Forest City - a school adventures in Minecraft

Purpose and goal

This project is about developing a tool where teachers and students are using digital technology for creative and pleasurable learning. To get an easy start we chose to use the popular computer game Minecraft. Students feel that the work they have done in Minecraft are of higher quality. The reason, they say is that the tasks have been a little out of the ordinary, a challenge of thinking and that they could see their progress in a better way. Teachers involved in the project say they will continue to use Minecraft in teaching as it has been easy to use and gave more motivated students.

Expected results and effects

Minecraft has worked excellently as an interactive learning environment and both teachers and students have experienced the project as pleasurable. We can see that teachers´ digital competence has increased more than the students, but in return the students feel that their work is of higher quality and they think that the school tasks have become more pleasurable. The evaluation of the workshop series shows that the structure of the meetings we had was good, but the summer holidays made the teachers lose momentum and they had to start over.

Planned approach and implementation

The project has worked with teachers to provide basic knowledge of Minecraft to gain insight into how Minecraft can be used as an interactive learning material. In total we had five workshop sessions and the teachers have worked with the students in parallel with that they got their education. On each occasion, the teachers were given the opportunity to share their experiences and concerns with each other. We have created a manual for them based on their questions and concerns, and our coordinator has acted as support both onsite and via email. We believe this approach has worked well.