World Building for Children's Global Participation in Minecraft

This paper discusses the process of developing a Minecraft virtual world for children to participate in globally as part of the author's Doctor of Philosophy study in education at Curtin University. Virtual Worlds are becoming more accessible to children in this age group globally (Neilsen, 2016) and schools are now utilising online games as a legitimate educational tool. The purpose of this paper is to inform on the similarities in the intercultural frameworks of a range of curricular and how this has been tabled and utilised to scaffold a global virtual world built in Minecraft on a private server According to the Australian Curriculum teaching Intercultural competencies in primary schools is an essential part of the curriculum (ACARA, 2012). It is one of the core General Capabilities-meaning it is to be interwoven through all subjects throughout the curriculum at all year levels. Different curricula have different emphasis of the skills, attitudes and behaviours that are part of intercultural competencies (Hall, 2010). The world development is of interest as it has many elements that enable it to be modified and used flexibly throughout all curricular areas. The process of developing the virtual world in a way that enables children (9-13years old) adequate interaction and structure matching to the Australian Curriculum, and International Baccalaureate Curriculum versions of Intercultural Competencies has been reviewed and altered many times. In this paper the author gives an overview of how this process has occurred.