The activity that I have chosen was to learn how to use a game for young children and the application I played and analysed was Minecraft. The reason I chose it was due to it’s popularity with children, previous usage by libraries and teachers for activities and that it was a program I had no experience with. Through my gameplay I have learnt the significance of expertise when handling digital programs and the importance of creative artistic tools for children to make their own work.
In my gameplay I had experienced many difficulties in using the interfaces and the design of the game. I believed it to be unintuitive, difficult for children and unhelpful for novices that are looking to learn it’s mechanics. Due to the lack of similarities of Minecraft to other technological programs for virtual design, it was a new but struggling experience to achieve my goal of designing a virtual library. However in reflection and examining various studies that have used Minecraft successfully, it is clear that my perception of the program was heavily influenced by my unfamiliarity with it. When critiquing the time-consuming nature of the game’s activities I have overlooked the potential for Minecraft to be an available tool on library computers where users can work on their project over a different number of sessions, building their familiarity and skill with it over longer periods of time. Glendening also believes that “Minecraft is a natural fit with the maker movement and with what informal educators such as librarians and those hosting Makerspaces, are trying to accomplish” (Glendening, 2016, p.61).
Traditionally library programs for children are activity related in a physical space like story time and holiday craft activities. However, Minecraft can be used to offer opportunities for virtual activities for children to help build digital literacy. One weakness in my playthrough of the game was not having smaller goals within my project and not dividing up my play sessions similar to how a program in a library would run. In a Melbourne public library case study of an Minecraft event, the goal of the program was to cover “explore a new way of engaging young people… allowed young people to have a role in library programming” (Cilauro, 2015, p.88). The event also had the task of designing a virtual library but relied on patron’s expertise with the program as well as facilitating peer to peer learning to help the event become successful (Cilauro, 2015, p.89-91). In this case study, the library was already a space where children went to play Minecraft regularly. In an American school library study, librarians set up private servers on the game as part of a Minecraft club, where the librarians delegated specific tasks to be completed in each session with the aim of teaching students about the importance of digital citizenship (Hill, 2015, p.373-374). The advantage of a club allowed for repeated sessions which resulted in students to collaborate on a single large project and provided them experience in a variety of skills related to Minecraft such as programming, graphic design, project management and familiarization with digital art creation (Hill, 2015, p.379).
Although my first impressions and playthrough with Minecraft was largely difficult and negative, my learning experience of the game allowed me to familiarize myself with a program widely used by children and see it’s possibilities for ongoing library programs and events.
Reference
Cilauro, R. (2015). Community building through a public library Minecraft gaming day. The Australian Library Journal, 64(2), 87-93. doi: 10.1080/00049670.2015.1015209
Glendening, M.L. (2016). From video games to real life : tapping into Minecraft to inspire creativity and learning in the library [ABC-CLIO]. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=a6aab96c-f990-4df0-ba9a-6ebf5df90ac4%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=1345802&db=nlebk
Hill, V. (2015). Digital citizenship through game design in Minecraft. New Library World, 116(7/8), 369-382. doi: 10.1108/NLW-09-2014-0112