If you happen to be a fan of Minecraft, or Let’s Play YouTube videos in general, you might be aware of Stampylonghead, one of the most popular Minecraft YouTubers out there. After making a great success of his Let’s Play videos, Stampylonghead (real name: Joseph Garrett) is about to launch an exclusively educational Minecraft channel.
Stampylonghead is part of the Maker network, the same network that was acquired by Disney, the same network that plays host to PewDiePie, and according to Stampylonghead himself, this is a move that plays to some of the previously untapped strengths of Minecraft as a platform.
“We’re setting up a new channel with Maker that’s going to be purely educational,” he explained. “I think Minecraft is an amazing platform. One, the fact that it is an open sandbox to do whatever you want in it, and two, everyone’s playing it, and if you’re not playing it, your kids are playing it.
“If you take their engagement and put it into a more productive space like education or the arts, they’re going to be involved in that, they’re going to be engaged.”
The new channel doesn’t have a launch date yet, and we have no idea what it’ll look like precisely, but this is such a great idea. Minecraft has evolved to become such a powerful tool and it’s obviously incredibly popular amongst children. I’m surprised something like this doesn’t already exist.
Stampylonghead already presents his shows as something of a Minecraftian Jimmy Giggle, and his shows have that air of a slightly manic, surreal children’s channel. I’m really curious to see how this turns out.
Leave a Reply