Classroom Gamification: How to Use Minecraft In Your Classroom
Becky Hayes, Caroline Godwin Tracy Pena, Ray
Pastore, Ph.D., and Amy Rottmann
Hayes, B., Godwin, C., Pena, T.,
Pastore, R., & Rottman, A. (2017). Classroom Gamification: How to Use
Minecraft In Your Classroom. Journal of Training, Design, and Technology, 1(1),
2-6.
Introduction
The universal appeal of Minecraft is
unprecedented. The game has proven popular with one of the widest demographics
in video game history and has sold over 54 million copies (Gamespot, 2015).
There are very few games that have appealed not only to both sexes, but to ages
ranging from under 15 to over 80 (GretchenMC, 2011, msgs 1-122). The very popularity of this game has perhaps
created hesitation on the part of some administrators and teachers to view this
game as educational. If something is this much fun for kids, can it really be
something that we can use in an educational setting? For classroom teachers who
want to incorporate this experience in their classrooms but are meeting
resistance from other educators and parents, this article will help you make a
case for Minecraft. By examining both research and practice, this article
demonstrates that Minecraft is not only fun, but an effective learning tool.
What is
Minecraft?
For those who have heard students talking about
it, but haven’t experienced it for themselves, Minecraft is a unique gaming
experience that allows players to construct items in a virtual environment.
There are five gameplay modes that users can choose from: creative, survival,
hardcore, adventure, and spectator. Each
mode offers slightly different options for the gamer; however, the two most
popular modes are creative and survival.
The creative mode is a virtual Lego-building experience, while the
survival mode includes the same building mechanics but introduces the necessity
for mining for resources and defeating life-threatening night dwelling
creatures. Each mode has different advantages and appeals, and lends themselves
to very different styles of play (and different classroom applications).
Minecraft is available on several platforms: personal computer, Xbox 360, Xbox
One, Playstation 3 and 4, and a scaled down version, Minecraft Pocket Edition,
can be played on a variety of mobile devices.
Research: How Is Minecraft Educational?
Distributed Practice
Distributed practice is also referred to as
spaced practice or spaced rehearsal. It is the opposite of mass practice (also
known as “cramming”). In distributed practice, the learner spends time in short
sessions at regular intervals practicing skills or reviewing concepts related
to the subject matter. Since players often engage in game play on a regular
basis with breaks (let’s say they play every day after school), video gaming
can be viewed as a form of distributed practice. Minecraft is a game that lends
itself to distributed practice, since the complexity and open-format of the
game means that a player will need more than a single session to explore and
master all aspects of the game. The problem solving skills learned in the game
are reinforced by the players’ repeated practice sessions. For example, a
player who wants to learn how to use redstone in Minecraft (which can be a very
complex process) would search for tutorials on YouTube or Wikis and test their
constructions in their own game. The desire to create working redstone
mechanics in the game might require several sessions to be successful, and
therefore the learning involved in the process would be reinforced by
distributed practice.
Scaffolding
Scaffolding is the process of limiting a
learner’s exposure to more difficult elements of a subject until they have
mastered the basic elements (Kapp, 2013, p. 66). The strategy of scaffolding is
a hallmark of videogames in general, though it is less applicable to sandbox
games such as Minecraft. While there is no formal scaffolding programmed in to
Minecraft, in practice, players often seek out tutorials online posted by more
experienced players on open forums, such as YouTube.com. The beginner watches
the tutorials online, and works to master the more basic elements of the game
on their own. This scaffolding can also be provided by an instructor in an
educational setting, where the instructor would walk the learners through the
initial steps of the game as a group. The player can progress to more and more
complex tasks and scenarios in the game when they are ready, at which time they
can seek out tutorials on the more advanced aspects of the game created by the
huge online community of Minecraft users or practice on their own through trial
and error.
Social Learning Theory
Social learning theory was proposed by Robert
Bandura in the late 1970s, and it holds that individuals gain knowledge through
observing each other in social situations. In a sandbox game like Minecraft,
older players are often playing in a virtual social setting, interacting with
others and learning the aspects of the game through observation. In a classroom
setting, this aspect can be enhanced by the influence of a facilitator who monitors
interactions and makes sure that the behaviors being learned are positive.
Flow
Flow, a term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
is a state of being fully immersed in an activity (Kapp, 2013, p. 71). This
elusive state creates a powerful teaching moments, though it can be extremely
difficult to achieve in a traditional classroom setting. When a student
experiences flow, they are often unaware of time passing or even where they are
in space. The experience of flow is achieved in that perfect balance between
mastery and frustration, where a challenge is neither too easy nor too
difficult. For many students, their only experience with flow is when playing
video games.
Practice:
How Can You Use Minecraft in the Classroom?
MinecraftEdu is a site designed specifically
for hosting a version of the Minecraft game in the classroom. MinecraftEdu was designed by teachers and is
officially endorsed by Mojang, the creators of Minecraft. The game has been adapted so it is
appropriate for classroom use, and, for the less technologically savvy, there
is a cloud service where the game is hosted with the most commonly used
configurations. For those who possess
the technical ability, Minecraft servers can be created and customized so each
class can have its own game server.
Either way, teachers can easily logon to view what the students are
building. Because the game has been
modified for educational purposes, there are optional lesson plans and
activities that can be used as well. The
original Minecraft and MinecraftEdu are based on the concept of “sandbox
play”. Whereas many games are linear or
have specific goals that need to be met, sandbox play allows the gamer to have
near complete freedom within the game to play as she wishes. This freedom allows teachers to create a wide
variety of lessons all within the same game. MinecraftEdu differs from the
original game in that teachers have access to student management controls that
can put parameters on students’ use.
Teachers around the world are using this service to provide instruction
in a wide array of subjects such as STEM, history, and art.
The cost to run your own server is a one-time
fee of $41.00 and each user license is $18.00 ($14.00 if 25 or more are
purchased). The cloud service is an
additional $20 per month after purchasing the license. The original Minecraft game is also part of
the purchase price. Educational
institutions such as schools, museums, and libraries are eligible to purchase
MinecraftEdu (upon verification), but the service is not available to
home-schooled students.
Implications for Use in
the K-12 Classroom
Minecraft can be integrated into all subject
areas of kindergarten through twelfth grade curriculum. Minecraft is an open
ended option that allows teachers to best fit it to their classroom needs and
grade level content. There are implications for use in classrooms of all age
levels and subject matter. A teacher must understand how Minecraft fits into
the classroom environment for it to be used effectively and for students to learn
while staying engaged.
Students are familiar with gaming and need to
be taught there is a difference in playing Minecraft at home and at school. It
is important before beginning Minecraft in the classroom for a teacher to
explain the purpose of playing the game in school and explicitly discuss
behavior expectations. This gives a teacher the opportunity to focus on
behavior in an online environment versus the face to face traditional classroom
environment. Students will be in online environments the rest of their lives,
and these skills are imperative for their success in the future. In addition to
setting a purpose and behavior expectations, teachers must layout the goals
that will be met by using Minecraft. It is important that students understand they
are playing Minecraft to meet educational goals, and they must shift their
focus from playing independently at home to working with classmates to achieve
the goal.
In classrooms, Minecraft provides an
alternative to the traditional way of teaching. In today’s classrooms the focus
is on collaboration, communication and critical thinking in addition to
learning the core content. Students could be placed into teams and given a task
to complete in Minecraft. Throughout the process, students must work together,
talk to one another and use thinking skills to complete the task. Even though
group work has been commonplace for several years, students often become
disengaged and only a few students complete the work to achieve the desired
goal. Minecraft keeps students motivated as was discussed earlier in the
article by providing the four components of motivation. The more motivated
students are with their means of learning the more engaged students will be. In
Minecraft, students can create the world in an open-ended environment which
forces them to use critical thinking skills that can be transitioned to the
core subject areas.
Teachers can also use Minecraft to teach core
content in all subject areas. The following are broad examples that can be
easily adapted for use in the classroom:
●
Reading
Comprehension
○
Minecraft
leads students to make inferences, determine key details and central ideas, use
context to determine the meaning of words within the game, and use thinking
skills to understand complexity. Each of the skills listed are required at all
levels of the English Language Arts for students to master the standards.
Through Minecraft, students can learn the skills in an engaging and complex
environment that makes most students feel more comfortable in than when reading
a text.
●
Writing
○
Students
create the story in Minecraft instead of being told what the story is and its
parts. Students have to determine the setting, main characters, and sequence of
events of their world. A teacher can also require students to explain how
collaboration led to their success, explain a new strategy used while playing,
or describe the research that was completed to make the student’s Minecraft
world more realistic. Teachers can ask an endless amount of questions and
require students to write or share verbally. The engagement of students leads
to more thorough and thought provoking responses
●
Mathematics
and Problem Solving
○
Minecraft
forces students to use problem solving skills which inherently increase math
skills. A student’s decisions determine what happens next in the game, and it
is important for the decision to be well thought out. Every teacher must meet
the Standards for Mathematical Practice if their state has adopted the Common
Core Curriculum, and Minecraft allows teachers the opportunity to help students
understand the mathematical practices which can then be applied throughout the
mathematics standards. The practices include the following:
■
Make
sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
■
Reason
abstractly and quantitatively.
■
Construct
viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
■
Model
with mathematics
■
Use
appropriate tools strategically.
■
Attend
to precision.
■
Look
for and make use of structure.
■
Look
for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
●
History
○
In
Minecraft, students use their knowledge of history to create worlds based on
the information researched or taught in class. Students will have to understand
history to create a world that represents the time period or event in history.
●
Science
○
Minecraft
offers students the capability to build any organism, environment or science
process. The students will have to use critical thinking skills to determine
the best way to utilize the features of the game to build the assigned task.
Minecraft lends itself to improving the skills
and understand of all content areas. The approach to learning taken through
allowing students to play Minecraft forces the use of critical thinking skills.
Critical thinking skills expand overall curriculum. If students can learn to be
creative and think, while staying engaged, students will be more eager to learn
and retain the knowledge.
Best Practices for
Using Minecraft in the Classroom
Minecraft is a fun and engaging way to teach
curriculum and build students’ critical thinking skills, but, for it to be
effective in the classroom, it is important educators understand the best
practices for use.
●
Understanding
Minecraft
○
As
with any new technology, some students will know how to play Minecraft and
others will not. It is best for the teacher to be prepared to teach those who
need to know how to play to prevent frustration. Pairing a novice student with
a student that knows how to play the game can build collaboration skills and
help the students understand how to play the game from another student.
●
Managing
Minecraft in the Classroom
○
Classroom
management through behavioral expectations is imperative. Students need to
understand playing a game in school requires different behaviors than playing a
game at home.
●
Goal
Setting
○
Set
goals related to the curriculum and learning so students understand they are
not just playing a game but learning content.
●
Communication
○
It
is important to keep an open line of communication with parents, so they
understand how Minecraft is being used in the classroom and how it is helping
students master the curriculum for the grade level and content area.
Conclusion
Minecraft is a popular game that is beginning
to be used by educators to increase student engagement in all subject areas in
K-12 education, and its use is grounded in instructional theory. The unique
gaming experience is intriguing for children of all ages (male and female) and
gives them the opportunity to be creative, think critically, collaborate and
increase subject matter knowledge. Minecraft gives teachers the opportunity to
become a facilitator of student learning while still meeting learning outcomes.
And because of the sandbox model of play, teachers can easily scaffold their
lessons to be tailored to each student’s academic ability. With the rollout of MinecraftEdu, teachers
with less technological know-how can still take advantage of Minecraft’s
instructional advantages. Hopefully,
more educators will begin to see how Minecraft can be used in the classroom and
will capitalize on its widespread appeal and motivational properties.
References
Duncan,
S. C. (2011) Minecraft, beyond construction and survival. Well Played 1(1), 1-22. Retrieved from http://press.etc.cmu.edu/wellplayed
Kapp, K.
(2012) The gamification of learning and
instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education.
San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Keller,
J. (2013) ARCS Explained. Retrieved
from http://www.arcsmodel.com/#!motivational-design/cyrv
Makuch,
Eddie. "Minecraft Console Sales Pass PC, Series Nears 54 Million Copies
Sold." GameSpot. N.p., 25 June
2014. Web. Retrieved from http://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecraft-console-sales-pass-pc-series-nears-54-million-copies-sold/1100-6420724/
Murray,
Jacqui. (2014). Minecraft in the Classroom Teaches Reading and More ...
Retrieved from
http://www.teachhub.com/minecraft-classroom-teaches-reading-writing-problem-solving
Russo,
Christina.(2013) Minecrafting the
Classroom. Retrieved from http://blogs.plos.org/scied/2013/08/05/minecrafting-the-classroom/
Webster,
Andrew. "Educational Building Blocks: How Minecraft Is Used in
Classrooms." Artstechnia. Conde
Nast, 3 Apr. 2011. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
GretchenMC
(2011, March 28). Demographics: Age poll [Msgs 1-122]. Messages posted to
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