Shakespeare in Minecraft: A Venture
Elevator Pitch:
Shakespeare in Minecraft Elevator Pitch from Chelsea Woods on Vimeo.
Venture Pitch: Shakespeare in Minecraft
Visit the website: http://shakespeareinminecraft.wordpress.com/
Chelsea Woods
ETEC 522: Ventures in Learning Technology
University of British Columbia
Dr. David Vogt
July 30th, 2012
Pain Point
3D virtual games are teaching our children to become engaged, collaborative, inspired individuals, and it is time for us to utilize these tools to take the classics off the shelf and bring them to life with the dynamic, complex, creative, collaborative environments of 3D virtual games. Technology is often slow to blend with standard curricula because of resistance to change, lack of appropriate educational modifications, pressures on technology resources, and pressure for professional growth that schools are faced with every year. Such is the case with 3D virtual games: we know they’re out there, but they take skill to modify for educational purposes, and many teachers, parents, and administrators believe that computer games are turning our children into inanimate, pale, inactive, and disconnected violence seekers. Shakespeare in Minecraft, an online community for building and sharing resources for learning about and experiencing the worlds of Shakespeare’s plays in the 3D environment of Minecraft, will bring gamers and Shakespeare lovers of all ages and professions together to galvanize the development and use of 3D games in education and inspire love of learning, and appreciation for the complexities of the human experience.
There is a wealth of research on the positive effects of gaming on learning and approaches to living. Sherry Turkle (2005) says that through participation in virtual worlds, people are able to experiment with different ways of being, and then transfer appropriate new ways of being to their non-virtual lives. Jane McGonigal (2010) says gamers become super-empowered hopeful individuals through urgent optimism, being connected to the social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning. James Paul Gee (2009) discusses six properties of games that make them deep learning opportunities, which can guide the development of gaming resources in Shakespeare in Minecraft. All three researchers find that 3D virtual games can enhance learning when they have the right qualities: our challenge is in building educationally appropriate resources for gaming, and bringing those resources to teacher and learners so that the learning experience can be enriched by current, relevant technology.
Solution:
Through Shakespeare in Minecraft, teachers, students, and other enthusiasts can work together to create inspired gaming opportunities that foster optimism, productivity, social connectedness, and personal meaning. The site will provide forums, instructions, and an educational framework to support the development of educationally appropriate games, and bring learners of any age or nationality together around the principles of good games and the complexities (and simplicities) of Shakespeare.
Differentiation
There already exists a solid network of Minecraft Communities for teachers and Minecrafters. There are many resource packages and websites that provide ideas for teaching Shakespeare. Shakespeare in Minecraft provides a resource that does not yet exist by putting Minecrafters and Shakespeare enthusiasts together, and will build off these networks to connect people around the creative opportunity of making Shakespeare’s plays come to life in Minecraft.
Marketing
The Minecraft community itself is a rich resource for connecting with users. As of 12 July 2012, Minecraft had 34,331,902 registered users, of which 6,588,354 (19.19%) had bought the game (Mojang, 2012). Users are active in Minecraft forums, and information about Shakespeare in Minecraft can be shared there. In addition, there are many teacher networks through which we can connect to teachers and students. I am a member of the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) Technology Subject Committee, and will be presenting a one hour session on Minecraft at the ECIS Conference in Nice in November. I am also a participant in the networks of the Central and Eastern European Schools Association (CEESA). If we build good resources for enhancing Shakespeare in the Curriculum, young and old will be eager to join the fun, and our audience and participants will expand to connect educators and learners around the globe.
Championship
I have been in education for 12 years, have taught in Canada, England, Mongolia, Czech Republic, Vietnam, and Russia, and have connections around the globe. I am a student in the UBC Masters of Educational Technology program, and gaming integration is my focus. I am an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme trained workshop leader, and have experience leading and training teachers as both a curriculum coordinator and a technology integration specialist. For the past 8 months I have been working on a Minecraft project in which my school hosted a Minecraft server and invited students from CEESA schools to play Minecraft with students from our school. This has provided me with invaluable learning about the sociology of gaming. I have also been a Humanities teacher, and designed and implemented a wide variety of learning activities and assessments to help students understand, appreciate, and enjoy Shakespeare.
Competition
There are several Minecraft Communities currently online aimed at sharing Minecraft tips, tricks and creations among gamers or educators. One challenge of these communities is that they are for everything under the sun, which makes them highly useful in solving specific problems associated with running Minecraft, but they fall short on generating Minecraft for the curriculum because there is no unifying theme for the resources being developed. Shakespeare in Minecraft will connect with these communities, and be successful because of our specific aim of creating learning opportunities for Shakespeare’s plays, while Shakespeare has already created the wealth of enticing content for creators to play with.
Following is a brief overview of some of the existing resources that Shakespeare in Minecraft can be connected to:
Massively Minecraft is a community for educators, concentrating mostly on forums and blogs, and run by Social Media Classroom.
Minecraft World Exchange was created for people to share worlds that they create in Minecraft. It provides instructions for packaging, uploading, and sharing worlds, and creates the means for Minecraft enthusiasts to share their achievements and learn from one another.
Minecraft Forums and Minecraft Wiki are run by Mojang and Curse, Inc. and include information, tutorials, and competitions.http://www.minecraftforum.net/ These provide a comprehensive resource for using Minecraft, and are developed in collaboration with Minecraft users.
These are all good resources and will compliment Shakespeare in Minecraft as they help to bring Minecrafting communities together. Where these resources fall short is that they are either targeted at Minecrafters or at educators: as we move away from the teacher at the centre of the classroom model, we must begin to create learning communities that are welcoming to gamers, teachers, students and other enthusiasts, where each can contribute irregardless of 20th century hierarchies based on age and title, and instead unite around creativity and problem solving (ingenuity).
The Ask
While I have a good working knowledge of Shakespeare and technology skills, the initial startup requires a skilled web-designer, server manager, and marketer. I have made a sample website in WordPress with some general ideas for layout (http://shakespeareinminecraft.wordpress.com/), but additional work is needed to create a membership system, develop a system for uploading and sharing files, and to connect the site to other Minecraft and Shakespeare sites. It would also be advantageous to get a group of Education, Technology, and Shakespeare minded people together to build some initial learning resources that would help ignite the flame for creation.
The Return
Our most significant returns will be bringing classics into education using current relevant technologies: from that, business partnerships will grow. Possible income opportunities are advertising, and partnership with Minecraft. Minecraft revenues totalled 80 million USD between October 2010 and January 2012, profit in part generated by the 20 Euro registration fee (Bradshaw, 2012). With a well-designed platform, and well vetted resources, this project could grow to extend beyond Shakespeare to include geography, history, math, and other core subjects. Even with educational discounts for purchasing Minecraft, Mojang stands to benefit financially as Minecraft is increasingly used in schools as a result of the outstanding resources that will be developed through Shakespeare in Minecraft.
Self-Evaluation
This venture has great promise to aid the development of gaming to support education through the development of resources with solid educational foundations and by involving learners, educators, and experts in the literature. The venture pitch would be enhanced by further development of the website, sample resources, and more strongly developed plans regarding the economic development of Shakespeare in Minecraft.
References
Bradshaw, T. (2012, March 23). Minecraft makers mojang notch up $80m revenues. The Financial Times. Retrieved fromhttp://blogs.ft.com/tech-blog/2012/03/minecraft-mojang-financials/
Curse, Inc. (2012, June 27). Minecraft wiki. Retrieved fromhttp://www.minecraftwiki.net/
Gee, J. P. (2009). Deep learning properties of good digital games: How far can they go? In Theories and mechanisms: Serious games for learning (pp. 65-80). Retrieved from http://www.jamespaulgee.com/sites/default/files/pub/Ritterfeld_C005.pdf
Kay, J. (2012, May 17). Massively minecraft. Retrieved fromhttp://socialmediaclassroom.com/host/MassivelyMinecraft
McGonigal, J. (2010, March). Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html
Mojang. (2012, July 12). Minecraft stats. Retrieved fromhttp://www.minecraft.net/stats
Turkle, S. (2005). Computer games as evocative objects:from projective screens to relational artifacts. In J. Raessens & J. Goldstein (Eds.), Handbook of Computer Game Studies (pp. 267-279). Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/pdfsforstwebpage/ST_Computer%20Games%20as%20Evoc%20Obj.pdf
Wasabiface. (2012, June 14). Minecraft world exchange. Retrieved fromhttp://www.minecraftworldexchange.com
mariefrancehetu 1:41 pm on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Chelsea,
I think your venture presentation is very strong. As a prospective investor I feel that I would really need to be convinced to support a gaming venture. I am not very pro educational game, because most are time consuming to foster within the classroom or I feel they do not necessarily improve a student’s learning experience.
Your venture pitch is well laid out and you have covered every essential element. I find that the pain point and solution segments are particularly well elaborated. Also your biography is impressive and as an investor I feel that would be an important element. In retrospective, It makes me think that I could have further elaborated on this aspect in my own venture pitch.
The fact that you have already begun your website and identified the present lacks helps to determine what you are seeking, and what you need as an investment.
The only element that might also be important for an investor that you could have included is perhaps provide more concrete examples of advertising (either links on the internet, or a short video, or graphs etc). Otherwise it is a great presentation – you have really researched your subject very well and it shows that this subject is passionate for you! Kudos!
Marie-France
Chelsea M Woods 8:36 am on August 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Marie-France, great idea to put in advertising samples, and it would have been easy to do. Thank you 🙂
HJDeW 8:28 am on August 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Chelsea, your venture brings two diverse concepts and brings them together in a unique way. Fascinating concept! Not sure how you propose to deliver on investor’s returns, but I’d buy in just for the social cred. of being involved with anything Minecrafty! Perhaps designing some unique Minecraft ‘stages’ that others could ‘purchase’ access to and then co-create performances within these ‘locations’. Just thinking of options, from my limited Minecraft experience.
I agree that the potential for huge returns are available within the Minecraft environment, but not sure the market would be there for a Shakespearean venture, since this will limit the potential client base. Just wondering how you came up with the concept and do you have ‘proof’ that it is a viable, marketable product?
Helen
Chelsea M Woods 8:44 am on August 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Helen, Great idea to create and sell Minecraft/Shakespeare stages, although it makes the social cred take a hit. I was thinking of it as an open collaborative development venture, but making it more private and selling the product would certainly be an option. I suppose there could be elements of both: when stages got to a certain state of quality they could become proprietary and be moved out of the ‘free’ development zone. So many possibilities.
I came up with the idea because I was trying to think of what specifically could be developed to support Minecraft, and I happen to love Shakespeare. Were the venture to be developed, I would want to expand to other subjects, so that it could be an academic base for multiple learning areas. The proof is in the number of teachers blogging and testing Minecraft for education, in the Massively Minecraft group, and in MinecraftEdu. The test will be in whether Minecraft sticks like lego or fades like GI Joe. It would need a solid team of developers, though, I could not do it alone.
Thank you for your feedback!
Chelsea