Minecraft in the English Clasroom

            In recent years, adolescents have been increasingly using video games and are playing them for longer periods of their day. Many adults are very cautious about allowing their children to play a large amount of video games because they feel that it is going to lead them to be distracted and violent. However, there is also the ideology that video games have no educational value. In a 21^st century educational system, it should be our charge as teachers to integrate technology in ways that not only motivate students, but also are meaningful and reflective of the lives that they live. I believe that we can integrate certain video games into the curriculum and have students learn the skills that they need to learn.

            Minecraft is a very popular game that is currently popular amongst educational scholars for its use in education. Some educators across the nation began integrating Minecraft into their curriculum in meaningful ways. I have saw on Reddit a while ago that an elementary teacher started using Minecraft in her elementary school classroom and saw some success in integrating the game. Minecraft is a sandbox game with no clear objective; thus, users can manipulate this particular piece of video gaming technology in order to do whatever they please. They explore an infinite world and use cubic blocks to build anything that they could ever imagine. In addition, there is a multiplayer function, which can also turn this game into a collaborative one, for better or for worse.

Since Minecraft is a game with no clear objective, the users create the objectives and goals that they want to fulfill. In the pedagogical realm, I feel that educators can use Minecraft’s freeform style in order to create tasks for their students. For instance, an English educator would most likely have to teach their students how to write their own stories according to the elements of plot, setting, and characterization. Typically, educators have their students do this by writing a paper. However, in the 21^st century, I feel that we could use Minecraft to make this a much more interesting assignment. I was thinking that I could have students write out their story, and then construct the setting(s) through using Minecraft. Then, using a voice-recording program, students can add their voice to their character as they act in the environment they created. Through this way, students have complete creative control over the scenes that they create; thus, they would be using a form of critical literacy to convey a certain image to the reader. They would use a recording program on their computer in order to record this for the teacher and fellow students.

One article on Edutopia by Andrew Miller even mentions that teachers could import important buildings that are real life replicas of buildings. If a teacher imported a replica of the Globe Theatre, it could help provide a very strong visualization for the students that they would possibly never get otherwise. A teacher could create a custom Minecraft server for the purposes of his or her class and have it uploaded before they give a historical context lecture about Shakespeare’s time. I personally remember learning about The Globe Theatre in the first lecture of my Shakespeare: Comedies-Histories class at Montclair State University, but my teacher did it in a way where he just explained it with his words and a basic chalk drawing. However, using Minecraft could just provide a stronger visualization of the place that could help students understand it better in a more hands-on way. In addition, I think it would be awesome to integrate interpretations of settings from famous books. I was thinking I could employ two different creators’ interpretations of a famous literary setting and have the students compare and contrast them. In addition, I can ask how each interpretation of the setting could shape their view of the literature. This would be interesting because when people watch different films about the same literature, it could shape how we visualize the literature. The same concept can apply here.

As I said, the students would have to use their critical visual literacies in order to convey exactly what they want with the setting. It is interesting that the students would be using technology as a medium to get to this kind of application of skills using the basic elements of plot and setting. Through this kind of lesson, technology facilitates deeper understanding of the subject matter. In addition, the second lesson idea helps students to visualize literature, which could possibly lessen the cognitive load for those who may have reading disabilities. In my Language and Literacy class at Montclair State University, I decided to tutor somebody I know who has a reading comprehension disability. Maybe if he had like a visualization of a setting through Minecraft and could explore it, there is a possibility that he may have the ability to have the ability to understand the text better. In addition, having the comparison and contrast activities is a part of a higher-order thinking process that educators definitely find appropriate. Minecraft can be a great venue to promote higher order thinking in our students that is accessible to them and has a relevance to the 21^st century.  

Using video games can be a powerful motivator for students. We typically try to isolate video games from the classroom because we hold the perspective that video games could not be used to reinforce the learning in the classroom. Through lessons like these, students can learn the skills that they need to learn according to curriculum standards through a way that is entertaining. However, at the same time, bringing in video games into the curriculum could potentially have troublesome effects. We have to be cautious that video games can be a distracting force. Teachers need to model appropriate technological use so that they can get the maximum payout from using video games like Minecraft in their classroom. However, there can be endless possibilities for integrating Minecraft into the classroom because not only can it help students visualize concepts they are learning in the English classroom, but it could facilitate higher-order thinking skills. This kind of freedom can be quite overwhelming to some students, so the teacher would really need to be careful to be very specific to students with the learning objectives. Teachers need to guide the students so the proper learning can take place. I think that people really need to rethink their assumptions about video games because they are going to possibly be a very powerful force in the pedagogical realm soon enough.