Technology
would talk in particularly about a certain aspect of the game. And
then there were the references to Lego, which comes up all the
time – people talking about Minecraft as digital Lego. Lego has
such a long-standing reputation as being a valued type of play.
The comparisons with Minecraft are quite interesting. Parents
value that aspect of it.
They also talked about the social aspect of Minecraft. This was
where siblings were playing with each other, or friends playing
with each other, or even just talking about the game at school.
They’re not necessarily even playing the game but having shared
interests with peers or with parents, sometimes to the displeasure
of parents who were getting a bit fed up of talking about red
stones and mining coal and things!
The parents also talked about the game helping with teaching
problem-solving skills, spatial skills and digital literacy. A few even
talked about the game helping with literacy and children who
were reluctant readers, finding that they were actually persevering
with reading texts because they had to in order to play the game.
And then a smaller number talked about the children actually
enjoying playing the game and talked about the game as a form
of play which they valued. So, yes, parents could think of a lot of
positive things.
On the flip side, a smaller number of parents said they had
concerns about the game and this had mostly to do with time.
The amount of time that children spent playing the game and
how this seemed to have displaced time from other more
valuable pursuits like playing outside or playing with Lego or
playing with physical toys or reading.
That was kind of interesting because for other parents, what
children do in Minecraft is a form of play – so there are different
ideas about what ‘play’ is and what role digital games have in
children’s play worlds.
In reference to that, you noticed – and this is more anecdotally
– that there were different types of play within Minecraft
or even just associated with Minecraft. Can you explain this
more fully?
I’d come across work from the UK. There’s a team of researchers
there that were looking in quite a lot of detail at preschool users’
apps, so zero to five-year-olds: what apps they play and how they
play on those apps.
They found that they were easily able to adapt a well-known
taxonomy of play, Hughes’s taxonomy of play, which was put
together without any reference to the digital side of the play
world, to children’s use of apps including Minecraft. So those
were things like socio-dramatic play, imaginative play and
role-playing.
There’s some other work in Scandinavian countries looking
at a similar sort of thing, where they’re looking at children’s play
in school playgrounds and how there are elements of digital
worlds that seep into those play worlds. Certainly I’ve noticed that
anecdotally as well with my own children and their friends, and
talking to other researchers, as well.
Can you give some examples of how those types of play are
evident in or around Minecraft?
Again, this is all anecdotal but I think it is still legitimate and we
are going to look into more detail at a range of different kids so
we can capture a broader range of play activity. One of the more
popular games is really just ‘hide and seek’ where players get
camouflaged in a block, which is part of the Minecraft world,
and then they go hide and someone has to seek them. So they
are playing this game with children from all over the world.
Some of the servers are safer in terms of contact with strangers
than others. There’s that whole safety aspect to it as well.
Even though some parents have concerns about the amount
of time children spend playing Minecraft – and that’s a valid
concern – you make the point that it is a reality of life for a huge
number of kids, so it’s worth studying. Can you explain that
perspective a bit more?
I’m not saying, and I don’t think anyone’s saying, that children
should be allowed an unlimited amount of time on screens or
playing Minecraft. But what we are saying is that when we’re
trying to work out what the positive aspects of screen use are, or
of a particular type of screen use, which ones should we avoid?
In order to do that, we first need to know what children are
doing, and sometimes the research that comes from paediatric
fields is based on tallying up numbers of hours children spend on
screen devices and then correlating that with certain outcomes.
But that doesn’t tell us what the children are actually doing, and
so there is this a whole layer of information that simply is not
there. And that means, in practical terms, we can’t actually work
out what sorts of things children are getting most benefit out of
when they are using screens.
The reality is that they will keep playing, so how can we ensure
that their play is as fruitful as possible as well as being enjoyable?
It doesn’t have to be explicitly developmentally beneficial. It could
just be fun, as long as it’s not doing any harm, as long as children
are eating well, sleeping well, keeping up with schoolwork,
and socialising.
I think there’s definitely room to pull back on the panic a
little about screen time and sit back and think, what are they
actually doing?
Perhaps if we take a different perspective it might not be as
bad as we think.
I understand your plans for further research involve looking at
some aspects of play that Minecraft and other games, perhaps,
don’t have and looking at how they could be incorporated?
I’m with the Microsoft* Social Natural User Interfaces research
group at the University of Melbourne, and we’re interested
in looking at ways to get the most benefit out of children’s
engagement with screen-based devices.
We know Minecraft is generally seen as being quite positive
and we need to work out what children actually play in the game.
This is not going to be an exhaustive study. I can’t look at every
single child, and there will be differences, but I think if we can get
a description of the sorts of play that children engage in when
playing Minecraft, at varying ages, then we can look at ways to
enhance that play.
I’m talking about things like facilitating connections between
online and offline play and children generating their own content.
For example, games which involve children uploading their own
photos or videos and incorporating that into their play are more
desirable than children just passively consuming. ■
*Microsoft is the owner of Minecraft.
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