Socio-(im)material-making activities in Minecraft: retracing digital literacy applied to ESD

ABSTRACT

Background

There is a growing interest in the complexity of socio-materiality-making activities in educational and everyday settings. Indeed, maker-centered learning is considered as a socio-materially embodied process in which artifacts and social and emotional dimensions are interconnected. The making process is also found in everyday life when children engage in specific applications – like Minecraft, where they perform activities in a virtual environment.

Purpose

Starting from analyzing some episodes recorded with a child aged seven, this paper aims to better understand the maker process in a virtual setting with implications for digital literacy and sustainable development education.

Design and methods

A socio-material approach is privileged to analyze the data collected. Specifically, we will explore the maker activity as a socio-materially embodied process.

Sample

The research question will be answered with the support of a case study of one child playing Minecraft. Thinking-aloud modality, observation, notes, and pictures are collected. Then, the verbatim from the semi-structured interview is collected in the same session. The entire session is audio-recorded.

Results

The three dimensions that emerged are: Resources to make digital objects; Digital Objects became Social Objects; Making digital objects became ground for literacy. From this analysis, we can retrace digital literacy in the Minecraft maker activity and some final considerations for teaching in STEM.

Conclusion

In conclusion, students’ informal activity in a Minecraft setting could become a potential green environment to ground digital literacy. However, this process needs to be scaffolded and amplified with an enriched level of abstract process, critical, and inquiry attitude.

KEYWORDS:

• Socio-materiality
• making activities
• virtual
• STEM
• ESD

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://www.cost-phoenix.eu/

2. ‘Rubber can be obtained in several ways. The primary method is by refining Sticky Resin using a Furnace or Extractor. By smelting Sticky Resin in a Furnace, you get one piece of Rubber, but by Extracting it, you get three pieces’ (Blog: https://askingames.com/how-to-get-rubber-in-minecraft/)

3. Golems are a unique neutral mob in Minecraft that can be found in every biome. https://www.ign.com/wikis/minecraft/Iron_Golem

4. Villagers are passive mobs that inhabit villages. https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Villager

5. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8sphc0V1zw)