Minecraft is an incredibly popular computer game that many children enjoy. However, at the same time, some parents cannot share the joy of their sons and daughters regarding this game. There are a huge number of reasons why children love Minecraft, and the same reasons make parents fall into a stupor and scratch their heads thoughtfully. These 5 things kids really love about Minecraft. But you don’t even suspect that most modern parents simply don’t understand them.
Minecraft language
How can you explain the language of Minecraft in general? Friends come to visit your child, they gather in the room and start talking about noobs and endermans, while laughing and giggling, while the parents listen and think that they should talk about sports. Many parents are not even into sports, but at least they can participate in such a conversation. 
Parents want to be involved in the lives of their children, but as soon as they start talking about Minecraft, they immediately begin to think that this is Latin. And when parents ask their children to explain one concept, then immediately there is a need to explain another concept, and after it another one. And by the time you understand why your child needed to kill the Ender dragon, half of your day has already passed. As a result, everything ends up with the child talking, and the parents just nodding and hoping that they did not just agree to buy some kind of addon.
Youtubers
It’s not enough that Minecraft itself is strange for parents, there are also a million YouTube stars who talk about this game, demonstrate their achievements, share jokes that only those who play Minecraft understand. And this is not about any particular YouTuber. The problem will be understood by parents who have had to snatch the tablet from the hands of a child who has been listening to someone talking about the game for several hours in a row. Yes, many of these YouTubers make more in a month than their parents make in a whole year, and this may annoy the parents in the slightest, but it's not about the money. It's all about sanity, and hour-long videos of teenagers recording loud, annoying Minecraft movies in their rooms have grown-ups saying trite things like "Where is the world going?" etc. And this is terrible, because it makes parents feel like their parents used to feel - old and out of date. And the circle is closed.
Addiction
Many parents do not understand one thing: is nicotine or some other drug added to Minecraft? Every parent whose child plays Minecraft understands how difficult it is to get him to turn off the game. It comes to tears, screams and even fists. Children even begin to swear at their parents. And so do both young children and adolescents. Sometimes one gets the feeling that if real home children will be invaded by zombies, they will not care, but if this happens to their house in Minecraft, then the end of the world will come. For many parents, this game looks like some kind of pixelated mess, but the kids can't agree with that.
Disorientation
If you are trying to connect with your child by playing Minecraft, then you need to remember the vomit bowl. No, the game is not disgusting or nasty, but it is disorienting. You start to feel dizzy from everything that is happening around you, you do not understand what to do, and you find yourself in some room with a pickaxe in your hands. And then your child starts laughing at you as if you are a complete idiot, and not an adult with higher education and prestigious work. And then the child himself sits down at the computer, his blue eyes start darting around the screen while he corrects the situation you created, and he starts to say: “You see? Do you see?" But you still don't see the difference between what you did and what he does.
Trying to understand makes things worse
Like any good parent, when your child starts playing Minecraft, you try to better understand the game by reading about it online. Here is an excerpt from one such article called "Minecraft Parenting Guide": Minecraft is a sandbox game created by Swedish programmer and gamer Markus "Notch" Persson. The world of the game is procedurally generated, and its essence lies in the collection of resources, the creation of items, construction and (if the player wishes) battles. Many parents have encountered strange texts in their lives, but this is just crazy.
conclusions
The conclusion can be drawn as follows: most children like this game, while some parents simply cannot understand it. And the saddest thing is that many parents initially thought that they would not have problems understanding. Not only Minecraft, but everything that concerns their children. When people become parents, they don't think they'll ever have to say "these days" or "why can't you play normal games?" as these are some of the most annoying things anyone has ever said to them. their parents when they were young. However, this is what parenting is all about. It's a reality where you're getting older and trying to understand your kids, wishing they could just do what you understand.
The child is trying to show you new achievements in his Minecraft world, and you praise him on duty and add: “It would be better if you did this at school.” Just don't say you don't. In Minecraftplays almost halfchildren in the world. And this is really more interesting to them than.
Microsoft has figured out how to use children's love for Minecraft to the benefit of learning. The educational version of the Minecraft for Education game in Ukraine will be available from September this year.
Roman Rudyuk, Head of the Partnership in Education program at Microsoft in Education, told the site what subjects can be studied with the help of a favorite toy, and whether Ukrainian school teachers are ready for such changes.
Modern children were born and grow up in a digital world. They have a different way of thinking, speed of perception. Contact with the world through the screen of the tablet is natural for them.
These children understand computers and the Internet, sometimes better than their parents. At the age of two or three, they find and download cartoons for themselves, remove passwords from their parents' smartphones and play games.
This is not surprising given the pace at which technology advances. Another thing is surprising: the school of these children is still trying to teach according to the old principles and schemes.
The tablet, smartphone at school is perceived as a hindrance to learning. They try to stop communication of a child with a computer, to reduce it to a minimum. Discuss the harm of computer games, advise how to wean a child from the computer. If they allow it, then as a toy, as a reward for good behavior.
But why not try to educate and educate with the help of gadgets? After all, tablets and games are wonderful tools, and they are closer and more understandable to children than textbooks and notes on the board.
Two years ago, when Microsoft bought the rights to Minecraft, no one understood why. And with the help of the game, they decided to introduce gamification into the educational system.
Why Minecraft?
Because children love him, and because he opens up huge scope for creativity. base element games - cubes. A completely universal thing, from which you can create any objects, set and solve any problems. At the same time, children do not passively perceive information, but actively participate in the process. This makes it easier to both understand the topic and remember it.
Mathematics, biology, history: where else is the benefit of the game Minecraft
Minecraft for Education is not a collection of ready-made schemes and lessons. It is a platform that teachers can use to create lessons. It does not replace the traditional curriculum, but complements it, visualizes and fills it with creativity.
The program works for any school subject, because any idea can be realized in it.
Geography
It's one thing to see Egyptian pyramid in the textbook in the picture with a couple of paragraphs of text. Another thing is to move inside the building, examine it in real size, wander inside, see what it consists of, how the tombs are located, and so on.
Or create a pyramid of cubes on your own - first study the topic in detail, and then transfer this knowledge to the Minecraft world.
From cubes you can build landscapes, study the structure earth's crust- do not look at dusty plaster models from the closet, but create projects on your own.
Or contour maps. Do not paint over with a pencil in a notebook, but build in Minecraft, as in this lesson.
Story
Instead of memorizing dates and names, we rebuild, for example, wooden fortresses, give the participants the roles of historical characters and act out, for example, the history of the baptism of Kievan Rus as part of the lesson.
The same applies to any historical event. Minecraft allows you to create a world with all the nuances of the studied time: architecture, landscape, and so on.
Mathematics
Equations in a notebook are boring. And if you set equations right in the game, and the solutions to these equations will be the coordinates of the point on the map where the treasure is hidden, it will become much more interesting to solve them.
Biology
Build a dinosaur skeleton out of blocks? Easy! or model human body. It's interesting what we're made of.
In this lesson, children travel inside a living cell and learn how its organelles work.
Chemistry
Here you can not be limited to the construction of a model of the molecule. Chemistry is at the very core of Minecraft. Starting the game, the character extracts minerals and crafts from them the right materials and items.
The idea of synthesis can be used during the lessons so that children understand how substances interact and what comes out of it.
Physics
The teacher explains the behavior of matter in solid, liquid and gaseous states. All participants have their own characters, and the properties of matter in Minecraft allow you to display real physical processes on Earth.
What else
Computer games are often used in education. But they are usually stereotyped, the plots and the possibilities of solutions in them are limited.
Minecraft for Education is not limited to one subject. This is a constructor, thanks to which phenomena can be studied from different angles.
The teacher created a task: you need to build a hotel. He assigned a price to each game resource, and the children received a certain budget at their disposal.
The kids got to work. They think about how to build more conveniently and more profitably. They calculate costs, choose materials, think over the layout of rooms, from automatic opening of doors and the location of the switch, ending with flowers on the balcony and a toilet.
This complex object first appears in their head, and then is transferred to the Minecraft space.
They seek information, consider, discuss. They learn to argue and defend their opinion, to work in a team. Is it possible to attribute such a project to any particular subject? Or evaluate its benefits only within the framework of the school curriculum?
Minecraft for Education helps to view the world without dividing it into objects, but in a complex way. Understand and recreate the mechanisms and processes that work in it. The child understands that bread does not begin with dough. You need to plant grains, grow, harvest, grind, and then prepare the dough and bake.
And the spoon on his table is ore that has been mined, melted, refined, turned into metal and made from it. desired subject. He realizes this without explanation and cramming - it's just that such processes are going on in his game.
Minecraft vs Minecraft for Education: What's the Difference?
In the game version of Minecraft there are many materials and phenomena that are not in wildlife. For example, there are dragons, there are non-existent materials and chemical elements. In the game, this is interesting, but in the training version it only gets in the way.
There is no way to add fantastic mods (modifications) in Minecraft for Education. There are only realistic processes that exist in life.
The second feature is technical. In the game version, to play with friends, you need to look for a server, connect to it. There is no guarantee that outside players will not come there and destroy the buildings - children love to misbehave.
Minecraft for Education does not require servers. The teacher creates a web class, the students connect to it through their accounts, and the game can begin. You can connect from any computer, both at home and at school.
A rich toolkit has been created for the teacher: he can create tasks, allocate zones for construction, and manage the process.
How to create learning worlds, how to give tasks - there are clear instructions for everything.
Computer games in education: what teachers think about Minecraft for Education
There is bad news and there is good news.
Of the minuses: it is difficult for most teachers to rebuild, to agree that the usual methods of teaching with modern children do not work well. Not everyone is ready to use the gaming toolkit.
What can we say about games, even if not all teachers are familiar enough with the Internet to use it in their work.
On the plus side: there are many young teachers who are ready to teach in a new way and are looking for progressive methods. Since September of this year, about a hundred schools in Ukraine are planning to introduce a computer game into education. Perhaps there will be more of them, it depends on the initiative of directors and teachers.
So far, this is difficult: in addition to striving for something new, at this stage, the teacher also needs knowledge of English. Volunteers during beta testing have already created their own lessons that can be used as an example. True, this is only English-language material. In June, Ukrainian teachers also received access to beta testing. So, there will be a lot of ready-made lessons available.
For teachers who want to speak to children in the language of the game that they understand and are interested in, Microsoft provides meetings and training. Trains trainers who pass on knowledge to colleagues.
In Ukraine, there are already about 150 teachers who are learning how to use new technologies and immediately apply it in their work.
Microsoft does not create lessons or courses by subject. It gives overall ownership of the program, general direction. And every teacher or parent who wants to teach a child in an interesting way will be able to create their own lessons, implement their own ideas.
Modern parents are on the verge of making a huge mistake in raising their children. Wishing well for their children, they deprive them of time and space for games, thereby limiting the development of imagination - a skill that is the basis of innovation and competitiveness.
A study by toy company Radio Flyer and ReD Associates reveals the disturbing implications of today's overprotective parenting. Before each holiday, adults begin to puzzle over what kind of toy will be interesting and useful for their child. However, before purchasing another wooden construction set, parents should think seriously.
The development of the imagination is facilitated by games that child psychologists call "arbitrary" ( unstructured play) - in those there is no clearly defined scenario, there is no ultimate goal, devices are not used. The child himself invents his own worlds and embodies his own ideas.
According to a study conducted in the United States, children who are given freedom of action by their parents, that is, they are given the opportunity to decide for themselves when, where and what to play, have the most developed imagination. However, most of today's children simply cannot play by themselves - they need instructions from adults or the toy itself.
The conclusions are disappointing: today's children need to be taught to play arbitrary games. Specialist in child development, psychologist Peter Gray also noted a consistent reduction in free play time. According to other data, children aged 8 to 18 spend an average of 6.5 hours in the company of gadgets daily, and many are even afraid to go out without an adult.
Modern parents are puzzled by how to create conditions for involuntary play. A study of children from infancy to 9 years of age showed surprising results - neither wooden Toys, nor their digital counterparts create the conditions for unstructured play. So what is wrong with parents?
Consequences of playing Minecraft
Take, for example, cubes. The current generation of children passively press the buttons and the toys themselves entertain them, and when the toy gets bored, they insistently demand another. Some parents have even formed a new tradition: throwing out "old" toys before the holidays to make room for new ones. Other parents admit that they buy their child a new toy a week, and also keep toys in reserve.
Having got used to the constant novelty and change of entertainment, children simply stop playing with ordinary cubes, as a result of which they lose their skills in playing with stationary objects. Parents shrug their hands: "We don't want our children to be bored." But therein lies the secret: boredom motivates children to play with “what is.” If we want to develop children's imagination, we need children to be bored.
What then can be said about computer games like Minecraft, which one parent described as "dice on steroids"?
In this popular game children mine resources, create objects, build buildings and explore new worlds. In the "Creative" mode, players have unlimited supplies of resources and tools, which allows you to create objects of increased complexity. That's where the unlimited freedom of imagination is - take it and build it!
However, the study found that after playing a series of Minecraft games, children felt jittery and annoyed. Many agree that the aforementioned play only "kills time" - once the child begins to understand the mechanics of the game well, that is, to play well, the experience of research and creation turns into endless construction in order to avoid boredom. One of the adults correctly noted that under such conditions, even favourite hobby turns into a routine.
Creating conditions for unstructured play requires not only restricting the child from certain entertainment, but also providing him with complete freedom. However, as the study showed, this practice does not always show inspiring results - young respondents, left without their usual toys, started fights with peers (and sometimes with parents) and experienced irritation, drowsiness and confusion. Obviously, the problem here is not with toys, but with the fact that children are not used to playing on their own.
Idea free games quite often discussed, but ways to create the conditions for such are rarely presented. Below are three excerpts from a study by child psychologist Peter Gray recommending the practice of free play.
1. Parents must clearly understand what “free play” is and what it gives
In free play, there is no clearly defined beginning and end - children entertain themselves, adults do not help them. This approach can confuse parents who are used to seeing educational and educational tasks in the game, as well as those who believe that participation in children's play helps to become closer to the child.
2. Children should play on their own every day
When parents try to introduce several hours of free play between other activities of the child, the latter experiences absent-mindedness and irritation. For this problem to disappear, children must learn to play on their own, and not wait to be entertained by parents, teachers, or new toys.
3. In free play, children should be guided by the behavior of adults
It is no secret that children copy the behavior of adults, but the latter, having plunged headlong into work, often forget about it. Parents should be an example for their children and show that spending time without gadgets can be a lot of fun.
How are these ideas put into practice? Quite simply, a photographer father takes his two-year-old daughter for walks. While he is filming nature, the child selflessly plays with what is nearby - he imagines, explores, learns the world. The adult does not interfere, the girl herself leads the process. However, the parent is nearby - minding his own business, he looks after her, and the child is inspired by the actions of the father and copies his behavior.
Working as a child psychologist for 20 years now, I watch how hobbies replace each other with any games or movie characters. So, the era of superheroes in the form of Spider-Man or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spilled over into the Bakugan craze, followed by the zombie apocalypse epidemic for boys and a series of monster dolls for girls. And now two years on the crest new wave- Minecraft game.
It's a craze and adults should be aware of it. Firstly, this epidemic has affected both children and adolescents - from 6 to 16 years old. Secondly, this game is available both on a computer, and on a tablet, and on a smartphone, that is, you can not part with it for days. In the game, you yourself seem to be walking, turning or raising your head, as in many rpg games and shooters. But the main difference is in the graphics: everything is pixelated, as if from small cubes. What is it about this game? How does she attract children? different ages? It is important for adults to understand what the offspring are looking for and finding in Minecraft?
How would you go out for a walk?
There is a lot to collect in this game. Some of the collected is used to build a house (village, palace), something - to make weapons or something else useful. For fans of battles, there are many different characters walking around the world with whom you can fight. You can have a pet. That is, the game is universal - for every taste. Build, destroy, care, feel important, blow off steam! And also, thanks to this most unusual graphics, the atmosphere in the game is somewhat reminiscent of a child's perception of the world: how would you live here and now. Some characters appear out of nowhere and go out of nowhere. It's scary at night, but calm during the day. The world is incomprehensible: as soon as you turn away from the object, it ceases to exist, and if you go far from the chosen meadow, then you may not find your home. And if you find it, you never know who you can find there.
Create, invent, try
In the game, you can go to visit each other, share supplies, defend yourself from enemies. There are many related areas where space for creativity and popularity begins. You can make your own clip using the characters of the game and post it right there on the site in anticipation of likes. Or write a story based on the game or characters.
There are very popular people in this space who regularly post something new that is always a success. There are myths and legends: for example, if you collect more than a thousand subscribers to your work, then you will supposedly be paid some amount for each. You can also learn programming in the style of "Minecraft" and create your own games, clips, universes.
Of course, many begin to play, so to speak, "for the company." Everyone in the class is addicted - and I also keep up with the team. But if they started, they linger for a long time.
So let's see what children feel when they enter this space. First of all, success and your own importance: you create something, you protect something, you can demonstrate your achievements. There is something to talk about with other children. Again, you can become in demand and popular. And this is success again. There is scope for creative self-realization. After all, creating a video and writing a story is the kind of self-expression for which they won’t get 4 or 5, but which someone will definitely like. And so our children go into a world where they are significant, and there are no adults, but there are guidelines for the older inhabitants of this world. Isn't it true that it is somewhat reminiscent of the childhood of former times with its courtyard life, in which there were communication, and trials, and enemies, and intrigues? The difference is only in the virtuality of what is happening.
Reality versus virtuality… or instead?
I don't know if this is good or bad. The world associated with life in a computer has been our reality for fifteen years now. There are many new professions associated with this activity. And from this point of view, our children are in the trend of global changes. And at the same time, there have already been experiments when a tablet was taken away from a child for a day - and they saw a sad picture: without a gadget, there is no one to talk to, and nothing to talk about, since the skill of face-to-face communication without an assistant has not been developed. The feeling of success disappears immediately, because in real life our children often acquire the experience of independence and significance in few places. Only if we specifically organize it. But how?
- We give them to sections and circles. Sports achievements, mastering an instrument, creating creative crafts, etc. give a feeling of success and self-realization, which depend only on you.
- We release in thematic camps, hiking. Children receive life experience when you need to take care of yourself, communicate with peers, agree on the creation of a project, play not only computer games, but also board and outdoor games. Also in the camps, some kind of creative self-expression is constantly taking place: performance on stage, role-playing games creating scenarios...
- We entrust something important in helping with the housework. And if the child does not cope right away, we celebrate even minor successes and emphasize what an important contribution he makes to the family.
- We organize learning in such a way that children really decide when and how to do it. homework and controlled their own learning process.
- Let's hang out with friends. If communication takes place on your territory, we introduce restrictions on communication using a computer and other gadgets. Free time can be taken board games. There are now a huge number of them, bright and interesting. Sometimes it’s enough to help you figure out the rules once.
Then there is a chance that the joy and success of virtual life will become for children only one of the sources of positive emotions.
According to a study conducted by Octoloy and Newzoo, in the month of March alone, the above game has collected about 4 billion views.
This figure is unlikely to surprise many parents who are hopelessly trying to drag their children away from the screens. Neither football, nor a bicycle, nor a picnic in the forest can distract young gamers from watching videos where people build with small green bricks.
This passion is called by parents in different ways: some call it an obsession, others call it addiction. However, both of them are very concerned about it.
Opinions differ.
In numerous articles and posts online, parents complain that Minecraft has taken over the lives of their children, they neglect household chores and school assignments, annoyed when they are forbidden to play. As a result, many parents have to ban this game altogether or severely limit their time at the computer. One father explained his decision to limit time this way: “Minecraft, like other games, addictive, is boundless, but the childhood of children is not. I would like them to learn not the virtual, but the real world.”
Other parents do not see a big problem in this game. As the father of two boys notes, his children watch videos with different Minecraft versions. “Currently, they watch YouTube a lot more than regular TV. Am I against it? Probably a little - yes, however, I am fully aware of the place in the lives of my children and their peers this game occupies. To ban it is to separate your children from their friends,” he says.
Interest in the game also has favorable consequences, since the children have mastered the program well, learned to create their own game modes, manage their own game server, create and edit videos and run your own YouTube channel.
Minecraft on YouTube is a vast ocean of content with nearly 42 million videos. There are hundreds of channels dedicated to Minecraft, of which the most popular are SkyDoesMinecraft and Yogscast. Some Minecraft channels have become real sensations. YouTube channel Stampy with a moderator cat has 5.6 million subscribers and about 3.4 billion views. Last year, this channel was the fourth most popular on YouTube.
There are also channels for parents, such as MineMum, created by educator Beck Oakley, to help parents navigate the Minecraft minefield. “YouTube is the new generation of television. It allows children to learn and share knowledge. He entertains the kids. When they look at the game of others, they get a new experience of the game, and they can also share it with others,” she notes. - Unlimited content. It is extremely interesting, educational and useful.”
According to Oakley, this infatuation is not a serious problem. She stresses that attention should be drawn to the time spent by children playing, as well as the impact on their mood and health. “It is very important that parents teach their children to enjoy the game without compromising a healthy lifestyle. Parents need to teach their children "healthy" gaming, which involves, first of all, the ability to stop in time. Parents need to establish rules for harmless play, as well as rewards for following those rules,” she notes.
It is worth noting that Minecraft is the creation of the Swedish game designer and programmer Markus Persson, who is also known as Notch. Initially, the game was not designed for young players. Persson was inspired by games like Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper.
Some time later, the programmer founded Mojang, which released the game for some time, and last year it was sold to Microsoft.
How games affect the human brain.
There are many studies regarding the effect on the human brain. Some of them are quite contradictory. Researchers in China used fMRI to monitor the brains of eighteen college students who spent about ten hours online, mostly playing games like World of Warcraft. Compared to a control group of students who spent no more than two hours a day at the computer, less was found in the brains of gamers. gray matter, which is responsible for the ability to reason.
In the early 1990s, scientists warned that given that only those parts of the human brain that are responsible for movement and vision are stimulated, other parts responsible for emotions, learning, and behavior may be underdeveloped.
Regarding research on Minecraft game, a Quartz article by Robert Peisonau and psychologist Yun Lee notes that she does not appear to be as creative as some parents believe. “In fact, the creativity of the game is inherent in the program itself - it is a huge number of combinations, materials and tools. And the players are left the only task- create more complex structures. Despite the fact that at first glance the game seems to be creative, in reality it is quite a monotonous activity. Most of the children we studied experienced irritability after a long period of play."