Minecraft as a Teaching Tool: Online Experiential Learning for the Law School Classroom

The Article explores the potential use of Minecraft for experiential learning in higher education. In theory and in practice, intellectual property (IP) questions increasingly arise around if or how digital art can be owned, shared, and reused, as well as how digital realities interact with the various legal regimes. In its sandbox environment, Minecraft allows players to explore these questions through collective co-creation and creative decision-making pertaining to the subsequent re-use of their digital creations. Players become better equipped to reflect on the process of copying, creating, and exploiting their digital creations using the legal tools offered by IP law, while also engaging with contractual limitations imposed by the game’s terms and conditions. Taken together, this approach enables normative discussions about the legal provisions governing digital copyright and the arts, as well as the technological or contractual fences surrounding digital creations on digital platforms. Most importantly, as we argue, it also enables teachers to become learners again, and alongside their students. In doing so, educators observe how interdisciplinary and experiential learning enables them to re-examine pedagogy, and practice, in addition to the substantive and theoretical concepts underlying the foundation of IP law.