The ‘Thing from the Future Minecraft Education Edition’ (Figure 3) was created by Charalampos Christophilopoulos and Epaminondas Christophilopoulos, aiming to step upon the concept of the original four-card game design (Candy & Watson, 2014 Situation Lab, 2015) and create a novel version in the Minecraft world. ‘Thing from the Future Minecraft Education Edition’ The Minecraft Education Edition website ( ) hosts hundreds of lessons and downloadable worlds in all core school subjects (science, math, computer science, languages, history & culture, art & design), as well in topics like digital citizenship, equity and inclusion. However, it offers educators numerous possibilities while promoting creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in a highly immersive environment. Thus, Minecraft Education is not the only tool of game-based learning. Creating an educational tool in a game environment is not a surprise, as research confirms that our brains are ‘wired for pleasure’ (Biederman & Vessel, 2006) and that games are an effective way to learn because they simulate adventure and keep our brains engaged and happy. The Minecraft: Education Edition is an educational version of the game, released in 2016, specifically designed for classroom use and contains specific features that make Minecraft easy to use in a classroom setting (Minecraft Wiki, n.d.). Over 121 million copies of the game have been sold, making it second only to Tetris in best-selling games (Wikipedia, 2021). Individual and multi-player modes are available. Activities include exploration, resource gathering, and creating. The game allows players to construct out of textured cubes a three-dimensional world. Minecraft is a video game developed by Markus Persson and initially published by Mojang in 2011 (Wikipedia, 2021).

This combination requests players to imagine and describe an item coming from a thirty-year-long future of continuous growth it resembles a postcard that is somehow related to education and causes some excitement.įigure 2: An example prompt from the original four card design of ‘Thing from the Future’. Each combination challenges players to imagine a future that often contrasts basic anticipatory assumptions creatively. Mood reveals what it is the feeling when interacting with the hypothetical thing.`Ī creative prompt comprises any set of four cards, one from each category (Figure 2).Object is the category of the hypothetical future thing (poster, tool, map, etc.).Terrain is the context for the object, either a physical location or domain of human activity.Arc is the applicable time horizon and type of future, building on Dator’s four futures archetypes (Dator, 2009) (Figure 1): Continued Growth, Collapse, Disciplined Society, and Transformational Society.The original design of the game consists of a deck of four types of cards (Candy, 2018): To date, it has been played by thousands of people worldwide in various settings (Candy, 2018). The ‘Thing from the Future’ is an awarded foresight tool and imagination exercise in the form of a deck of cards, developed by Stuart Candy & Jeff Watson (Situation Lab, 2015). 2.The ‘Thing from the Future Minecraft Education Edition’ This essay focuses on the first pilot testing of a novel digital version of the ‘Thing from the Future’ based on the Minecraft Education edition and aims to take advantage of the unique characteristics of the Minecraft game. The three-hour program is partly based upon the Future Day material developed by the Teach the Future network and includes an introduction to Futures Studies, discussion, hands-on exercises, and participatory activities. The game was tested in the context of a specific futures lab offered and delivered in schools around Greece by the UNESCO Chair on Futures Research. This article aims to provide the initial insights of using the ‘Thing from The Future Minecraft: Education Edition’ with secondary school students. By Epaminondas Christophilopoulos, Androniki Papaterpou, George Profitiliotis & Charalambos Christophilopoulos

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