View in your browser.

Welcome

My boys are among the millions who enjoy playing Minecraft, a computer game that requires players to accumulate natural resources and use them to construct objects and maintain the well being of the player’s character.  What can educators learn from one of the most popular computer games in the world?

Bulletin Board

  • Learn. The John Locke Foundation and Carolina Journal provide unsurpassed research, analysis, reporting, and opinion on North Carolina’s most important and talked about issues.  Sign up for a Key Account to receive daily updates from our staff.
  • Attend. A list of upcoming events sponsored by the John Locke Foundation can be found at the bottom of this newsletter, as well as here.  We look forward to seeing you!
  • Share. The North Carolina History Project seeks contributors to the North Carolina History Project Encyclopedia. Please contact Dr. Troy Kickler for additional information.
  • Discuss. I would like to invite all readers to submit brief announcements, personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina.  I may publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Requests for anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].
  • Revisit. We have archived all research newsletters on our website.  Access the archive here.
  • Donate. If you find this newsletter mildly informative or entertaining, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to the John Locke Foundation.  The John Locke Foundation is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that does not accept nor seek government funding. It relies solely on generous support from individuals, corporations, small businesses, and foundations.

CommenTerry

Minecraft is a phenomenally successful computer game developed in 2009 by Swedish computer programmer Markus Persson.  Just how successful is it?  Perrson’s company, Mojang AB, has sold 33 million copies of the game since 2011.  The company also makes untold millions on merchandise sales, a minute portion of which have come from the Stoops household.

I admit that I am somewhat puzzled by the game’s popularity, considering that its competitors have developed games that feature stunning graphics and compelling gameplay.  In fact, the "blocky" graphics are so "old school" that Minecraft reminds me of one of the first computer games I played, The Oregon Trail.  Perhaps that is part of the game’s appeal.  As one critic wrote, "It looks dated and silly the first time you see it, but the visuals of Minecraft are instantly memorable."

The game has no explicit goal.  Players cannot "win" Minecraft (although players can reach "the End" and kill "the Ender Dragon").  They simply create and recreate their digital world from the bottom up, starting with a landscape and natural resources that can be obtained from above and below ground. 

In its most basic form, Minecraft players have a 3 x 3 "crafting" screen that allows them to transform an inventory of collected resources into tools and other usable materials.  For example, players can create a stone axe by combining three pieces of metal (or stone) and two sticks in crafting area.  More complex combinations of ingredients yield more sophisticated items.  Because the game does not come with instructions, information about gameplay is available from independent websites and video tutorials.  There are also different modes of gameplay (See Quote of the Week below).

Interestingly, the term "Minecraft" has a dual meaning.  On the one hand, the player constructs objects by "mining" natural resources.  On the other hand, the player crafts objects that are constructed, used, and owned by the player, that is, "mine" in the possessive sense.  The former definition is central to the game.  The latter definition is central to the player and is the one more relevant to this discussion.

At this point, I do not believe that the game itself is a viable educational tool.  Numerous websites offer ways to use Minecraft in the classroom.  Edutopia, for example, encourages classroom teachers to use Minecraft to teach about real life buildings, ratio, proportion, survival, visualization, and reading comprehension.  Additionally, MinecraftEdu.com offers resources for teachers, including a classroom edition of the game.  Nevertheless, I suspect that the average teacher knows little about Minecraft, let alone how to incorporate it into classroom instruction.  Teachers who have heard of Minecraft likely know of it only through the incessant chatter of students in their classrooms who play the game.

Yes, I know that children and adults play Minecraft to have fun.  But understanding what is fun about Minecraft may be a worthwhile inquiry for those of us in the education research community.  Indeed, Minecraft should prompt us to ask questions about the psychology of the school-aged children, what I’ll call the Minecraft Generation, who play it.  Why do they enjoy it?  Do they view education as a process of "crafting" knowledge by combining "raw materials" (facts) in new, useful, and perhaps unexpected ways? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the emergent gameplay that is central to the appeal of Minecraft? Do children appreciate the many economic and philosophical concepts learned through the game, e.g., division of labor, supply, demand, inductive reasoning, state of nature, social contract, etc.?  Most importantly, how will schools respond?  Will the Minecraft Generation be a boon or bane to school choice, online education, and other customized forms of instruction? 

Facts and Stats

As of noon today, 12,512 people had bought the game in the last 24 hours.

Education Acronym of the Week

CBUMH — Creeper Blew Up My House (Don’t ask.)

Quote of the Week

"Minecraft is split into two separate game modes. Creative and Survival. You can play both of them in multiplayer. If you’re mostly interested in making huge structures from scratch with unlimited resources, Creative mode is your best bet. You won’t see any enemies, and you can pull blocks of all shapes and sizes out of thin air. It’s a peaceful world.

However, if you’d prefer to adventure into a world of danger, where you’re crafting and creating out of necessity, you’ll probably want to play in Survival mode. That comes with gangs of monsters who want to break/explode/eat your bones, one pixel at a time. You’ll need to protect yourself from the creatures that come out at night."

– "Creative? Survival? What’s with all the blocks?" Minecraft.net

Click here for the Education Update archive.

You can unsubscribe to this and all future e-mails from the John Locke Foundation by clicking the "Manage Subscriptions" button at the top of this newsletter.