In today’s society we have to think of the notion of employability within the paradigm of preparing students for the future. It is not an abstract notion but a reality students are facing; they need jobs in the future and we have to find more ways to equip them for it.
We need to assess the relevancy of what we teach in mainstream education, for employment. So we have to look at what students are doing, and as teachers we have to use this in our pedagogy and prepare them with the skills required.
Whether we like it or not, some of our children are playing Minecraft. The question here is whether they are learning anything playing this game or simply whiling away the time.
First of all, it is extremely difficult to get them to stop playing it; it is unlike Mono-poly, we could stop playing that game any time, but Minecraft cannot be interrupted. Secondly, some children will argue it is simply what is happening now, and older generations have to accept that.
For those of you, like myself, who have never played Minecraft, it is an open-ended ‘sandbox’ game where one constructs and plays in elaborate worlds. Some children recreate famous pieces of architecture, others express their creativity through grand designs, but the experience is simple: in the freeform Minecraft sandbox, players can build practically anything their imagination can think up. The key skill is adaptability.
As they play the game the children create buildings and items from scratch, and they need to gather raw materials from the world around them. The main aim is to survive. There is no blood or gore, but if one dosen’t like the killing, one can play in ‘creative mode’.
Playing Minecraft, it turns out, can teach children creative thinking, geometry and even a bit of geology, and research shows they can learn experimentation, teamwork and problem solving skills as well.
Whether we like it or not we have to find avenues to make our pedagogy in the classroom more relevant to employability needs
In fact, the Journal of Adolescent Research published a study comparing children who played video games with those who didn’t.
“Video game players, regardless of gender, reported higher levels of family closeness, activity involvement, attachment to school and positive mental health,” authors Paul Adachi and Teena Willoughby concluded. “Video game players also had less risky friendship networks and a more favourable self-concept.”
The arguments against all this include that these games make children more aggressive. However, research indicates that it is not the games themselves that make them aggressive but the competiveness these games instil.
Although one may cringe at the thought of using Minecraft in the classroom, it may be used as a tool to extract the skills needed to achieve teachers’ objectives.
What are the skills needed in the future at the work place? Possibly the following:
The ability to compete for an increasingly diverse customer base. Employees must be equipped to work, reason and communicate in a diverse population.
The ability to adjust to the changing relationships with employers. Employees will need to be increasingly self-motivated, self-directed, and able to anticipate needs more quickly than in a more paternalistic work culture.
With Minecraft we have possibly a tool at hand to do this, one that is already popular with students. Some schools, which understand that experimenting is an important part of learning, are taking notice, and integrating Minecraft in the classroom curriculum.
Some teachers are designing apps for students to learn with, others are getting their students to design apps. Students are within these spheres, and as teachers we have to reach out to their worlds.
Whether we like it or not we have to find avenues to make our pedagogy in the classroom more relevant to employability needs.
Michelle Gialanze is a consultant on entrepreneurship and ICT presently working for the Minister of Education and Employment.