BLOCKALOT: A Creative Minetest Server for Future-Oriented Learning

The sandbox video game Minetest provides an infinite number of possibilities to be creative, to collaboratively build worlds and to learn in an open-ended and problem-oriented way. Learners are able to have a range of experiences that they will not experience otherwise. They experience significant transfer processes in which they need to deploy their knowledge to find solutions. They also experience simulations of what will happen in consequence of their actions or what might happen in the future. In this way, learners experience self-efficacy and learn actively through their actions in the virtual world. In particular, when these actions are embedded in a narrative, Minetest is a very good example of game-based learning and enables the sustainable transformation of learning. By simulating the features of our world, Minetest also makes
future-oriented learning possible. This is because the learners try to solve real problems in the virtual world, learn from their mistakes and then transfer what they have learned to the physical world.
The server dashboard BLOCKALOT represents the interface between technology and learning adventures in the Minetest world. It enables school teachers and staff of other educational institutions to create and manage learning spaces for individual learning experiences. Through game-based learning, the teacher’s role changes towards their becoming learning partners for learners.