Crafting a Space for Play
After reading all of the engaging articles about game innovations in the classroom this week, I decided that I wanted to read more of them and maybe a few that would be relevant to my content area of math. When I clicked on my professor’s link for more “recommended” readings, I discovered that they all came from the same resource, “Teacher Pioneers.” What luck! I instantly dove into the material and found myself reading half of the book. Before long, I found one that felt relevant to my own teaching - “A Space to Create: Teaching with Minecraft” by Jason Wilmot. I have struggled internally for a long time incorporating Minecraft into my classroom. It’s not that I am against using games in class - more often than not games are my primary educational tool. However, a game like Minecraft is so large an expansive that I just don’t know where to start in getting it set up within my curriculum. My hope in reading this particular article was to finally unravel the mysteries behind implementing something like Minecraft successfully in the classroom.
Right off the bat, the author’s ideals for learning were apparent: learning should be fun and fun is learning through creativity. Capitalizing on students’ natural curiosities, the author suggests that shifting learning from consuming to creating is when students find a deeper understanding of their own capabilities. Providing examples of their own students engaging with Minecraft help to solidify this pedagogical thinking. Implementing creative spaces in a formal learning environment allows students the freedom to make their own connections and find meaning in their learning. Something that the author fails to mention, however, is how to eventually take this creative play and apply it to state mandated standards. It is easy to see how games naturally lend themselves to teach students about important life skills such as citizenship, collaborating, and problem-solving when students are given certain freedoms within the program of Minecraft. What I find harder to see is how to take that learning and mold it to learning specific pieces of content. Though I teach at a project based learning school with a lot of freedom to be creative, I am always cognizant of having to tailor my activities back to the standards I am expected to teach. The biggest thing I am wondering is how to structure this play in a way that can serve the curriculum and the students’ best ways of learning at the same time. Despite this personal disconnect, many other social dimensions of play were addressed by Wilmot and how they fit into the general scheme of learning.
In play, kids are free to use their imaginations in whatever way they see fit. This can include the good and bad aspects of a kid’s curiosities. In learning about MinecraftEDU from this article, it was nice to see how this aspect of play was addressed by the teacher. There were two effective approaches. The first being that of consequences and teachable moments. When students used TNT, fire, and other destructive means to sabotage one another and the teacher did not have the ability to restrict these moments, students were expected to reflect upon these actions with one another and the teacher. Conversations of digital citizenship were naturally taught through actions and reactions in game. The second effective approach came when the teacher configured controls to limit student use of these destructive elements of the game. In this case, students were able to look past this aspect of gaming and begin collaborating with one another effectively in the space. It was interesting to see how social relations evolved as a result of in-game tweaks. Both the good and bad aspects of play here demonstrated individual and collective learning as actions and consequences affected both the individual and the collective group.
After engaging with this reading, it was clear to see the complexities and inner workings of incorporating a game like Minecraft into the school day. I can see how this particular game is better suited for either a long term project or an elementary setting as allowing students to play unrestricted for a period of time is essential in cementing students’ understanding of the program. It was also very enlightening to get to see the good and the bad outcomes of such unrestricted play and how to handle it in an educational setting. A question that I have as a result of the social connotations of this example is why human nature becomes destructive within a creative space? What is it about creating things with others in a rule-free environment that can bring out the worst in our playing and learning?