Minecraft Education Supports Students' Academic Skills, Social/ Emotional Health

District among world leaders in Minecraft Education Edition

February 8, 2021 – When schools shuttered last March and lessons suddenly moved online, thousands of Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) students and teachers turned to Minecraft Education Edition to complete assignments and give instruction.  But beyond the technology tools and academic skills the system helped boost, school officials noticed another boon to the gaming platform: supporting students’ social and emotional health.

Early in the pandemic, Wheeler Elementary School counselor Samantha Howard noticed students felt isolated and needed more opportunities for socialization, so she created opportunities for them to connect using Minecraft Education Edition. Soon, she had two groups, with anywhere from 70 to 100 students in each one, meeting twice a week for virtual sessions.

“We build together, and they learn together, and really display some leadership skills,” she said. “A lot of the students have expressed that Minecraft Education Edition has encouraged them to be more confident, and they have gotten more comfortable with peers they may not have met before.”

“Most of my classmates, I never talked to until we started playing Minecraft Education Edition with each other,” said Amani, a sixth grader at Highland Middle School. “It was fun to play educational video games with them and get to know them.  It’s a really good way to get your confidence up, break out of your shell, and talk to new people.”

“There’s just so many ways to work together as a team for building, for helping each other with your worlds,” his classmate Maya agreed.  “And it’s just really fun to learn about people and to help them in that way.”

The system has been especially helpful for students who are new to the school, Howard said. “Providing this opportunity has allowed them to build connections and friendships and relationships that otherwise they may have not been able to.”

Originally developed by Microsoft as a video game, the company added an educational component to Minecraft in 2016, and JCPS began using the system soon after. 

The educational platform has been particularly beneficial to students who tend to be more introverted, according to Arlene Fuller, a technology teacher at Highland Middle School. “For students in self-contained classes and those with Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs), it gives them confidence because they’re on the same playing field with other students. Sometimes they tend to know a little bit more because they tend to be introverts so they feel powerful, because they’re giving other students who don’t have learning issues steps on how to work in Minecraft.”

The district is now among the world leaders in Minecraft Education Edition usage, said Jim Unger, JCPS technical lead, with about 13,000 unique users logging on and using the system.  “Seeing those 4 Cs of collaboration, communication, critical thinking and then then creating that they’re doing – it’s just amazing.”

 “These skills that the teachers are building, allowing students to get in and use this tool to create and show and demonstrate their learning to support the backpack, will absolutely transfer whether they’re in the classroom or … still virtual moving into next year,” he said. “You can have a student in class working with a student at home joined in their world, and they’re collaborating together on a project.  It’s just a great thing to see.”

“It’s game-based, but they’re not gaming,” Fuller stressed. “This is technology. It’s teaching the students how to sign in, how to download from a website, and how to access tools to complete an assignment.  They’re using those technology tools to work in a classroom that they’ll be able to transfer when they go to high school when they want to go deeper into engineering or something connected to math and science.”

“In Minecraft you need to work together to reach your goals,” Amani said. “It can help you with problem-solving and getting to that goal, because you need to work as one to be successful in Minecraft.  I think Minecraft Education Edition is really good for that type of thing.”