Minecraft as a Hybrid Boundary Object: Exploring Nature in Squares

Abstract

In this exploratory case study, we investigated children’s ways of experiencing virtual worlds, such as Minecraft, and how this may affect their understanding of nature, scientific phenomena, and sustainable development; that is to say, Minecraft was explored as a boundary object in children’s making activities with Minecraft. The research questions that guided the study are: In what ways may Minecraft act as a boundary object between children’s formal and informal learning about science and sustainable development? In what ways may Minecraft act as a boundary object when children build relationships with nature? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six children. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the interviews. This study shows that in the Minecraft context, the children gained a breadth of everyday experiences related to scientific phenomena and sustainability. Further, the findings indicate that children merged their experiences in the virtual world with experiences in the physical world. In this sense, Minecraft involves science and sustainability content that crosses the boundary between the virtual world and reality. Thus, we suggest that Minecraft bridged children’s physical and virtual relationships with nature; that is to say, Minecraft became a boundary object that allowed children to experience nature and encounter knowledge that they would not otherwise have been able to experience.

Exploring Minecraft in the Primary School Syllabus for Enhancing Arabic Learning: A Systematic Literature Review

“…A total of 42 documents were found. These demonstrated that Minecraft was helpful for improving motivation, language development, and academic learning in disciplines like English, Science, and history (Andersen & Rustad, 2022;Cederqvist & Impedovo, 2023;Chien, 2019;Hussein & Mustafa, 2021). Playing with Minecraft helped kids learn social skills like leadership, teamwork, sharing, and communication.…”

Constructing in Minecraft in Primary School as a Boundary-Crossing Practice

“…Several authors have examined the use of various objects and technologies as tools able to facilitate boundary crossing-labeled as "boundary objects"-often emphasizing the potential and affordances of technologies to connect learning contexts [23]. Based on such a conceptualization, a recent study on the educational adoption of games [24] conceptualized Minecraft as a boundary object enabling the emergence of boundary crossing between formal and informal learning. According to these authors, as a virtual world, Minecraft provides a platform for children to explore and experiment with educationally relevant phenomena and concepts both in formal and informal settings, thus bridging the gap between formal and informal learning.…”