Here is an overview of the normal “Minecraft Camp” day: The morning consists of a tutorial session, to make sure everyone has a strong grasp of the basics and we can all enjoy the game together. There is a big focus on teamwork in this time and that sets the groups up for a great day ahead.

After a mid-morning break, we then move onto an Economy Survival world, where the goal is to build a village together. This session combines real-world concepts into the game world. Lessons are peppered throughout this session, starting off with privacy and protecting your hard earned gear, as well as cyber safety. We discuss what makes a successful community, and teamwork and cohesion is a strong focus here. Once the village is thriving, we introduce the marketplace. Here we discuss basic buying and selling, demand and supply and other economic concepts. Being able to reflect these concepts in an engaging manner really gives weight to the potential this game has in teaching real world concepts!

The post lunch session is in a creative world, where we do a build challenge. The afternoon is about self-expression and building something cool to show everyone else. I like to think of the morning as the ‘smart’ part and the afternoon as the ‘creative’.

Finally after a short afternoon break we have some free time, and a final debrief. Kids can show their parents what they’ve learnt and built, and then it’s home time. They can access the servers from home too so the learning continues…

What these camps break down to is an engaging educational experience in a fun and stimulating environment, with a strong focus on social learning and collaboration via the awesome digital medium of Minecraft.