What is the point of Minecraft?
Minecraft is an open-world sandcastle game, which means it lets users interact with the environment in a non-linear manner while manipulating every aspect of the environment. The goal of Minecraft is to survive, which requires you to build, acquire inventory, and explore.
These activities are complemented by a variety of unique elements that make the game enjoyable to play (and as we will get into, potentially great for the mind). There are enemies (mobs) to defeat, and even multiplayer games have a goal to achieve (we won’t tell you what it is).
Is Minecraft educational?
Minecraft is educational in the sense that it fosters creativity, problem-solving, self-direction, cooperation, and other life skills. Minecraft can be used in the classroom to supplement reading, writing, math, and even history lessons. Minecraft also teaches business principles, STEM knowledge, and a global viewpoint, among other things. Minecraft is certainly one of the best video games for kids because it is both entertaining and educational.
Is Minecraft good for kids?
Yes, Minecraft may be regarded as a nice game for kids because it is both instructive and entertaining. Minecraft also improves life skills, complements scholastic skills, and helps students acquire career skills.
Why Minecraft is good for kids
1. Minecraft helps you improve your life skills.
One of the reasons Minecraft is excellent for kids is because it encourages creativity, problem-solving, self-direction, and teamwork, all of which are intangible, non-academic benefits. These life skills will offer them the boost they need as they work their way through college and into their future employment.
Creativity
Minecraft is unusual in that it is a limitless world where kids may build literally whatever they can think, but only within the constraints of the game’s 3D grid. In Minecraft, each game mode provides a unique potential for creation!
Pirate galleons, re-creations of fictional and real-world cities, and even your favorite sci-fi ships are all likely to exist in Minecraft and were presumably made by someone who hasn’t even finished high school. That’s some serious ingenuity! (Do a Google search for “interesting Minecraft things.”) It will astound you.)
Problem-Solving
Minecraft’s “survival mode,” in which numerous animals emerge at night and assault players, is only one example of how the game promotes problem-solving. In order to survive, players are dumped into varied surroundings and must quickly figure out how to find and build shelter, craft weapons, and gather food. Because each Minecraft “day” lasts only 10 real-world minutes, players must be quick on their feet if they want to stay alive.
Self-Direction
In addition, there is no way to “win” in Minecraft. Players must pick what they want to get out of their time in the game for themselves.
Do they desire to gather resources and construct cool things? Do they want to form a team with their friends to take down a boss? It’s entirely up to them!
Such independence—and the positive reinforcement that comes with crossing off the next goal on their chosen path—builds self-confidence and gives kids a sense of control over their own destiny, which might be absent in the rule-laden real world.
Collaboration
There are a variety of ways for kids to play Minecraft with their friends (learn how to set up a Minecraft server here), either locally or with people all over the world, and work together to achieve goals. They pool resources, construct structures, fight adversaries, and trade tips—the possibilities for communication and collaboration are unlimited. These social skills can subsequently be applied outside of the computer to children’s lives.
2. Minecraft complements school skills
Michelle Conaway, a mother, has written several blog entries about the benefits she’s observed from her children playing Minecraft, particularly in the most fundamental skill sets of reading, writing, and math. For good reason, many schools have begun to embrace Minecraft in the classroom.
Reading and writing
That blocky, virtual environment has improved her sons’ reading comprehension, spelling, and enthusiasm in journaling and other creative efforts. What is the key? Motivation.
“It’s straightforward. They’ve discovered a compelling motivation to learn to read and improve their skills. Michelle explains, “It makes sense to them.” “Their motivation stems from a desire to progress in the game.”
The spelling and written communication of Michelle’s sons have substantially improved. “The chat portion is really important in multiplayer servers,” she says. “They enhance their writing skills because they want to be heard and express themselves.” It’s even permeated other elements of their lives, such as email, Facebook, letter writing, and the creation of homemade books.”
Due to the real-world components her sons experience in the game, trips to the library to check out books about jewels, biomes, and even space have become a regular occurrence in Michelle’s family.
This necessitates the use of research skills. To progress in Minecraft, players must seek out information, hints, and methods from a variety of sources, including Wiki articles, YouTube lessons, and more. They learn how to sort through the seemingly limitless resources at their disposal to determine what is and isn’t valuable to them. (Doesn’t this sound like how college theses are written?)
Math
Math is yet another important and somewhat surprising aspect of Minecraft.
Michelle says, “I’ve seen youngsters figure out how many minutes it is till ‘night time,’ average the quantity of food needed for a mining trip, divide supplies evenly among players, and estimate the acreage needed to build a city.” “They can’t help but grasp the arithmetic principles since they’re all around them if they want to be successful at their game.”
Michelle’s youngest even requested that she exam him on multiplication flashcards, which he had never done before. Michelle writes, “He got every one of them right—without ever doing worksheets or working from a textbook.”
Minecraft has a lot of obvious math applications, and it’s been used by a lot of teachers to improve engagement and results.
In Minecraft, teachers allow students to manipulate blocks, create more complicated shapes, and solve geometric problems. One Los Angeles instructor discovered that his “Mathcraft” curriculum “helped boost his class’s arithmetic performance from 18 percent correct at the start of the year to 83 percent correct during the end-of-year retesting, while substantially improving his class’s academic atmosphere.”
History
What’s that, history as well? Yes! Please consider what I’m saying.
Minecraft can actually aid pupils who are put off by the need to memorize historical facts and dates. Why? Because you can either import fully-reconstructed versions of famous buildings and landmarks or construct your own in the game.
What better way to immerse yourself in history than by taking a virtual tour of the Great Pyramids, Globe Theatre, or Coliseum?
When children examine these structures more closely, they can gain a better understanding of the architecture involved and compare and contrast how different structures were constructed.
3. Minecraft fosters the development of professional skills.
You read that correctly: Minecraft can be directly applied to workplace skills that will help your child obtain a good job in the future.
Business Principles
Minecraft can help your youngster prepare for a variety of careers, including systems administration, management, and business. How? Hosting a server is one way to do this. As Mark, a marketing specialist, learned when he began playing on a server owned by a friend of his son’s, the benefits are significant.
“My son’s 17-year-old friend had to acquire and maintain the hardware, learn the technology for hosting a Minecraft server, stay up to date with product releases, find and install mods (add-ons), regularly ensure the mods are compatible with the latest Minecraft release, maintain the server, and provide support to all of the players on it,” Mark explains. “Aren’t system administrators well compensated for their efforts?”
They certainly do. Mark also mentioned that his son and a buddy are aggressively promoting their server on Twitter, Facebook, and message boards, indicating that they are getting marketing experience.
STEM Knowledge
You don’t want your child to be a server administrator, do you? Other types of workplace training can be found in Minecraft. Kids acquire experience with Minecraft game design techniques and coding in addition to knowledge with computer hardware and functionalities (more on that below). In a 21st-century business, these STEM skills (science, technology, engineering, and math) are extremely useful; some even call coding the new literacy!
A Global Perspective
The fact that children may play with people from all around the world is a wonderful reflection of business’s globalization. How much further ahead would your child be if they enter an interview already knowing how to use basic telecommunication platforms like Skype and have the social skills necessary to interact clearly and successfully with individuals from all over the world?
Minecraft’s social aspect teaches sharing tasks, assigning roles, negotiating designs, and completing projects, all of which are extremely valuable job skills. These talents can be the most difficult to teach, but they are also the most sought for by prospective employers.
Gain the Valuable Educational Benefits of Minecraft
Consider all of the helpful, practical skills your child is getting the next time your youngster asks if they can play more Minecraft (and you know they will!). Sit down with them, observe them while they play, and participate in what they’re learning and doing. And, hey, aren’t you pleased that they’re learning while having a good time without even realizing it? That’s the best type of education, and it’s what Hong Kong Coding Club specializes in!
Do you want to take your kid’s Minecraft knowledge to the next level? Now is the best time to join our classes! We’ve mastered Minecraft and can help your child develop a passion for this popular, entertaining, and instructive game. Now is the time to learn more about Minecraft coding for kids!
