Playing In The Virtual Sandbox: Students' Collaborative Practices In Minecraft

Minecraft is one of the most played video games ever created, having sold more than 100 million copies since its launch in 2009 (Huddleston, 2016). Sandbox games, in which players explore, build and figure out ways to survive in virtual worlds, is particularly popular among young players (Thompson 2016,). Educators are taking note and are looking into ways to integrate Minecraft into their teaching (Timoner 2014). Minecraft is being used in classrooms to teach subjects such as physics and math computational thinking, creativity and creative thinking and digital citizenship, history and collaboration (e.g. Cipollone. Schifter. Moffat and Cipollone, 2014; Craft 2016, 2016; Hill 2015; Overby & Jones 2015; Short 2012). There's even an Minecraft: Education Edition that is geared toward helping teachers use Minecraft with their students. Minecraft camps and workshops are becoming increasingly popular outside of the classroom. The interest of educators in Minecraft is part a larger trend of education that is based on games (Gee 2007, 2008; Plass Homer, Kinzer, and Kinzer, 2015; Squire 2006, 2008). These efforts are based on an approach to education that is constructivist which involves learners actively constructing knowledge through activities that are open-ended and require decision-making and problem solving.
Extremecraft

Despite the excitement surrounding Minecraft's use in support of learning, very little research has been done. There is no empirical evidence that demonstrates the benefits to learning or any benefits that are associated with using Minecraft to teach specific skills, as well as the conditions under which these benefits arise. In the absence of such evidence, efforts to incorporate Minecraft and other multiplayer games into learning and teaching will be based on intuitions and best guesses rather than empirically supported best practices.

The current study seeks to fill this gap in knowledge by conducting an exploratory investigation of middle school students' collaboration while playing Minecraft in small groups of two to four players. We chose to focus on collaboration due to its centrality to learning (Johnson Johnson and Johnson, 1989; Rogoff, 1998; Roschelle 1992), and because multiplayer games are specifically designed to facilitate collaboration (Gee, 2007; Plass et al., 2015; Squire, 2006, 2008; Steinkuehleret al., 2004). Although collaboration is often utilized in conjunction with other pedagogical objectives This study specifically focuses on collaboration as a separate goal. Prior research shows that students often struggle to work effectively with one others, which can have negative effects for the learning outcomes associated with their collaborative work (e.g., Barron, 2003). Thus, collaboration is itself a skill that students must learn to master in order to reap the benefits of collaborative learning and thus warrants a specific research.

We focused our analysis on the types of discourse roles that players employed while playing the game, such as Engaging, Questioning, Instructing, and Encouraging (Bluemink, Hamalainen, Manninen, & Jarvela, 2010). These findings provide fresh insights into the elements that promote or hinder high-quality collaboration in Minecraft. These insights can be beneficial for educators who want to make use of Minecraft and other multiplayer games to promote collaboration among their students.