Digital Learning Platforms: Minecraft Education Edition
From a game to a platform for kids, grown-ups and future architects – Minecraft Education Edition: the online learning tool in the famous world of blocks.
Bringing the community closer to architecture is becoming easier and easier, especially with Minecraft – the best-selling video game in history – and their educational version created by Microsoft in 2016.
The platform, which is available for teachers and students, already has more than 35 million users in 115 countries, with specialized courses and official Microsoft video tutorials. These tutorials explain the basic concepts and their application towards educational goals for children, adolescents and higher education students.
Game-based Learning
The range of possibilities offered by Minecraft allows users to create worlds from scratch. Set in a random biome, the game offers the player different methods, which can be adapted by the teacher. The construction starts with natural elements, making people more aware and closer to nature, despite being in a digital universe.
Minecraft Education Edition works as a form of content reinforcement with the Game-Based Learning modality, where teachers in charge of the lessons learn to design their own worlds, integrating rubrics, tasks and forms to achieve the objectives.
Today it’s common in cities all around the world, to find calls for participation in programs for various audiences dedicated to facilitating access to technology and science with workshops for higher education and the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) pedagogical model.
Minecraft and Wood
The game provides users with various elements for making tools, construction materials, and decorative objects, among other things. All you need to get started is a little creativity.
One of the basic and easily accessible elements in the survival mode of the game is wood, which can vary in type depending on the biome. It could be said that wood in the game is the beginning of everything that can be done; which, as in reality, shows the dependence of human beings on natural resources.
Among the basic things you can do with wood in the game is create chests to store items, or a crafting or work table, which then allows you to create other objects such as tools, weapons, boats, beds, stairs, fences and wooden cubes with which you can create architectural pieces, among many other possibilities.
Among the tree species that can be found are: oak and dark oak, spruce, birch, acacia and jungle wood. The game also allows you to plant trees and create your own forests.
The educational version of Minecraft allows you to establish the guidelines for building and crafting objects from specific materials so you can build the buildings you always imagined, as well as create or recreate entire cities and learn about architecture and design.
And, well, if you think you need some inspiration to start – there are hundreds of streamers who leave their Minecraft projects to show other users. We invite you to check out the content from Juns.Mab, SheepGG or BigTonyMC – video game experts who specialize in wood architecture.
Reach out through our social media and let us know what kind of wooden structures you like to make in Minecraft. And leave a comment about what you’d like to see next in Let’s Think Wood!
