Minecraft And EdPuzzle in Education

Introduction

Due to technological developments, people peek into cyberspace more than ever before. More people are using the online world to socialise and perform daily activities. Computer-literate individuals are shopping, socialising, dating, working and learning online. Internet speeds are rapidly growing, smartphones and smart devices have become a central component of daily activities. Digital tools have thus become excellent instruments for educational effectiveness. Games have entered the learning sphere to keep students engaged, providing an opportunity for innovation and spurring on creativity. The concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications, especially in a classroom, has gained collective recognition. Gameful learning and gamification are two approaches widely being used in education today.

Gameful learning is a pedagogical approach that uses the idea of how good games function, and applies that to the design of learning environments (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Gameful design operates around the independence framework. The self-determination theory indicates how intrinsic motivation works to build motivating classroom experiences (Ryan & Deci, 2000) through interactive gaming.

Games present an ideal learning environment and allow the player to fail, encourage out-of-the-box thinking and provide a sense of control (Kapp, 2015)). The main goal of gamification is to increase the engagement of users by using game-like techniques such as personalised immediate feedback.

Making learning playful allows students to determine the pace of their own learning and motivate them to complete. Adding feedback to the playing enforces the feeling of achievement.

(Smeaton D., 2016) provides evidence that numerous educational games have been developed to try and motivate learners.

Minecraft is such a game. Minecraft is a game-based platform that allows educators to deliver any subject by using creativity, collaboration and problem solving. The purpose of the game is to create structures using a variety of blocks (wood, dirt, stone, etc.) and physical physics-based components such as electricity and pistons. The player uses blocks to manipulate the environment – such as building a computer. A virtual world can be created by educators so that students can explore (Noelen, 2016).

EdPuzzle is a teaching tool that places interactive content such as quizzes, audio and notes into existing videos. These videos can be adapted from a variety of sources, such as TED, YouTube or self-created videos.

Minecraft (Gamification)

Minecraft is a sandbox construction game where the player has the ability to move freely around an unlimited virtual world and build objects using a variety of materials (Noelen, 2016).

Minecraft is one of the most popular games. It is innovative and player-driven. As with many types of learning, students need direction and opportunities to reflect on their (Nauert, 2018), which is provided in gaming.

Skills such as creativity, imagination and teamwork are beneficial in the classroom, especially as education moves toward using cooperative and collaborative learning models which focus on knowledge as a social construct (Pappas, 2014).

Some advantages of playing Minecraft include:

• Competition: winning conditions that encourage players and assess their performance.
• Engagement: students become engaged and do not lose focus until the game is over. This is the student’s intrinsic motivation and includes challenge, curiosity, control and fantasy.
• Immediate rewards: students are overjoyed if they win and thus often want to play the game again.

The goals of the game-based pedagogy and learning approach are evident in the use of Minecraft as an educational tool.

The aim of the task is for learners to explore the computer components linked with input, processing, output and storage as specified in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy of Computer Applications Technology for Grade 10. In the digital world, they have tools such as a notebook and camera to record information. The game takes them on a journey from exploring to then actually building their own devices in 3D.

A full overview of the world can be found at https://tinyurl.com/AvroHai1

EdPuzzle (Interactive video)

Interactive video allows for a whole new dimension of engagement, from ‘watcher’ to ‘participator’. EdPuzzle gives the teacher the tools to use video to not only engage the learner, but also to make the learner part of the learning process. A teacher can pause the video at any frame, add questions or even just a comment which the learner has to engage with in order to move on. Answers and comments are all recorded for the teacher to evaluate once the video has been completed.

EdPuzzle is a tool that allows students to watch and engage with videos while the educator gathers data throughout the lesson. EdPuzzle is the perfect tool for the flipped classroom philosophy. The flipped classroom makes use of interactivity which is practiced through interactive videos.

EdPuzzle can be used for:

• Formative assessments
• Video quizzes
• Video presentations
• Student feedback
• Student video tutorials

Access the EdPuzzle activity here: https://tinyurl.com/AvroHai2

The interactive video (linked above) is based on the Minecraft activity created earlier. The video presents some of the areas that learners would have explored and asks them to answer questions based on the accompanying narrative and their experience. The YouTube video is available at https://youtu.be/xoPt3jrcE8s. Comments and ratings on the video can be made on YouTube directly. Therefore, it is advisable to publish interactive videos on a YouTube channel.

Conclusion

Game elements play a significant role not only in education but also in numerous non-gaming applications on smart devices. Making use of gamification, game-based learning in a flipped classroom especially through the use of interactive videos will improve self-directed learning. Tracking the performance of students during game-playing and watching videos will improve not only engagement but also summative assessment.

It is clear to see that the four C’s of 21st Century Skills – Communication, Creativity, Collaboration and Critical thinking – and the methodology behind them, are evident in the two digital assets provided in this assignment. They are engaging, interactive and productive for both learner and teacher.