and Technology.
In September 2011 I started my first Minecraft club; it was aimed at low achieving boys in year 4. It was going to be a creative writing club. I had 8 boys in the club and we started to play Minecraft together. I had bought 4 Minecraft accounts so we could all play on the same server (one account per pair) and play together in the same world. I had already edited this world so when the game started we all began on a beach with a sunken ship just off the coast. I told them they were all miners travelling to South America by boat when they had been hit by a storm and woken up on this island. What should we do? Where should we go? What are our priorities?
Over the course of the 6 week unit we created Wordles, diary accounts and audio logs of our time on the island. They had all really enjoyed the experience and word spread around the school that I was using Minecraft in lessons. Some excellent work was produced and I have posted some of this in the post. As word spread of Minecraft club more and more pupils wanted to join. I decided to change the clubs name to Creative Worlds in January 2012 and took the club in a different direction. My aim was to take children from years 4, 5 and 6 who didn’t really know each other and create a community around Minecraft. The club was more about working together and building cohesion between the pupils who had never really spoken to each other before in school.
I was going to be blogging about this club but I just never got around to recording all the wonderful things the pupils had created. I have a few of the worlds saved and it was amazing to watch their world come to life with more buildings, shops, swimming pools and rocket ships.
Starting this week I have new club of 16 children and together we are going to write about our experiences once a week. The children will be contributing to the posts and explain what they are getting from using Minecraft in the classroom. In these blog posts I will be going into more detail about how to set-up servers and creating multiplayer games. I will also talk about how to use the excellent tool from Minecraftedu which allows the teacher full control of the world and the players to give the lesson more focus when needed. I’m very excited to start a new journey in Minecraft, it is a brilliant multi-purpose learning tool and I hope to show what it has to offer over the coming weeks.
Simon
@The_ALT_Teacher