It's not educational. It's just something people say to "justify" their playing. "Oh sure, I played Minecraft for 8 hours yesterday but it's educational!" Me, I don't need such excuses. It's fun and that's it.
Oh sure, you can maybe learn a thing or two from Minecraft but really, that pretty much applies to all games ever.
If you read the thread you would know you could learn more than just a thing or to. But, according to the definition of educational, you are right it is not educational.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out all my mods/plugins in one convenient place!
Well yes but it's more of a drug.
For education it actually covers many subjects.
Maths; counting, measures, volumes, geometry. Algrbra in the use of sets, applied algorythems in building structures.
Language; not much unless grunt, moo, bah and ssssssssssssss are words.
Science; Biomes, day night cycles though its not real. Seasons and percipitation. Growing flora and Raising fauna.
Religion, I've seen a lot of churches and mosques in peoples creations.
Physics; aaiiiiigghhh, in a way. This shows that other worlds that mechanical physics might be different (but this is a fun game).
Art; speaks for itself.
Music; covered.
History' not much but you might look back on where you first punched a tree for a timeline.
Economics; there is a lot on supply and demand.
Social; this one is covered more with servers but even stand alone has to take skellys and zombies into consideration.
Other than certain aspects of the game (like redstone circuitry, etc.), I wouldn't say that Minecraft itself is "educational" as much as I'd say that it's "developmentally stimulating".
Take reading a fictional book as an example. Other than possibly learning a few new words (if the author happens to use one you don't know), you aren't "learning" anything from a work of fiction. But reading books is still considered one of the most "developmentally stimulating" things you can do for your brain. Reading the words and letting your thoughts fill in the pictures and comprehend the situations "exercises" your mind. You aren't necessarily "gaining knowledge" but you are still doing something very mentally beneficial.
I think Minecraft can be the same type of thing. It exercises your creativity, and things like spacial acuity, etc., as others have said. Sure, it is still a video game, and playing it incessantly can still be detrimental, but as games go, it's leagues ahead of games like Call of Duty for being "mentally beneficial".
It's lego, not legos. Lego without an s is the plural. Only correcting you.
You too man. It's lego, not legos.
dude, we did that on purpose. its grammatically correct to add an s on the end of a word when its supposed to be plural... and i dont need to be corrected. i know what im talking about
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Agree/Support what I said? If yes, please click that little green arrow in the bottom right
There's also some learning behind mining operations. How big you want it and what you want to find. That's useful with math and stuff, finding the area of a square of rectangle.
I think that there are quite a few ways Minecraft can be educational, at least for me*. The various objects and tools, like Lapis Lazuli and flint and steel, sounded like they were something unique to Minecraft to me until I read more about them and learned that they were real things. This is a bit of a stretch too, but I see the forums as educational too. Gaming communities like this are a small-scale model of the world to me, and I get to see how various kinds of people and groups interact with each other.
*By this, I do not mean that I have difficulty learning or understanding unknown concepts, but that I'm just naturally curious about things other kids might just ignore.
dude, we did that on purpose. its grammatically correct to add an s on the end of a word when its supposed to be plural... and i dont need to be corrected. i know what im talking about
Exactly, just like sheeps, fishes, and gooses :P. I've been building with LEGO since I was a kid, and from what I've seen the plural of "LEGO" can be "LEGO" or "LEGO bricks". Quite a lot of people say legos or legoes, so I accept it as another way to spell the same word (Like color and colour).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Victory is like a watermelon. It's hard to spell and it tastes good."
I think it teaches you not to be greedy (Carrying 20+ Diamond and then falling into a magma pit) and also being aware of your surroundings along with that water is the keystone to survival.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
-FeudalCraft-
24/7 Factions Raiding Server Lite RPG Server.Feudalcraft.net
I think it teaches you not to be greedy (Carrying 20+ Diamond and then falling into a magma pit) and also being aware of your surroundings along with that water is the keystone to survival.
i dont see how carrying diamonds and then falling into a magma pit teaches one not to be greedy. people can still be greedy. when that happens, they are just going to want more diamonds to make up for the ones they lost
Exactly, just like sheeps, fishes, and gooses . I've been building with LEGO since I was a kid, and from what I've seen the plural of "LEGO" can be "LEGO" or "LEGO bricks". Quite a lot of people say legos or legoes, so I accept it as another way to spell the same word (Like color and colour).
technically fishes is a word, but i wont get into that. legos is just an abbreviated version of lego bricks, thats all. no need to get all technical with it
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Agree/Support what I said? If yes, please click that little green arrow in the bottom right
Social skills maybe? And, I think it can help to teach how to manage materials, don't want kids wasting things do we? They can learn that items in real and MC shouldn't be wasted. On social skills, multiplayer is good fun, and you interact with other people.
If you read the thread you would know you could learn more than just a thing or to. But, according to the definition of educational, you are right it is not educational.
Dictionary.com:
Education
noun
1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
Education
noun
1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
I said educational. Not education. He mentioned that it was not educational. I agreed. Here is the definition of educational.
Dictionary.com
I'm surprised that you're only the second person to mention that. I had thought there would have been at least 10 people, after a year on the forums.
There are far, far worse avatars. Don't even seek them out. There are avatars burned into my psyche that not even the strongest brain bleach will clean out.
If you read the thread you would know you could learn more than just a thing or to. But, according to the definition of educational, you are right it is not educational.
For education it actually covers many subjects.
Maths; counting, measures, volumes, geometry. Algrbra in the use of sets, applied algorythems in building structures.
Language; not much unless grunt, moo, bah and ssssssssssssss are words.
Science; Biomes, day night cycles though its not real. Seasons and percipitation. Growing flora and Raising fauna.
Religion, I've seen a lot of churches and mosques in peoples creations.
Physics; aaiiiiigghhh, in a way. This shows that other worlds that mechanical physics might be different (but this is a fun game).
Art; speaks for itself.
Music; covered.
History' not much but you might look back on where you first punched a tree for a timeline.
Economics; there is a lot on supply and demand.
Social; this one is covered more with servers but even stand alone has to take skellys and zombies into consideration.
Take reading a fictional book as an example. Other than possibly learning a few new words (if the author happens to use one you don't know), you aren't "learning" anything from a work of fiction. But reading books is still considered one of the most "developmentally stimulating" things you can do for your brain. Reading the words and letting your thoughts fill in the pictures and comprehend the situations "exercises" your mind. You aren't necessarily "gaining knowledge" but you are still doing something very mentally beneficial.
I think Minecraft can be the same type of thing. It exercises your creativity, and things like spacial acuity, etc., as others have said. Sure, it is still a video game, and playing it incessantly can still be detrimental, but as games go, it's leagues ahead of games like Call of Duty for being "mentally beneficial".
Blinking.
One chants out between two worlds: "Fire - Walk with me."
dude, we did that on purpose. its grammatically correct to add an s on the end of a word when its supposed to be plural... and i dont need to be corrected. i know what im talking about
*By this, I do not mean that I have difficulty learning or understanding unknown concepts, but that I'm just naturally curious about things other kids might just ignore.
Exactly, just like sheeps, fishes, and gooses :P. I've been building with LEGO since I was a kid, and from what I've seen the plural of "LEGO" can be "LEGO" or "LEGO bricks". Quite a lot of people say legos or legoes, so I accept it as another way to spell the same word (Like color and colour).
24/7 Factions Raiding Server Lite RPG
Server.Feudalcraft.net
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamification
i dont see how carrying diamonds and then falling into a magma pit teaches one not to be greedy. people can still be greedy. when that happens, they are just going to want more diamonds to make up for the ones they lost
technically fishes is a word, but i wont get into that. legos is just an abbreviated version of lego bricks, thats all. no need to get all technical with it
On multiplayer, you learn how to cooperate with people
Dictionary.com:
No.
Dictionary.com:
Cool! Funny too.
I'm surprised that you're only the second person to mention that. I had thought there would have been at least 10 people, after a year on the forums.
I said educational. Not education. He mentioned that it was not educational. I agreed. Here is the definition of educational.
Dictionary.com
pertaining to education.
So Minecraft is not educational.
There are far, far worse avatars. Don't even seek them out. There are avatars burned into my psyche that not even the strongest brain bleach will clean out.
EDIT:
Update: I posted the wrong link. I totally forgot about this until I was browsing the episodes: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamifying-education