Chris Binder is an artist and trainer for media literacy and game-based learning. He consults and speaks on the topics of media literacy, games, and art. Since 2020, he has working together closely with the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg on the project „BLOCKALOT: The Creative Minetest Server for Future-Oriented Learning“
Future-oriented learning with the sandbox game Minetest and BLOCKALOT, a web dashboard for learning partners
FROG 2022 – Talk
Game-based Learning has been put forth as a promising new strand of education that could lead to better learner interaction and motivation, new ways of visualizing and developing competencies and to collaborative and creative problem-solving. But how can one strike the balance between the right amount of rules and mechanics on the one hand and player freedom on the other?
Since 2020, the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg (LMZ) has been closely working together with educators, future-oriented learning experts and technicians to build a platform for game-based learning that uses the free and open-source sandbox game Minetest. Together with the web dashboard BLOCKALOT, learning partners (formerly known as teachers) can not only create their own learning environments, they can also access templates to customize and materials to get inspired. This talk will give an overview of some of the results and experiences that have emerged over the 2 years since the start of the project. One of these is the Oasis, a learning environment that enables learners to explore, simulate, collaborate, plan and code.
Then there is an in-game suggestion for the compulsory Basiskurs Medienbildung for the schools of Baden-Württemberg in Germany in which learners take on challenges, translate findings into the physical world and collaborate to achieve a sustainable world.
In the future, we want the community to grow and provide even more focused support tor the learning partners involved. The project’s declared goal is to build an international network, a community of practice that will establish game-based learning with Minetest as a clear alternative for traditional teaching.
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