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Education is at a time of redefinition and transformation, in line with an era characterized by considerable technological development and profound social changes. One would expect it to be accompanied by a media context in which narrative models are transformed by the impact of digitalization, affecting student-teacher interactions. However, it has been observed that the media usage of an entire generation emphasizes the gap between formal education and young people's everyday digital life. Within this framework, and at the international level, a series of innovative pedagogical proposals have emerged, which approach education from the field of communication: Minecraft Education, NFB Education, Educ'Arte, Scratch and 7 de Cinema. We have called them com-educational platforms, because of their investment in the education-communication vector, based on an educommunicative idea. The proposed study implements a multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) to gain an in-depth knowledge of its characteristics. Beyond their individual idiosyncrasies, our analysis reveals a common central feature: the placement of community-creativity combination as the core phenomenon for learning.

The metaverse is presented as a possible new technological iteration for the Internet. The generation of virtual universes in which the physical and the digital converge raises the question of how education will be addressed in these new systems. We find, however, pioneering exercises such as Minecraft: Education Edition. This platform is a version based on the popular sandbox video game, which was originally created by a community of teachers. The aim of this research is to analyze and describe the idiosyncratic characteristics of Minecraft as an educational platform, framing it as one of the pioneering exercises in the metaverse. To this end, we have employed a methodology that combines Multimodal Discourse Analysis with Grounded Theory and the Constant Comparative Method. As conclusions, we observe how the Minecraft Education platform reinforces from its approach pre-existing aspects from the physical world, resizing them to adapt them to its connected digital environment. These are key elements such as the identity of the participants, their ability to act within the system, creativity through lessons as a guide to the educational objectives and the community as the backbone of the process. At the same time, it presents differential components, such as the use of avatars, the transition from textual literacy to multimodal literacy, game mechanics that boost creativity or transhuman capabilities that defy physical space-time. All in all, the platform is designed for teachers, parents and managers, to whom it offers a series of benefits. Therefore, the pedagogical action will depend on their judgment and execution, especially through the elaboration of lessons and worlds, the management of the sessions and their interaction in community environments. It is their responsibility to ensure that the educational experience is truly empowering or, on the contrary, that it ends up being governed by reproductive criteria linked to symbolic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]