The game "sandbox" and its potential educational use

Minecraft and other similar games could develop the cognitive abilities of young people.

The sandbox games like Minecraft have not only been a true phenomenon in the world of youtubers: enclose also an important educational potential.

This article will explore the wide range of educational possibilities offered.

Precedents: games in real environments

evidence that the game has been part of human civilization from its earliest origins and in all cultures and societies (Gértrudix Quarter and Gértrudix Barrio, 2013), forming an element of interactivity between youth and adults, through which you have they have been educated and have learned.

Throughout the centuries, the game has changed while they have been doing all different cultures and societies, adapting to the material and cultural characteristics of these and adopting modalities and heterogeneous types among them.

As an illustrative example, a few decades ago, most people seniors grew up in a rural environment where games involving grazing animals such as cattle or sheep, because in many cases did not have practically any object that play part of common objects, animals and imagination. Over the years and the advent of industrialization and mass production, the youth went to play with common objects to play with dolls and toys, which later introduced small electronic items produced small movements or sounds.

Today, thanks to the strong development of new information and communications technology, methods and tools have evolved game adapting to this new era, as they have been doing for over the past centuries. This means that the human being evolves and all the elements that surround so do; therefore, we must understand that the youth of this new era are accustomed to live and grow normally using technologies.

The arrival of the educational video game

A staple of today's youth play video games are. As was the case in the categories of traditional game, we can also educate them through this new tool (which is increasingly followed and used), in addition to promoting autonomous teaching varied content and sometimes of considerable complexity.

The sandbox type game

Within the wide range of genres of video games, which can all offer different ways of learning and enhance cognitive skills, there is a genre that stands out among all because of the many possibilities that may offer: the sandbox type game.

This kind of game is known for offering its players an open great possibilities for modification and creation of the environment, in addition to following a non-linear plot, where often the targets puts the player himself, thus enabling him the opportunity to promote world its creativity, encouraging self-narration and the construction of stories and experiences. If this cocktail is added the social part that usually include such games become a great tool to foster learning, creativity and, of course, fun.

The only limit is yourself

Under this new perspective it gives us this kind of game where the only limit is the imagination of the user, new possible applications of these in education and teaching arise both outside and inside the classroom, thus giving rise to experiments carried out by communities of educators who use a sandbox game genre, called Minecraft, in schools, to make and demonstrate the benefits generated by the use of these applications.

A good example of using Minecraft in the classroom is conducted by Sarah Kaviar, which in 2013 held a conference at Progressive Education Network where he showed a project carried out with students of the humanities subject. In it, this game was used to recreate places of worship in the world and then make several games that demonstrate their knowledge of these places; giving very satisfactory results in terms of student learning.

The impact of this game sandbox is such that there is a large community, dedicated to study and carry out the implementation of Minecraft in the classroom to promote student involvement in learning certain content and in fostering creativity and autonomous learning.

Education and entertainment go hand in hand

Following the study of the use of video games for these purposes, is born the term edutainment (Gértrudix Quarter and Gértrudix Barrio, 2013), fruit of the union of the word "education" (education) and "entertainment" (Entertainment), on the which several studies that have shown great results obtained with the educational use of digital immersive environments, ie the sandbox type game, "offer a place for the empirical application of constructivist theory" have emerged.

Among the results of this research highlight the quality of the learning process, as it allows students to gain different perspectives of phenomena and experience multiple situations in which acquire easily transferable skills to real life (Aldrich, 2009), (Dede, 2009), (Kapp and O'Driscoll, 2010). These teaching applications are possible due to the nonlinearity of this kind of video games, which makes it easier for the teacher or trainer customization and shaping of the objectives of the game in order to produce a learning experience and fun the students.

Beyond the classroom

Despite the possible uses that can and are making teachers in many parts of the world, educational uses of video games such as Minecraft sandbox are not limited solely to the environment of a classroom under the supervision of an adult. In fact, the simple and apparent recreational use of these games has a strong educational potential in young people, because in most cases, the content of these games and the possibilities it offers, often very applicable to real life, so that what may seem at first glance a simple game can become a surprisingly educational experience.

In addition, both directly and indirectly, the player will be forced to make use of imagination and therefore to train its capacity for creativity, which should be a priority element in compulsory education.

Another great advantage that involves the use of video games sandbox genre is that the vast majority of them are often accompanied by a large community of online players that promote, through complex codes of behavior, prosocial activity and sense of inclusion whatever they are socioeconomic differences of the players; so they end up being, as it were: "simulators good citizen", providing extra value to the educational experience resulting from its use.

Bibliographic references:
Aldrich, C. (2009). Learning online with games, simulations and virtual worlds: Strategies for online instruction. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 2009
Dede, Ch. (2009). “Inmersive Interfaces for Engagement and Learning”. Science, Vol. 323, pp. 66-69.
Kapp, K. M & O’Driscoll, T. (2010). Learning in 3D: Adding a new dimension to enterprise learning and collaboration. s.l. : Pfeiffer.
Kaviar, S. (2013). Using Minecraft in the Classroom. Progressive Education Network National Conference: Los Ángeles.
Sorathia, K. & Servidio, R. (2012). “Learning and Experience: Teaching Tangible Interaction & Edutainment”. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 64, pp. 265-274.