Building life skills through Minecraft Education Edition

Today, we find ourselves in a world where virtual learning is ubiquitous. With this comes the opportunity to explore teaching and learning in an unprecedented way. However, even with the list of perks it offers, there is one fundamental aspect of learning that it lacks: social interaction. This is one of the key criticisms of this approach, and a cause for concern among parents. Building friendships, relationships with teachers, exploring leadership abilities, learning to collaborate with a group, etc. are all inculcated through a school experience. After all, what fun is school if only restricted to academics? Shahila Chandrashekar, Asst. Vice Principal of B.K Birla Public School, Kalyan, says, “The uncertainties and challenges thrown by the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world today warrants the development of life skills in learners. These skills will help them to deal with the uncertainties and expectations in a better way and thus help them to be successful as students, at workplace and in general life. Education focussed only on academics may not result in citizens who would be able to contribute to this globalised everchanging world.” Minecraft’s Education Edition goes a step further and strategically uses the online component to help develop life skills in unique ways instead of trying to mirror the usual methods.  

Chandrashekar adds, “Game based learning is one of the best methods to connect instantly with today's learners and Minecraft aces in that area. It seamlessly enhances various skills in learners like creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and collaboration. The multiplayer mode requires students to collaborate, communicate succinctly and resolve conflicts. There are also lessons in the repository which educators can assign to the learners that help learn mindfulness.” Additionally, it also reflects the objectives of India’s new education policy 2020. With the pedagogical approach now shifting towards more activity-based interactive learning, Minecraft acts as the ideal platform to do so. Covering a vast set of subjects and topics, this unique platform open doors for integrating academics and personality development, which is a rare feat when it comes to online education platforms. Keep reading to find out how Minecraft makes this possible. 

Minecraft encourages team work and collaboration 
Minecraft’s education version was consciously designed to ensure collaboration among students even when online. Its multiplayer feature enables the teacher to set up various tasks and activities for students to participate in collectively. Here, players have to pool and share their resources to get through the tasks. A vast archive of challenges pertaining to different subjects is available on this platform, along with the possibility of personalising them in accordance to specific curriculum. Students can be put into different groups, pairs or the entire class can be a team, with the teacher overlooking all activities. Paramjeet Kaur Dhillon, Principal of Kamala Nehru Public School, Phagwara says, “Kids who play Minecraft quickly recognize the benefits of teamwork. Learning how to recruit team members, pool resources, assign roles and negotiate designs is all part of learning how to 

realize one’s ideas. In survival mode, teamwork takes the form of building a defence, coordinating and executing battle plans. They give and receive feedback, combine ideas and navigate issues of sharing space with others.” 

Minecraft develops problem-solving skills 
Problem-solving is essential not just in academics, but in real life as well. Competence and experience with the same equip children with the confidence to navigate through life’s obstacles effectively. Minecraft provides a platform to learn the same. For example, the game’s “survival mode” demands the players to manage their health levels and control their hunger while facing obstacles. These are short 10-minute scenarios in which they need to figure out an escape plan. Not only does this require problem-solving skills, but also critical thinking. Kashmira Jaiswal, Vice Principal of Navrachana Higher Secondary School, Vadodara says, “It gives students a clean canvas to design a world of their imagination, in which they have suggested viable solutions to problems, thereby resolving the issues. Some of the issues that students in our school have worked upon through Minecraft Education Edition are: Earthquake management, depleting fisheries, depleting natural resources, water harvesting, combatting climate change etc. 

Minecraft boosts creativity 
One of the key features of this platform is that whatever is imagined can be translated into the game. For example, if students want to build an amusement park, they can do so by fusing creativity with planning, using the building blocks and the tools available. The limitless scope provided lets them build anything they want regardless of whether it exists in the real world or not. Jaiswal adds, “Minecraft allows students to give wings to their imagination and create a better world. They can create a world where man-made disasters can be reversed or arrested. They can dabble with a variety of solutions to real-world problems, without the fear of resource-management, wastage of supplies, or adverse consequences. Once they arrive at a rational, feasible solution, they can implement it in real-world. Therefore, it is a great canvas to experiment and express.” 

Students learn management of resources 
A significant amount of calculation is required in this game in terms of costing, time required, etc. For example, if a student chooses to build a house, the first task would be to gather wood. For this, an axe would make it quicker instead of collecting wood by hand. The challenge that arises here is that of acquiring the axe, he would have to pay money. Also, the axe would eventually become blunt. So, how will he avoid this? Learning finances and management of resources is one of the most practical skills in life, which needs to be learnt at a young age. 

Thus, Minecraft Education Edition is a testament to the fact that integration of life skill development can be made possible through online learning. This platform provides for a holistic learning experience which makes the most efficient and effective use of technology. It boosts all aspects of academic learning as well as learning of skills which are required to navigate through life.   

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