Game Based Learning: What Is It and Why Does It Work?
Game Based Learning (GBL) takes advantage of the immersive, interactive, and enjoyable aspects of games to enhance the learning experience in an effort to help students meet defined learning objectives. In effective game-based learning environments, students are presented with a goal requiring them to think critically, make decisions, and actively respond to the outcomes of their decisions along the way. The risk-free setting nurtures students’ creativity and experimentation, while the immersive nature of gaming worlds keeps students engaged in practicing behaviors and thought processes that can easily transfer from the simulated environment to real life.
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MinecraftEdu: Why Use It to Teach
Minecraft is an incredibly popular sandbox game in which players explore vast 3D worlds, collect and craft resources, and build structures using blocks. Minecraft allows players the freedom to create, compete, or cooperate as they build and play in whatever way they want.
MinecraftEdu is a mash-up of the original game created by teachers for classroom use. It contains a set of powerful yet simple tools to fine-tune the Minecraft experience for learning.
Firmly rooted in many of the Learning Theories relied upon for centuries when making decisions around educational policy and pegagogy, MinecraftEdu is debunking the stigma associated with video games and shining a spotlight on how video games can, in fact, be one of the most powerful learning tools to ever enter the classroom.
MinecraftEdu is a mash-up of the original game created by teachers for classroom use. It contains a set of powerful yet simple tools to fine-tune the Minecraft experience for learning.
Firmly rooted in many of the Learning Theories relied upon for centuries when making decisions around educational policy and pegagogy, MinecraftEdu is debunking the stigma associated with video games and shining a spotlight on how video games can, in fact, be one of the most powerful learning tools to ever enter the classroom.
Behaviourism
Behaviourism assumes that a learner is ultimately passive, merely responding to environmental stimuli. Specific behaviours are reinforced through positive rewards or negative responses, increasing the likelihood that good behaviours are repeated, and bad behaviours are stopped. Behaviourism suggests that all behaviour can be explained without considering internal mental states or consciousness.
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Constructivism
Constructivism assumes that learning is an active, contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it. A constructivist would consider knowledge to be built based on personal experiences and assumptions about the learner’s environment. Learners continually test their assumptions and interpret the results of these tests to further construct or refine knowledge.
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Humanism
Humanism emphasizes learner potential, dignity, and freedom to act with intention. Central to this paradigm is the goal of developing self-actualized learners, and the notion that learners are self-determined and autonomous. Humanists believe that learning is student-centered and personalized, and that the educator’s role should be merely that of a facilitator. .
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Cognitivism
Cognitivism emphasizes the inner mental activities of learners, such as thinking, memory, and problem-solving, as being fundamental to learning. Cognitivists see learners as information processors who make meaning by establishing and developing symbolic mental structures, or schema. Learning occurs whenever schemata are changed though the internalization of experiences.
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Minecraft is a unique educational tool in that the natural rules of its system touch upon behaviourism (reinforcement for correct responses), constructivism (learning new concepts scaffold onto previously learned ideas), humanism (players can experiment and roam freely, at their own pace) and cognitivism (tasks are completed in basic succession) all simultaneously. It promotes a system with defined learning outcomes that balances gameplay and knowledge retention in conjunction.
Discussion Question 1
In what ways can the above learning theories be observed through students’ interactions with and surrounding MinecraftEdu in the classroom? Identify at least one specific example of how MinecraftEdu can help us see the above learning theories in action, and share it with us 'Learning Theories & Minecraft' discussion forum. We encourage you to explore the videos contained in our ‘Implementation’ section to help you develop a better idea of how students engage with MinecraftEdu before sharing your thoughts.
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Ready for more? Let's take a look at how the implementation of Minecraft EDU would work!