How games change our perception of creativity and learning | Opinion

It is no secret that Minecraft is wildly popular among gamers, and has been for quite some time. Since its creation in 2009, Minecraft captured the minds of children, and even adults. Parents use Minecraft to learn their children how to read, write and count, but there are even more benefits of playing this game together.

In Minecraft, there is no specific manner to win or finish the game. Players must decide for themselves what they want to get out of their time in the game. Do you want to collect resources and build houses and castles, or do you want to play together with friends and defeat a massive dragon? It is your choice.

Withing the constraints that everything is made up of blocks that must fit within the grid of the game, both children and adults create their own adventures and quests. This procedurally generated world involves exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat. These tasks require a basic knowledge.

Basic knowledge

Exploring the massive worlds in Minecraft demands creative thinking, navigation, problem-solving, self-direction, communication and working with constraints. Some of these non-academical and basic knowledge are required in your further personal and professional life.

Minecraft is an educational game and parents can potentially take advantage of the popularity of this title in the further development of their children and improve their basic knowledge and language levels.

Reading, talking and writing

In the survival mode of Minecraft, players are dropped into different worlds and environments. They need to figure out how to find shelter, forge weapons, and collect food in order to survive and defend themselves against the creatures and monsters lurking in the dark.

In multiplayer sessions, groups of friends work together to reach objectives and build larger and more advanced structures. To discuss how they solve specific problems, they use a chat window in the corner of the screen to communicate with eachother. Reading and writing is the key to success.

Research and information

Minecraft is a complex game and to progress, gamers, both children and adults, need to read tutorials and guides to find useful information and tips. My friends and I consulted different online sources in order to find creative solutions for problems encountered during our adventures in the open world.

Physical handbooks with detailed information about the mechanics in Minecraft are available in bookshops around the world. The earlier your children start to read, the better. For some children, these handbook serve as a method to read more often and prepare them for their next gameplay session.

In my opinion, it does not matter what content your children read. To improve their reading and comprehensive reading competences, they need to practice. Reading a book about something that inspires them, makes this mandatory tasks more interesting.

Creative thinking and problem-solving

Survival in Minecraft requires you to build structures such as houses and castles to provide shelter for both yourself and your friends if you decide to experience the world together. At night, enemies come out and you need to defend yourself by forging weapons and armour.

You need to grow and harvest food to not starve to death. This fight for survival sounds complicated, but creative thinking helps you survive longer. Minecraft learns you how to manage the available resources, but you need to discover what is helpful, or not. This reminds me of the search for relevant publications before writing a thesis in college.

Mathematics and systematic thinking

Mathematics is a key element of Minecraft. While developing creative thinking and problem-solving competences by building large structures, both adults and children learn to plan and count in a three-dimensional grid. Minecraft develops logic and systematic thinking in the same manner as a physical rubix cube.

Even forging items requires resource management and basic and more advanced recipes to create useful tools. Mathematics are everywhere within the world of Minecraft.

Basic and advanced competences

Education is an essential period in the beginning of your life, but games and technology lead to alternative methods to teach both basic and advanced competences. Teachers and schools benefit from games such as Minecraft to learn students systematic thinking and mathematics in elementary school.

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Disclaimer. This post contains copyrighted images from Minecraft, a video game developed by Mojang and published by Microsoft Studios. The fair use of copyrighted works for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting or research is not considered as an infringement of copyright.