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Swedish School Makes Minecraft Lessons Compulsory

Posted by samzenpus on from the learn-to-play dept.

SchrodingerZ writes "The Viktor Rydberg school in Stockholm, Sweden, has announced that they have included Minecraft into the curriculum for their 13-year-old students. The program is not meant to teach children about math or language, but rather as a tool to inspire creativity in the classroom. 'They learn about city planning, environmental issues, getting things done, and even how to plan for the future,' Viktor Rydberg teacher Monica Ekman told English-language newspaper The Local. 'It's not any different from arts or woodcraft,' she added."

6 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Environment a la minecraft by Narrowband · · Score: 5, Funny

    ''They learn about city planning, environmental issues, getting things done, and even how to plan for the future,"

    My son must have somehow gone to that school without telling me. He keeps talking about Creepers being a key natural resource.

  2. Legos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or you could do what my 3rd grade teacher did and let a bunch of kids play with Legos.

  3. Koreans have done one better by Spy+Handler · · Score: 5, Funny

    they've made Starcraft mandatory learning.

    1. Re:Koreans have done one better by WWJohnBrowningDo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Lies! All Koreans mastered Starcraft during their second trimester.

  4. Re:Simcity does city planning, environmental issue by Spiridios · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Simcity does city planning, environmental issues, getting things done, and even how to plan for the future. Better.

    I don't think they're really on the same scale. In Simcity, you play the planner/mayor/whatever-high-up that determines macro issues. We should build houses here, power plants should be there. I don't care what you think, I'm God.

    In Minecraft you play an individual. You determine what you use, where you build, how you build, all micro issues centered around yourself. You have no in-game control over your fellow players. You have to resort to actually negotiating and talking about things if you want to affect the macro situation.

    I most definitely agree that Simcity could be used for teaching. However, depending on what it is you're actually trying to teach, I would not call it "better."

  5. Re:Is minecraft the only software they can find? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I play Dwarf Fortres on Tuesdays. After we have pizza. We have pizza for dinner on Tuesdays. Then we play Dwarf Fortress. On Tuesdays.