more realistic. “I have a YouTube channel with two of my friends called the MC_ TryHardz,” he said. “We have only been doing it for about a month. We only do Minecraft videos. And just for a little bit of fun, we made our own t-shirts. The shirts show the heads of our Minecraft skins and then MC_tryhardz in a cool font.” Sarah Olson, 10, got into Minecraft because kids at school were talking about it. “I like the creativity,” she said. “The building, it helps you with math because you need to know how many logs you need to create a building. If you don’t have an up to date computer, it’s laggy and crashes easily. You need to know all of the controls to use the program to its full potential.”
This is an ambitious undertaking and can be successful if the task is clearly defined. Students who have created these projects are also able to show the inter-connectedness of concepts because instead of creating a poster. They can create objects in 3D that move and build on each other.” As for negatives, Pollyanna said, “I worry about the amount of time a student spends playing the game vs. being unplugged. As new competing games come out, these games will continue to take more attention from the real world.”
Placing Limits How much is too much screen time? The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends no more than one to two hours per day of high-quality content. “It is important for kids to spend time on outdoor play, reading, hobbies and using their imaginations in free play. Studies have shown that excessive media use more than two hours per day can lead to attention problems, school difficulties, sleep and eating disorders and obesity,” AAP reported.
Clearly parents need to place controls on how much screen time is reasonable and decide what works best for their kids to be healthy, happy and balanced. Laura Richards is a freelance writer, professional organizer, wife, and mother of four boys ranging in age from one to 11-year-old identical twins. She blogs from her website www.ModernMothering. com and her organizing company is called Organization Works www. (OrganizationWorks.biz).
Are There Educational Benefits? Doug Priore, 33, a sixth grade Humanities teacher at the McAuliffe Regional Public Charter School in Framingham, first heard about Minecraft from a student he tutored after school last year, and they would play together during breaks. “As a geography teacher, I think the game gets students thinking about a lot of different aspects of settlement that they might not otherwise,” Doug said. “If I talk about what resources are necessary in order to sustain life in a certain geographic location, the students who play Minecraft tend to be aware of those factors. If we talk about mining or the availability of minerals in certain area, the Minecrafters tend to get the importance of those things pretty quickly.” Doug deems Minecraft pretty tame compared to a lot of the stuff out there but shares, “I’m pretty oldschool, so I’d always rather see a kid reading a book or building a tree-house. But if they have to play a video game, Minecraft isn’t too bad. I would say no more than a half hour to an hour per night, assuming all other homework and chores are completed.” Pollyanna Sidell, 48, also a Humanities teacher at the McAuliffe Regional Charter Public School has had eighth grade students use Minecraft as a venue for school projects. “From an educational standpoint, the game definitely inspires creativity and builds stamina for working toward an objective,” she said. “Some students have applied the game to show their learning.
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