Minecraft
– Gameifying Education –
Gamification of Education as a general concept is exciting, but Minecraft is already ahead of the curve.
Though I would consider my experience with Minecraft limited, I realize that it is likely much greater than average. I played Minecraft in the early days of its release and had the benefit of watching it grow. What I didn’t expect, however, is watching the player base grow with it. Minecraft was released in 2011, and a mechanic called redstone was introduced in 2013. This mechanic is somewhat analogous to electricity and can do a surprisingly good job of teaching the concepts to kids. Minecraft Education Edition was only released in 2016, so kids had 3 years of redstone exposure before the Education Edition was able to help their way.
People have done INSANE things with redstone in Minecraft. I can’t possibly overstate this. redstone is used for much more than turning on lights or opening doors or activating pistons. The video I posted below is overwhelming and impossible to properly appreciate. If redstone is an analog to electricity, it only makes sense that you could do similar things that electricity can do. This logic was taken to a preposterous level when people started designing calculators in Minecraft. Just recently, however, this psychopath designed a computer that runs Minecraft… IN MINECRAFT.
How much do you think this guy learned in the process of making this? He likely already had a good understanding of the game mechanics and a strong understanding of code and circuitry, but the fluidity of thinking required to bring all this together is staggering.
Here is an example of a lesson plan including redstone on the Minecraft Education Edition site. Keep in mind that this is the exact same mechanic that enabled the guy in the video I linked above. This mechanic is scalable, and it can be used to teach a massive range of electrical concepts. From simple on/off switches to graphic processing units.
This video does a good job of hyping up Minecraft Education Edition, and rightly so. It is, however, outdated. Minecraft Education Edition was released in 2016, and this video was posted 9 years ago, in 2013. It mentions MinecraftEDU, but this is before the official Minecraft Education Edition, and the video doesn’t even mention the introduction of redstone. However, I seriously love Jane McGonigal‘s idea of making all education into a video game. Her book, Reality is Broken, is an amazing read and I highly recommend reading the introduction at least.
The future is at our fingertips, and gamifying education seems to be the key.