Topic: Digital materials/resources and emerging technologies.

Activity: For this activity, I learned how to play Minecraft: Education Edition, a game-based learning platform intended for children and young adults. 

 

What Did I Learn?

‘Minecraft: Education Edition is a game-based learning platform that builds skills, unleashes creativity, and engages students in collaboration and problem-solving (Minecraft:” Education Edition, 2020).’ I was surprised to learn that there are so many lesson plans for a range of subjects, including; language arts, science, history and culture, math, computer science, art and design. Teaching resources are aligned with the Australian curriculum. Minecraft: Education Edition is an effective educational tool for remote learning, particularly during covid-19 (Minecraft, 2020a). 

From playing the game and exploring the lesson plans available (or not available to nonschool accounts), I noticed Minecraft hosts a number of communities called servers, where players can express themselves in a moderated virtual environment, much like libraries. The game caters to community diversity through creating new and different servers, an example of one of these communities is Autcraft, which provides a moderated and safe environment for players with Autism (Minecraft, 2020). The Education Edition hosts its own protected communities, developed by the lesson creators. These communities support a personalised environment that lay the foundation for social and personal development in children. Holzapfel (2018) says these skills will be the most important skills for children of today to learn. Schools, School libraries, and Public Libraries can follow Minecraft’s example to foster a physical (as opposed to virtual) learning environment to aid in skill development in today’s children. 

 

How was the activity relevant to your professional practice working with children and/or young adults?

Minecraft: Education Edition helps to enhance learning retention in students (Karsenti et al., 2017). It provides a safe and moderated learning environment. Covid-19 has shown us how Minecraft: Education Edition can be used to enhance remote learning. Remote learning has also highlighted educational disadvantages (Anderson, 2020). Students living in disadvantaged and rural communities could miss out on this comprehensive education, widening the education divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ (Flack et al., 2020). Perhaps, a public library could develop a ‘homework program’ with local schools (and teachers) to allow students in disadvantaged and/or rural communities where there is limited internet or computer access to participate in these lessons, this could include device sharing schedules (Flack et al., 2020). School libraries may be able to enforce these lessons, providing students with a communal space to participate in the lessons together and with supervision (Holzapfel, 2018). 

 

Gaps in Knowledge and How to Fill Them?

As a ‘noob,’ I found it difficult to learn the game (and lingo). I found it difficult learning how to play Minecraft from scratch, which made it difficult for me to learn the lesson’s content. Teachers and librarians facilitating the use of Minecraft: Education Edition will have to learn how to use the game before being able to use it as a tool for education. Access problems include school accounts, students can only access Minecraft: Education Edition when they have a school account. If they do not have this, players can only play demonstration games, which have limited topics, mainly around coding and computer science. I completed the ‘hour of coding’ demo class. 

As mentioned before, the activity raised a number of questions around accessibility and access, which have a negative impact on a student’s learning experience, and widen the education gap. These barriers include internet and computer access and the costs associated with owning and running internet-connected computers as well as Minecraft and Microsoft memberships. Librarians and educators will have to find new and different ways to bridge these educational gaps. 

 

References:

Anderson, J. (2020). Remote Learning and the Digital Divide. Harvard EdCast. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/20/04/harvard-edcast-remote-learning-and-digital-divide. 

Flack, C., Walker, L., Bickerstaff, A., & Margetts, C. (2020). Socioeconomic disparities in Australian schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pivot Professional Learning. https://www.pivotpl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Pivot_Socioeconomic-disparities-in-Australian-schooling-during-COVID-19_1July2020.pdf. 

Holzapfel, B. (2018). Class of 2030. Class of 2030: What Do Today’s Kindergartners Need to Be Life-Ready? https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2018/01/class-of-2030-predicting-student-skills/. 

Karsenti, P., Bugmann, J., & Gros, p. (2017). Transforming Education with Minecraft? Results of an exploratory study conducted with 118 elementary-school students. (p. 27). https://education.minecraft.net/wp-content/uploads/Minecraft_Research_Report_Karsenti-Bugmann_2017.pdf. 

Minecraft. (2020a, March 10). Microsoft extends access to Minecraft: Education Edition and resources to support remote learning. Minecraft: Education Edition. https://education.minecraft.net/blog/microsoft-extends-access-to-minecraft-education-edition-and-resources-to-support-remote-learning. 

Minecraft. (2020b, October 3). Minecraft Community. Minecraft.net. https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/community. 

Minecraft: Education Edition. (2020). Minecraft: Education Edition Introduction to Game-Based Learning. Microsoft Educator Center. https://education.microsoft.com/en-us/learningPath/3eede2ae/course/9f02325a/0. 

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