The Viktor Rydberg school, located in Stockholm, will require students to take ‘compulsory “Minecraft” lessons’ for any 13-year-old pupils in order to teach them about future planning and environmental issues. Somewhere around 180 students are expected to take part in this experiment. This was reported on Jan. 10, 2013.
As described to the Local by Monica Ekman, a teacher at Rydberg, ‘We think it’s a fun way of learning and it’s nice for the students to achieve something.’ She goes on by saying that it will help students learn ‘about city planning, environmental issues, getting things done, and even how to plan for the future.’
The decision to introduce the ‘Mincraft’ lesson was birthed from a challenge by Sweden’s ‘Future City’ Competition, where schools were challenged to come up with the most innovative ways to prepare kids for the future of society and to also introduce new ways of teaching. Ekman says that some parents were a little wary about the proposed lesson, but she defended the lessons saying, ‘[“Minecraft” is] a fun way of learning and it’s nice for the students to achieve something.’
Something like this has been done before, when in 2012 developer Mojang partnered with the United Nations to create its Block by Block program, designed to refresh urban spaces.
For more on the Viktor Rydberg ‘Minecraft’ lesson, check out the article by Pav Tishakov on Gamespot, and for more on the Block by Block program, click here.
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