Optimization of Digital Minecraft Games as a Media for Stimulating Creativity and Imagination
摘要
This research explores the optimisation of Minecraft as a digital educational game to stimulate creativity and imagination among elementary school students. With the increasing shift from traditional to digital play, this study highlights Minecraft’s potential as a constructive medium that aligns with 21st-century educational needs. The study employed a mixed-methods approach involving 10 children aged 6–12 years, who interacted with both Minecraft (via PlayStation 4) and traditional building block games. Data collection included questionnaires using the semantic differential scale, interviews, and visual analysis of student-created house structures. The results indicate that Minecraft fosters greater fluency, flexibility, and elaboration due to its open-ended digital environment, enabling children to create complex and detailed constructions. In contrast, the building block games, though limited in material diversity, encouraged stronger originality by challenging students to think imaginatively within physical constraints. Structural comparisons between both games, based on visual outputs and Torrance’s creativity indicators, reveal that Minecraft supports spontaneous exploration and design elaboration, while building blocks promote spatial accuracy and deeper imagination. Analysis using the differential semantic scale supports these findings, with Minecraft outperforming in digital creativity stimulation, though it still presents challenges in originality and conceptual rigidity. The study concludes that Minecraft is more effective in fostering digital creativity and problem-solving, while building blocks play a foundational role in developing spatial reasoning and imaginative depth. Both media complement each other and should be integrated into educational strategies to enhance cognitive and creative development in children.