With the exception of maybe redstone, I don't see how minecraft can be of much use in an educational setting.
Sure, you have a giant sandbox of "limited" resources (which are very much unlimited). You can try to teach kids to manage and conserve resources, but can't you just give them $20 instead and let them learn management skills by having them save or invest money? That would also cover your economic aspects much more thoroughly.
Minecraft does not incorporate much, if any, history from the physical world. Sure, you can make kids build the Great Pyramids or numerous cathedrals, but are they actually going to learn any history? Nope. Are you trying to train them to become architects/engineers/planners by having them build those structures? Good try, but give them Sim City or Sketchup instead.
As for geography, do you really need a game to demonstrate that an ocean is a large body of water, or that a desert is mostly sand? Any kid that watches television will be able to comprehend what oceans, forests, or plains are. Using minecraft to reinforce that is such a redundancy.
Physics?! There are floating islands in minecraft for ffs. Watching sand fall is not going to inspire anyone to perform any calculations regarding the time it takes for sand to fall "x" amount of meters. When I watch things fall from the sky, I'm more interested in having even more things fall from the sky, perhaps in pretty patterns.
Minecraft won't ever be able to compete with the likes of traditional methods of teaching because it does not provide indepth coverage of most school subjects. You can tell a person to read a novel and they'll probably learn 100%+ than what you're hoping a student would learn by playing minecraft. Or, you can just have kids interact in the school playground; that'll provide much more of a social experience than what you're hoping minecraft will help them acquire.
Only vaguely on topic, but Minecraft did get me thinking in an educational direction once, specifically about how exactly primitive cultures made their tools and such. In Minecraft you just put stuff in a crafting table, but think about how it would actually work... it's pretty complicated! If you want to have some brain exercise someday, think about what exactly you could do if you were plopped down in a world where civilization is, if not completely absent, rather out of reach, with absolutely nothing but your bare hands.
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"Sometimes, I just wanna give up, say 'I'm done with this mess' and go to bed. But you know what; you can't shrug off your responsibilities. You got to pull yourself up and meet the challenges head on. That's the only way you're gonna get ahead in life."
Visual Working Memory (++ Not really taught in schools)
Visual-Spacial sense of direction, coordination and modification (++ Not really taught in schools)
Visual long-term memory of "Systems" (Systems are combinations of electrical or mechanical engineering (IC2->BC2))
Problem solving (I have a Nuclear power plant and how to protect my stuff from it's explosion)
Logic (Programming and synthesis of Systems)
Association of objects (Builder->Buildcraft, MffsCapacitor->MffsCard->MffsProjector, ect)
Resource Management "Ugh, why am I always out of [material], Guess I will have to spare some and balance it out later" -> "OK, I need This many Uranium ingots to keep my nuclear powerplant running for a few hours"
Creativity. I think this one is obvious in Creative mode, but with mods, creativity is on a whole new level. You can easily make rube goldberg machines. Most of the mods often communicate with each other so you can have one push "Stuff" to the next mod. ()
Passive:
Listening to music while playing games can be very beneficial.
Accomplishment. Most social hierarchies that deal with education tend to socially "punish" those who accomblish the most. Not in this game... (unless you play in multiplayer, then griefing gets in the way)
Community. With over 9,000,000 players, Minecraft enables players to obtain social education, even for those who are autistic.
Ever-Expanding. New mods are being created every month and some of them are pure genious. This help players "Expand their repretoire" and some may even increase the total skill-set.
First note: Schools do NOT teach certain things for visual memory and visual manipulation. They mostly focus on the logic side of things and they skip one of the most important tools for engineers, Visual memory/manipulation. Sure, you have "Art" classes, but they really do not accomplish what minecraft can give you.
The thing that is most useful for students is the crafting system. I know, kinda lame, but with mods, you have to memorize thousands of crafting recipes and you have to manage your resources like a slave-driver. Whenever I use pictographic puzzles, I can do them in a flash because minecraft helped improve my visual working memory. (Something that is almost non-existent in the current educational system)
RedPower makes working with logic gates Direct and simple. (Direct design with NOR XOR OR AND NAND NOT Gates, Timers, Pulsers, timers) A lot of the mods that deal with "Power" can teach you a lot about how actual power systems work and can help you come up with ideas for real life.
When you add mods to the equation, you get a massive increase in educational potential. You are learning from extremely smart people who have put their time in to make something that is better for everybody else.
Not to mention that you can learn how to program with ComputerCraft (Lua) and RedPower-Control (Forth)... very valuable assets for life. After all, programming is one of the ultimate forms of logic and management.
As for problem solving, No other game compares. Minecraft (+Mods) is probably the best way of learning to solve problems by coming up with strong solutions.
Need a hole dug? Use a builder or Quarry.
Need to sort out all of the items you gain from your Quarry? Use a sorting machine! Albiet, you have to figure it out yourself.
How do I transfer my energy from Point A to Point B? "Copper cables? Too much resistance. Fibre cables... Expensive. let's be a lot more creative here. Store energy in Movable containers and program 'Turtles' (Lua-based robots) to transport them to a new location for unloading"
How does this apply to real life?
Solar energy is insanely expensive... It might be better to transport lava and use geothermal generators to make energy. (Geothermal energy solutions)
Resistance in wires is actually life-like. Makes transportation of energy expensive.
Sorting materials requires a solid head because there are many steps to getting it right.
Macerating (breaking up) materials helps single-out the material from rock so you can get more out of it when you melt it down.
RedPower's gate system helps players who want to make complex circuitry become a reality. Large-scale applications such as 8-bit computers and 8-bit Graphics systems are completely possible.
Only one other game can sort of match up to minecraft in systems design and potential for visual improvement: Garry's Mod. The programming aspect of GMod is stronger and in 3D Torque and such, but it doesn't truly match up to minecraft in learning potential for visual creativity and function.
One last thing:
Because of the visual improvements that I have significantly gained from using mods with minecraft for a year or 2, I have drastically improved my ability to think visually and modify stuff. What is more important, though, is that my visual memory is now almost perfect. In history, where everything is linked with associations, I am able to learn with a quick snap of my fingers now because of the improvement. The skills learned through minecraft is not knowledge, but a tool to better gain, percieve and experience knowledge later in life.
Yes. Minecraft does have some educational aspects (Like others have said: Logic, creativity, etc.), but it has an extremely narrow audience in my opinion (upper elementary to early middle school years). Therefore, the cost of using Minecraft for education usually outweighs the benefits of learning about civilizations, primitive tools, etc.
However there is Minecraftedu, so it is possible we could be seeing more uses for Minecraft for education in the future.
I'm a teacher at Da Vinci Innovation Academy in Hawthorne, CA and I began using Minecraft in my project-based classroom this year. I started using it to teach Electrical Engineering, but soon it spread to other classes and classrooms. Check out my blog about what we're doing!
There are some educational value, yes, but some of it is useless for education. There are also some newly taught words for youngsters. EG: ingot, wither, hoe, etc.
Well, until they get on servers, that is. They will be exposed to bad language. Best to avoid major servers until they understand what the words mean and not to say them.
I think think teachers wouldn't allow the children to go on servers.
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I agree with you. Minecraft is an educational game. Not in the way that it helps you exceed your math tests, or helps improve your english grammar, but you are right. Creativity is a good thing, and is what many people lack these days. However, I would not say that teachers should allow kids to be playing Minecraft at school instead of doing curricular work and activities. Minecraft is a great game to be played in a club after school, or at home after finishing homework, but can never replace normal, good old fashioned school work.
Here are some quotes from various websites on this topic:
"Playing minecraft can teach kids creative thinking, geometry and even a bit of geology. And research shows they can learn experimentation, teamwork and problem solving skills as well." -2machines.com/articles/183040
"Redstone circuitry provides an interactive environment to build basic logic circuits and combine them for more sophisticated purposes. Feedback is immediate, and the mistakes don't destroy expensive electrical components." -minecraft wiki
"Via the options menu, children can select various languages to use while playing minecraft. If a child can name an item by sight, there is a higher chance that the child will be able to at comprehend at least a few words of a new language quickly." -minecraft wiki
Minecraft actually can help you on math tests. In minecraft, you use math to calculate how much materials you will need to build something. And if you are building a complicated geometric shape, like a pyramid or a sphere, the math you will have to do will be quite complicated. And, for example, if you wanted to build something in the sky, and wanted to have supports connecting it to the ground, but also wanted the supports to connect to the ground in very specific places, you would to calculate the slope of the line needed to do that, which would require algebra.
Sure, you have a giant sandbox of "limited" resources (which are very much unlimited). You can try to teach kids to manage and conserve resources, but can't you just give them $20 instead and let them learn management skills by having them save or invest money? That would also cover your economic aspects much more thoroughly.
Minecraft does not incorporate much, if any, history from the physical world. Sure, you can make kids build the Great Pyramids or numerous cathedrals, but are they actually going to learn any history? Nope. Are you trying to train them to become architects/engineers/planners by having them build those structures? Good try, but give them Sim City or Sketchup instead.
As for geography, do you really need a game to demonstrate that an ocean is a large body of water, or that a desert is mostly sand? Any kid that watches television will be able to comprehend what oceans, forests, or plains are. Using minecraft to reinforce that is such a redundancy.
Physics?! There are floating islands in minecraft for ffs. Watching sand fall is not going to inspire anyone to perform any calculations regarding the time it takes for sand to fall "x" amount of meters. When I watch things fall from the sky, I'm more interested in having even more things fall from the sky, perhaps in pretty patterns.
Minecraft won't ever be able to compete with the likes of traditional methods of teaching because it does not provide indepth coverage of most school subjects. You can tell a person to read a novel and they'll probably learn 100%+ than what you're hoping a student would learn by playing minecraft. Or, you can just have kids interact in the school playground; that'll provide much more of a social experience than what you're hoping minecraft will help them acquire.
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Minecraft+Mods Most beneficial skills:
The thing that is most useful for students is the crafting system. I know, kinda lame, but with mods, you have to memorize thousands of crafting recipes and you have to manage your resources like a slave-driver. Whenever I use pictographic puzzles, I can do them in a flash because minecraft helped improve my visual working memory. (Something that is almost non-existent in the current educational system)
RedPower makes working with logic gates Direct and simple. (Direct design with NOR XOR OR AND NAND NOT Gates, Timers, Pulsers, timers) A lot of the mods that deal with "Power" can teach you a lot about how actual power systems work and can help you come up with ideas for real life.
When you add mods to the equation, you get a massive increase in educational potential. You are learning from extremely smart people who have put their time in to make something that is better for everybody else.
Not to mention that you can learn how to program with ComputerCraft (Lua) and RedPower-Control (Forth)... very valuable assets for life. After all, programming is one of the ultimate forms of logic and management.
As for problem solving, No other game compares. Minecraft (+Mods) is probably the best way of learning to solve problems by coming up with strong solutions.
One last thing:
Because of the visual improvements that I have significantly gained from using mods with minecraft for a year or 2, I have drastically improved my ability to think visually and modify stuff. What is more important, though, is that my visual memory is now almost perfect. In history, where everything is linked with associations, I am able to learn with a quick snap of my fingers now because of the improvement. The skills learned through minecraft is not knowledge, but a tool to better gain, percieve and experience knowledge later in life.
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However there is Minecraftedu, so it is possible we could be seeing more uses for Minecraft for education in the future.
www.Craft-Academy.com
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You can just call me Canary.
How not to look like a total fool in the forum games
You can just call me Canary.
How not to look like a total fool in the forum games
"Playing minecraft can teach kids creative thinking, geometry and even a bit of geology. And research shows they can learn experimentation, teamwork and problem solving skills as well." -2machines.com/articles/183040
"Redstone circuitry provides an interactive environment to build basic logic circuits and combine them for more sophisticated purposes. Feedback is immediate, and the mistakes don't destroy expensive electrical components." -minecraft wiki
"Via the options menu, children can select various languages to use while playing minecraft. If a child can name an item by sight, there is a higher chance that the child will be able to at comprehend at least a few words of a new language quickly." -minecraft wiki