The Minecraft revolution: New kids on the blocks

Minecraft, the block-placing game with millions of followers, is now finding its way into classrooms as an educational tool. But could it also be the key to engaging the next generation of construction professionals? James Kenny reports.

Since 2009, Minecraft has become one of the most popular games on the planet. It has sold more than 60 million copies on PCs, smartphones, tablets and consoles, and has captured the imagination of gamers both young and old with its “free roaming” structure.

Originally developed by Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, the game’s appeal for many lies in its contrast with structured or “linear” computer games where players negotiate in-game limitations, such as reaching levels or gaining points. Instead, it generates a vast open-world blocky landscape that allows players to explore freely, constructing buildings and mining for minerals that can be crafted into useful items (see below).

The game’s environment is a low-resolution version of reality, and the core action performed by players is the one of breaking and placing blocks. But the game has no specific aim, or challenges to fulfil. The main concept is to use natural resources to build a shelter, either on your own or by collaboratively interacting with other players over the internet.

The virtual construction environment allows all players, through the anonymity of an avatar, to have a say in the construction process. The freedom within the game, and the ability to act or build as you please, is one of its most popular characteristics.

Now owned by Microsoft, it is often considered to be an update of time-honoured construction games such as Lego and Meccano. And, as those games inspired many people into a career in construction, it is hoped that Minecraft may be able to do the same.

According to the latest Construction Skills Network (CSN) report published by the CITB in January, 230,000 construction jobs are set to be created throughout the UK in the next five years, suggesting that the industry needs to recruit 46,400 new apprentices every year. While the latest statistics show the numbers starting both apprenticeships and undergraduate courses are on an upward trend, the need to maintain and broaden the pipeline of talent remains a pressing concern.

In addition, a technologically advancing industry presents an additional skills challenge. The skills now required will differ from those that were valued in the past: to build a career in the industry of the future, young entrants will need knowledge in areas such as materials technology, sustainability, digital construction technologies and logistics. So can tapping in to the Minecraft generation help fill these gaps and attract a more digitally savvy and diverse mix to the industry?

Finalists from the CIOB’s 2015 Minecraft competition, including Guy MacDonnell’s winning CCTV tower (above)

Richard Bayliss, sustainability and innovation strategy lead at the CITB, certainly thinks it’s an opportunity for the industry: “The use of Minecraft and gaming in general is one of the ways to get young people excited about the built environment. We know digital technology is becoming more important in our industry, both for construction projects and for training. Games like Minecraft won’t teach you everything, but I know from the enthusiasm that my own son shows for the game that it presents a great way of figuring out how the built environment works.”

To help link up the Minecraft community and the construction sector, the CIOB has begun running annual Minecraft competitions. By reaching out to the millions of users of the game, it hopes that the construction industry will be able to unearth passion and talent for the built environment and attract the next generation of construction professionals.

The most recent competition, launched to celebrate International Construction Management Day on 14 March, is the CIOB Future Housing challenge. The competition encourages entrants to design and build their idea for a three-bedroom house within limited land space, and with considerations for the environment and energy use as part of the brief.

MacDonnell adds that what first attracted him to the game was the ability to modify your own environment to suit your character in the world: “For me this linked strongly with my interest in ergonomics and the way we suit our environment to our own needs. So, by using Minecraft, what you can do is achieve in a game what we look to do as a contractor in real life, by redefining the future for people and places.”

The competition is open to adults, children and already established construction professionals, but its main aim is to attract a new generation and get them interested in the industry. 

In tandem, the CIOB is also developing four freely available Minecraft Education lessons for 12-14-year-olds that can be downloaded by teachers across the globe and accessed via the Minecraft Education platform. The virtual lessons are set to be launched in the summer, and will include exercises such as restoring Battersea Power Station.

Minecraft’s educational reach has now extended to the classroom

Guy MacDonnell ICIOB, a quantity surveyor for Interserve Construction, won the 2015 CIOB competition by designing and building a Minecraft version of the CCTV headquarters tower in Beijing. MacDonnell has been playing Minecraft for a number of years, and he supports the argument that it develops skills and mindsets relevant to an industry career.

“I believe that, as a gateway into the construction industry, Minecraft does a fine job of letting young people imagine what they can do with their Minecraft world,” he says. “It also leaves them questioning whether their creations would be possible within real-life constraints, so allowing them to consider things like material properties and gravity. That questioning is the valuable part that could spur young people onto a career in the built environment.”

The CIOB initiative builds on existing Minecraft programmes in the education sector. One of the leading innovators has been the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC), which has been running its Chasing Community programme since August 2014. Developed as a partnership between Danish social housing sector organisation BL and the Danish Architecture Centre, it received funding from private association Realdania, which supports philanthropic projects in the realms of architecture and planning.

The game is used as an educational tool to teach pupils in Danish elementary schools about democracy and community in social housing. It is said to strengthen students’ ability to work and think in communities, and challenge them to participate in democratic decision-making and focus on their own surroundings.

Pia Rost Rasmussen, head of learning at the DAC, says: “In the Danish Architecture Centre we believe that learning about architecture, city planning and so on also inspires children and youth in engaging themselves in the built environment – both as future planners and architects but foremost as citizens qualifying democratic discussions about our common environment.”

Minecraft in schools

In fact, the idea that Minecraft can be more than just a game, but a learning and education tool, has been gathering momentum over the last few years. As the game includes elements of building, farming, mining and engineering, teachers have been able to use it to explore everything from architecture and physics to ecology, sustainable agriculture and history.

Last year it was announced that the game would be made available free to every post-primary school in Northern Ireland, reaching up to 50,000 schoolchildren. The initiative is the first time Minecraft has been distributed on a mass scale this way. It was organised by Londonderry-based innovation festival CultureTECH, which secured £60,000 of funding from Northern Ireland’s  Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure to provide free licences to more than 200 schools and 30 libraries.

And in January of this year, Microsoft announced the launch of its new Minecraft: Education Edition, a special version of the game customised for the classroom.

While downloading the game is due to be relatively cheap, at only £3.50 per student per year, making sure that students have the right hardware and equipment could prove more costly, as playing the game on iPad, tablet or desktop can alter the experience, especially as a learning tool. An early access version is expected in June.

Meanwhile, US computer science education company ThoughtSTEM has expanded on the Minecraft and education theme, launching an add-on for Minecraft called LearnToMod, which aims to expand the educational value by teaching children programming skills through making their own modifications (“mods”) for the game.

Sarah Guthals, ThoughtSTEM’s chief technical officer, has been a leading campaigner on the use of Minecraft in education and in helping the  spread of its use in the US. “My one main point always about Minecraft and education is that the reason that it is such a great piece of software is that it is so open. You can do it in creative mode, where a teacher might create something, or you can do it in survival mode where you teach things like resource management,” she says. 

“Explaining that idea is not difficult, once you get educators to view it. Many teachers and parents are initially opposed to bringing in a game – and one that students spend hours playing anyway. But we get the adults playing it for the first time – that’s always been our strategy. Once they start playing, they see it.”

Guthals gives an example of how the game can be used to update more traditional education tasks: “One common lesson in every classroom is that students are required to read a book and then draw a scene from a book. So instead of just drawing the picture they actually build the scene in Minecraft. And that’s just so much more powerful as a digital resource because the students feel they are fully part of the learning process. They take ownership of their learning.”

She agrees that the game could help foster interest in the built environment as a future career, but more importantly believes that the game can get girls more interested in building and architecture, or other areas that have traditionally been male-dominated. “Minecraft is different as it brings in both stereotypical gender groups. The way you structure the game is up to you and appeals to both genders. It’s all one big environment –you don’t have to choose the pink version or blue version,” she says.

And there are wider diversity benefits as well. “Not only does it bridge the gender gap but also the racial gap. There was a study done a few years ago that the majority of video game players are in minority groups. So it could be also used a tool to attract minorities to new areas of learning or even future careers,” she says.

Breaking through the barriers

Although a number of UK schools have adopted Minecraft as a teaching method, there is still resistance in some sectors.
In the first place, the idea that Minecraft can be educational is an idea that many adults find hard to fathom. 

But, according to Guthals, there are a number of online and practical tutorials that both teachers and parents can take to understand the game and its benefits. “Some teachers and parents believe if you’re not manipulating something physically with your hands then you’re not really learning,” she says. “But what we’ve seen is that students react to the same way as they do with physical activities, and often are more engaged.”

While Minecraft can be seen as a starting point for getting people interested in construction, it also opens up the possibility of attracting more technical and IT-minded people to the industry in general – the industry is likely to experience a skills deficit as BIM takes hold, with the sector becoming digital and moving online.

Andrew Pryke, managing director for design and BIM at BAM, says: “As you can tell, we’re moving into a virtual construction industry – everything from Minecraft to 3D printing to coding. We’re creating environments on the computer, to test them out on site. And that’s what Minecraft does, essentially. These are all new areas and tools that can be used in this new virtual construction area, so we need to attract the right people to join us. 

“It has been said that in five years’ time, 30% of the construction jobs that we know of now won’t exist. While this might be a bit too soon, I can imagine that within about 10 years this will be the case and I think we’ll be looking much more virtual very quickly. So attracting young people with coding, design or other skills is very important.”

He adds: “We need to embrace this to attract a new and diverse workforce to the industry. By looking more digitally, the younger generation will be able to relate to the construction sector much more through something like Minecraft, rather than, say, a muddy boot.”

Keep building and avoid the mobs

Being a male born after 1980, I presumed I was highly tuned in to new technology and computer games, writes James Kenny. Minecraft, however, had passed me by and I decided to find out more about the game that has taken the whole world by storm.

As games go, it’s relatively low cost – available to download for £18 – but there’s also a wealth of YouTube videos with players narrating their experiences. Players like Stampylongnose are almost as popular as the game itself. In the interests of gaining Minecraft experience as quickly as possible, I watched a selection.

The game has two player modes: “survival” and “creative”. I chose to explore the creative mode, where the player has access to an infinite amount of blocks and items available, and can destroy them instantly. In this mode players don’t have to worry about health, armour and hunger, some of the key things needed to survive in the game. And, more for fun, in this mode the player is able to fly.

I was immediately in awe of the vast landscape, miles of endless fields, with trees, animals and other objects scattered throughout.

The first thing to do, I learned, is to build a house or some type of protective structure as, while players cannot die in this mode, and Minecraft is a generally friendly game, at night hostile mobs spawn that can chase and ultimately kill a player.

After chopping wood for a bit, my YouTube guide then used wooden planks to make a crafting table. The first tool made was a wooden pickaxe, for protection and practical purposes.

As night approached, my guide made a small hole and battened in for the evening. The next day his plan was to build a small two-by-three house made out of wood and dirt. From there, the idea was to build bigger and more fortified structures.

It is this, the gaining of skills and continuing improvement of your structures and experience, that makes the game so addictive. Starting off as newbie game player, or construction apprentice, in a matter of hours – not years – I would be able to gain the building experience and knowhow of a head of a major contractor.