Minecraft Expanded HorizonsHello, my name is Adam Clarke and my talk is called Minecraft Expanded Horizons and it is about

how Minecraft is more than just a game.

Minecraft is one of the most popular games played around the world, rating in the top 10 across all

game platforms. One of the reasons for this is Minecraft’s simple approach: a world that can be

built by breaking and placing blocks. This approach is accessible to the very young and even the

very old! It is highly engaging - the ability to create anything you can imagine using simple blocks is

powerful and we can see similarities with how people play with Lego, wooden blocks and other ma-

terials that are used in the real world.

For me, my first experience of Minecraft was watching videos of other people playing it. These

Let’s Play videos allowed me to engage, learn and participate in a growing community, and it is

why I am producing this talk from within Minecraft tonight.

Minecraft quickly became a multiplayer game, where worlds could be hosted on servers and peo-

ple from around the world could come together to play. This has led to some extraordinary collabo-

rations and meaningful discussions about education, the nature of play and games-based learning.

For example, I have friends whom I have never met in Australia, Strasbourg, America, New Zea-

land, Singapore and across the UK. Minecraft has become palace where we can meet, play, dis-

cuss and create in real time, using the blocks and other tools that the game gives us. This kind of

collaboration moves beyond just the act of placing blocks. As many of you already know, Minecraft

has its own electronics, called Redstone, which enables the creation of logic gates and memory —

both useful for teaching and learning. It also has Command Blocks, which allow us to interact with

the mechanics of the game itself. and also has a scoreboard. and variables. Its these reasons that

I find it is a wonderful and exciting place to work in… and to collaborate with other people.

This platform enables a seemingly endless amount of learning opportunities, from storytelling to ur-

ban renewal; reminiscence engagement to real world climate change modelling; exploring the sci-

ence of human body and discovering the history of art. Minecraft has become a tool for artists and

educators, social activists and community developers, scientists and other organisations around

the world. It is being recognised for its ability to engage young people in ideas and concepts that

go beyond playing a game. People are using Minecraft to develop transferable skills such as politi-

cal awareness, mathematics, literacy, humanities, scientific concepts - the list is without limit.

What Minecraft has shown us is a window to a future where games based learning is changing the

face and shape of education at all levels, from primary into corporate and government training. It

has shown us that the boundaries between play and education are not fixed and can enhance

each other to encourage innovative creative response. Through the connections and collaborations

made within game, a community has grown that is beginning to shape the way in which we learn

and influence change on a local and global scale. Through its simplicity, it has given the player a

sandbox in which the imagination can expand and ideas can grow.

However, it is important to remember that, at the heart of all this potential, Minecraft is a game, and

is, at its core, about having fun with your friends. Which is why it is games-based learning, not

learning based games.