Virtual Worlds: Learning about history through Minecraft

My recent exploration of virtual worlds has helped me to really appreciate the ‘wonderful variety of ways’ they have been used for education (Bower, 2017 p. 314). Being a history teacher, I have been particularly interested in considering how virtual worlds can been used to help students learn about ancient civilisations. Bertacchini & Tavernise (2016) for example, used virtual words to increase the accessibility of archaeological and so encourage interest in cultural heritage. Similarly, Mikropoulos (2006) used virtual worlds to reconstruct of ancient architecture, fostering a sense of involvement through presence.

To explore virtual worlds more, I decided focus on Minecraft: Education, an ‘open-world game’ hosted online that ‘that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive environment’ (https://education.minecraft.net/). Users work to ‘build’ a virtual world by creating the building block pixels and placing them one by one. The game has famously been used to recreate famous structures from popular culture and so have been curious to see how it could be used as a tool in helping students learn about structures from the ancient world.

Minecraft Education - Retrieved from https://education.minecraft.net/

To this end, I visited the website for Minecraft: Education (https://education.minecraft.net/) and selected History Blocks (Francisco Tupy) a featured, pre-prepared lesson to consider in detail. The lesson’s two objectives: building ‘an awareness of historical heritage’ and developing ‘an understanding of the aesthetic and cultural qualities of historic sites’ are achieved by students carrying out research on a UNESCO World Heritage Site and reconstructing it using Minecraft. When the reconstruction is complete, students act as ‘tour guides’ and lead a ‘class walk through’ of the completed site. A consideration of this lesson suggests significant benefits in the use of Minecraft for learning about the past but also raises important factors to address.

History Blocks - Retrieved from: https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/history-blocks/

One of the biggest benefits using Minecraft in History Blocks is perhaps its ability to facilitate the ‘doing of history (Zhang, 2019). Loewen (2018) proposes that while ‘doing history’ involves gathering information through the critical analysis and evaluation of sources, one develops a storyline and ‘marshals the information on behalf of that storyline’ while attending to contradictory information (p. 91). In History Blocks the learner gathers historical information about their site, figurative ‘building blocks’ they then ‘marshal’ in Minecraft to reconstruct the ‘storyline’ of the past in a form of a site that can be experienced in a visual, 3D manner. This ‘doing’ of history is significant. It makes the past ‘come alive’ for students (Loewen, 2018) and as Zhang (2019) found when conducting research into activities similar to History Blocks, promotes deep interest, engagement and ultimately learning. 

Big Goose Pagoda in Minecraft (right) According to Historical Drawings (left) - Retrieved from: Zhang, G. (2019). Virtual simulation for history education. 2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) (pp. 1646-1651).

A factor to address when using Minecraft in this context is ensuring that appropriate and adequate initial research is carried out. The alluring nature of Minecraft means that attention will be drawn to the construction phase and learners will be tempted to rush through or skip initial research. This phase is critical to provide a historical foundation and without it the potential for historical learning is compromised. The teacher has an important role to play as a research guide and facilitator.  As Craft (2016) suggests, high school students are typically not highly competent in performing research and do not readily have the means to practice. It therefore may be a good idea to focus on well-known and documented buildings ensure ease of access to material. Compiling and providing relevant information in an easy to access format along with a structured guide would further facilitate research. Producing videos with demonstration and explanation would also help reinforce research skills and supplement student efforts.

References:

Bower, M. (2017). Design of technology-enhanced learning - Integrating research and practice. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Group.

Bertacchini, F., & Tavernise, A. (2016). NetConnect virtual worlds: Results of a learning experience. In S. Gregory, M. J. W. Lee, B. Dalgarno, & B. Tynan (Eds.), Learning in virtual worlds: Research and applications (pp. 227-240). Athabasca: Athabasca University Press.

Craft, J. (2016). Rebuilding an empire with Minecraft: Bringing the classics into the digital space. Classical Journal 111(3), 347-364.

Loewen, J. W. (2013). Teaching what really happened: How to avoid the tyranny of textbooks and get students excited about doing history. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Mikropoulos, T. A. (2006). Presence: A unique characteristic in educational virtual environments. Virtual Reality, 10, 197-206.

Tupy, F. (n.d.). History blocks. Retrieved October 26, 2019, from https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/history-blocks/

Zhang, G. (2019). Virtual simulation for history education. 2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) (pp. 1646-1651).