EDF1029 Assignment 2

Tanya Nguyen

Technology itself is not the problem schools should be focusing on.

Perhaps it is how the technology is used. It is all good and well to get
students to hand-write a first-draft of a story, then type up their final piece
on Microsoft Word, but what skills are they essentially learning from that?
Perhaps the best way to learn from technology is to experiment with
technology, and what better way to do that than through games? Gaming,
which is generally frowned upon by the wider community, is thought of to
be purely entertainment (non-educational). There is a negative
connotation attached to the term, with Kelleci (2008) and Subrahmanyam
& Greenfield (1994) stating that gaming can lead to decreased academic
success and poorer cognitive skills (as cited in Demirok et al. (2012)).
However, with the rise of tablets, iPods and laptops, many "educational"
games have been developed. These games have stated that they are
specifically made for education and appeal to parents who don't have a
great deal of time to help their children learn. These educational games
are usually quite entertaining as well, so therefore could be classified as
"entertainment", so where do we draw the line between entertainment
and education? Perhaps we can't. Perhaps all games are both educational
and entertaining, because, in the end, we can have fun while we're
learning, can't we?
Such a game is Minecraft. Minecraft, an open world, freedom of how to
play building video gamecentres on creativity and building, with players
building [and crafting] constructions out of textured cubes in a 3dimensional world (Short, 2012). It is essentially a game with no plot, no
characters, and no real purpose other than allowing players to exist in a
randomly generated game world (Elliot, 2012). The game generates
different biomes in which players can venture through at their own free
will, and consists of a day-night cycle and many items, tools and entities
which represent that of the real world.
In this essay, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Minecraft
as an educational tool. I will also come to a conclusion to decide whether
Minecraft is an effective way of teaching and learning or not.
Advantages of Minecraft in Education

EDF1029 Assignment 2

Tanya Nguyen

There are a lot of advantages of Minecraft in relation to education, some of

which are clearer than others. One of the main advantages is that it builds
creativity. Though there are inbuilt goals, a player begins in a terrain with
essentially nothing and must collect materials in order to thrive in the
world. Building a house is common, though not a necessity - some players
may choose to build treehouses, forts, or castles, or perhaps live in the
natural environment of caves, ravines or spawned villages. This creativity
helps players take risks otherwise not taken in the real world. Minecraft
allows exploration and experimentation - if you dont like one terrain, you
can move; if you are unhappy with the house youve just built, you can
add to it, or start again.
This teaches the importance of setbacks, which occur in-game and in real
life. Setbacks are hard to teach, especially in the classroom - all students
want to succeed, they dont want to be taught the hardships that come
with not doing well. However, in Minecraft, a natural occurrence may
result in a setback (for example, lightning may accidentally burn a house
down), and the player must learn to overcome it and rebuild - most of the
time, the reconstruction is even better than the original.
There has been an instance where a classroom has set up a Minecraft
server for its students to play together in multiplayer mode. In this mode,
players can build on social skills - both in-game and not (there is an inbuilt
chat function, or alternatively, students can converse with each other
over their computer screens). The mode also promotes teamwork,
collaboration and a sense of belonging. The game itself is quite innovative,
as it connects and links to the real world. In-game items represent the
physical structure of their real-life counterparts (for example, an apple
looks like an apple, and a pig looks like a pig, albeit a bit square) and the
sun rises in the east and sets in the west, like it does in real life. In the
classroom that had its own server, the teacher set the students the task of
building a class town, in which they were to be virtual citizens. Rather
than presenting students with a static text, students are actively engaged
in the creation of their own virtual narrative, and are asked to deeply
consider questions of narrative, genre, purpose, audience, and identity in
a continually evolving, participatory experience (Elliot, 2012). This is

EDF1029 Assignment 2

Tanya Nguyen

taking the element of real-life and bringing it in-game.

Social skills are not the only advantage though, with Minecraft proven to
be a benefit to education in not only one field. There are benefits all across
a range of subjects, including reading, writing, maths, science, languages
other than English, art and music.
Reading is important. Teaching reading can be a difficult task if students
are not willing to cooperate, they dont understand or are unable to make
connections. In Minecraft, all items are labelled, so if you hover your
mouse over it, youll be able to see what it is called. For students who
struggle with reading, this is a great place to begin - the items provide a
visual component to accompany the words. For older students, a great
resource is the Minecraft encyclopaedia online, which describes every
aspect of Minecraft, from the different kinds of trees to the function of the
electrical current called redstone.
For writing, Minecraft has provided students with not only the chat
function, but players can craft a book and quill, which is exactly what it
suggests - it is a book with a quill, in which players can type in notes,
observations or document their everyday Minecraft lives. While it is not
the best tool for writing, or spelling, the book and quill allows students to
practice different (and appropriate) forms of sentences (depending on
what type of book it is), and reiterates the purpose of writing.
As Minecraft is essentially a cube world, a lot can be done in regards to
maths. First of all, students will be able to make sense of the threedimensional world, and instead of drawing, they can instead create. The
teaching of shape and measurement is taken to a whole new level where
students can visualise (create and solve) the perimeter, area and volume
of an object. Minecrafts dimensions are separated into x, y, and z axie,
which can coincide with the Cartesian plane. There are endless
possibilities.
Work has begun on the creation of a Minecraft human body, where
students are immersed in a visual 3-dimensional environment and are
able to move in all directions (Short, 2012) to see, and understand, how
things work. While this has been done before (think the Magic School Bus),
this add-on to a beloved game would make Biology a lot more fun and
interesting to learn. Minecraft benefits basic Chemistry as well, to a certain

EDF1029 Assignment 2

Tanya Nguyen

extent. Players can create potions with a variety of materials, essentially

mixing them together to create something else. It also benefits Physics
(though there are some disadvantages in this field that will be discussed
later) - while dirt and stone blocks are able to stand on its own in mid-air,
gravel and sand fall, being affected by gravity. Furthermore, with its
redstone component, Minecraft is a great way to teach systems and
engineering with relation to power and circuits.
As with most games, there are language settings. Changing Minecrafts
default language (English) to another one translates all the item names in addition to reading, this is a great way to introduce, or practice the
language that they are learning. To take it one step further, the teacher
could even get the students to use the book and quill to type a few
sentences in another language.
There are many forms of digital art, but art in Minecraft is so wide and
open that at times, one might consider whether it is even art or not. It is,
of course. There is art in building and architecture. There is art in creating
something spectacular out of coloured wool, or coloured clay (it is similar
to creating a mosaic piece). There is art in gardening (there are a wide
range of flowers to be found and collected). There is art in redstone and
the creation of mechanisms that transmit and work with power. Theyve
even incorporated the mixing of primary and secondary colours to create
new colours.
Redstone also helps to power the jukebox blocks, which emit do-re-mi-faso-la-ti-do sounds. Students can experiment with the jukebox blocks and
can even make a song from them.
Minecraft is incredibly easy to set-up and use. It uses both the keyboard
and a mouse, which helps with hand-eye coordination, and the buttons
you use for in-game functions can be configured however you like. It is a
great game to promote peer-to-peer (and even student-to-teacher)
tutoring as well, as some students may have background knowledge of the
game, and therefore can pass on their expertise to others.
From this, Minecraft can teach students life lessons and skills, such as
persistence, patience and survival. It also teaches them that hard work
pays off (in the game, to obtain a precious diamond or emerald, the player

EDF1029 Assignment 2

Tanya Nguyen

must first mine through countless cobblestone blocks), and that in order to
build (or be) something spectacular, you must first have the resources to
do so.
Disadvantages of Minecraft in Education
The biggest disadvantage is that for busy and committed teachers it may
be challenging to seek training and develop a culture of asking for support
in regard to technology (Creely, 2012), and they therefore may not have
enough knowledge of the game to help students (whilst they are playing
or to answer any questions the students may have), or to write learning
goals based on the game (they may even have difficulty relating the game
to the curriculum). The thing is, if you dont play and experience the
game, you wont understand it. Teachers must learn the game in their own
time to develop their own skills before passing on those skills to students.
A useful website is the MinecraftEdu, which is a school-ready remix of
Minecraft. The website is created by teachers for teachers, and acts as a
support for teachers who are delving into the world of Minecraft.
The game is not immune to experiences such as frustration and lag, which
can be a nuisance to students who have little patience (admittedly, the
game does help to teach that particular skill). It is worth noting that
sometimes frustration comes about because the things that one builds
does not turn out the way one wants them to, but thats where the
creativity kicks in, and instead of creating something that is ordinary, you
end up creating something that is extraordinary.
Unfortunately, when playing on a server, even though the teacher may be
monitoring it, some students may be victims of griefing, that is, when
other players intentionally irritate and harass by destroying land and
burning down buildings. If combat mode is turned on, the game may
promote violence (players can craft swords to slay the monsters, or other
players), and the slaughtering of animals for survival may send the wrong
message. However, the teacher is in charge of setting up what kind of
world their students play in, and it is possible to play on peaceful mode
without having to encounter violence.

EDF1029 Assignment 2

Tanya Nguyen

As stated above, the game is flawed when it comes to physics and gravity,
which may give students a false sense of information. In real-life, a
structure cannot float mid-air without having something supporting it,
whereas in the game, it can. Some players may feel the need to build
support beams to make their project seem believable and realistic.
Can Minecraft be an effective way of teaching and learning?
Although Minecraft is ultimately a game purely made for entertainment, it
is possible to incorporate the educational factor into it. While there are
disadvantages, the advantages outweigh them by far to prove that not
only can education be incorporated into the game, the game itself is
educational. Learning goals can be written to achieve and satisfy the
Australian Curriculums standards. Both students and teachers will benefit
from incorporating Minecraft in the classroom because not only is it a
great learning tool, but it is also interactive, relevant and most
importantly, fun.

EDF1029 Assignment 2

Tanya Nguyen

REFERNCES:
Creely, E. (2012). 10 essential hints for using ICT in the English
classroom. Idiom, v. 48, no. 3, pp. 3-7. Available:
http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/fullText;dn
=197401;res=AEIPT
Demirok, M., Ozdamli, F., Hursen, C., Kutguner, M., Uzunboylu, H.
(2012). The Relationship of Computer Games and Reported Anger in
Young People, Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, v. 22,
iss. 1, pp. 33-43. Available:
http://journals.cambridge.org.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/download.p
hp?file=%2FJGC
%2FJGC22_01%2FS1037291112000040a.pdf&code=d604d6b5f89ff6
e0bb451e4f5abcf862
Elliot, D. (2012). Together alone: computer games as curriculum,
Idiom, v. 48, no. 3, pp. 16-18. Available:
http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/fullText;dn
=197403;res=AEIPT
Short, D. (2012). Teaching scientific concepts using a virtual world:
Minecraft. Teaching Science, v. 58, no. 3, pp. 55-58. Available:
http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/fullText;dn
=195598;res=AEIPT
Teacher Gaming (2014). What is MinecraftEdu? [online]. Available at:
http://minecraftedu.com/about#fullFeatureSet [Last accessed 17
June 2014]