I have seen Minecraft before, and I have heard my children yell at each other over Minecraft, "get out of my house, help me get a pick, look at my pool." So as I sat there watching, I was thinking it was just going to be another game, but boy was I wrong. As I sat there watching my son, he put on his headphones/microphone and instantly he is chatting with his buddies. My son is the type of 13 year old that hates school, hates reading, and while he can do his school work, it is not top on his "to do list." The thing is though, he is very smart, but when it comes to a typical school day, he just tunes out. Why do I tell you this, well as I sat watching and listening him play Minecraft, I started to make some connections.
In today's digital world, I hear constantly kids are too plugged in to social media, the Internet, and they need to get off of the technology and just play. While I agree with that to a certain degree, as I saw my son playing Minecraft I began to realize that the technology tool he was using was just as powerful as "playing without technology." During this game he was communicating with 2 of his buddies trying to create a village where they could all live and interact. The conversations evolved into a collaborative conversation around where to put the community pool, the lock smith building, how to build their houses, where to find gold, and how to work with the villagers. As they began to build their village and house, they we working together to help each other get more gold, tear down walls, and get picks. Then the conversations turned to how to make their own, and showing each other how cool their house was. Some had pools, bunk beds, large screen tvs, game rooms etc.
I was totally amazed by this conversation by my son and his buddies. They were doing all the things we are supposedly teaching kids about in school today, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Yet not one book was opened, or a a test taken. He was learning and having fun using technology as a tool! This is the learning my son needs, and I am glad as an educator I can provide these type of opportunities for him at home, unfortunately I wish his school could do the same. Just a thought. . .
Minecraft can be quite a powerful learning tool. The classroom teacher in our combo 2nd/3rd grade class has used Minecraft a few times with her kids. They studied maps and were able to give meaning to columns, because they could build them. Gravity and the laws of physics are not the same in the Minecrafted world, but they were able to develop some general understanding of context to help understand the content.
ReplyDeleteSeveral students heard about this experiment and started asking about when they got a turn to 'play.' They did just want to play, but the conversations that I was able to start were really cool. The kids were describing very elaborate and complex plans that they had developed inside the game. If fact I asked one of our students to teach me the game. This was a special education student that has difficulty expressing himself in most settings. He blew me away with his enthusiasm and understanding of the game. Just a small experience that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to experience with this child. Made possible because of a video game.