Microsoft Sending Minecraft To Summer School

Reader theodp writes: Four months after its one hour Minecraft "infomercial" ran in schools around the world as part of the Hour of Code, Microsoft announced the release of Minecraft: Education Edition. From the announcement: "Minecraft: Education Edition early access will be available in 11 languages and 41 countries. During the summer months, we are also going to be focused on working with educators on building out lesson plans, sharing learning activity ideas, and creating re-usable projects." Microsoft bought Minecraft for $2.5 billion back in 2014. "What many may not realize," said Microsoft last November as it announced a Minecraft-themed tutorial that it would inspire students to learn computer science skills, and "that Minecraft has the power to transform learning on a global scale. By creating a virtual world and then advancing in it, students can learn digital citizenship, empathy, social skills and even improve their literacy "while getting real-time feedback on their problem-solving skills from the teacher." At the time, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told teachers that Minecraft is key to getting girls involved in computer science. So is Minecraft really all that?

Comments

First....

[johnsmithperson123]

You may only play Minecraft after installing Gentoo, configuring it, using the NVIDIA proprietary drivers and configuring dual monitors, then installing Minecraft, I said. After that, the kid didn't want to play Minecraft any more, he was too interested in the software. -A (mostly) true story

Re:First....

[Anonymous Coward]

Or she could use any other flavour of desktop Linux and it would just work as well. Gentoo has a reputation for being very much for advanced, "hands-on" users.

Re:First....

[shaitand]

You shouldn't be trying to discourage a kid from playing minecraft. Minecraft is a giant creative sandbox with extremely sophisticated logical circuitry.

You'd be amazed at what people build. Everything from simple circuits to automatically open doors and exploiting the game physics to have signals degrade at a fix rate to introduce intentional calibrated delays to full blown Apple 2 recreations and oscilloscopes. There are programmable elements now introducing programming or you can do it more hardware style with redstone circuitry or some combination of the two. Instead of splitting apart the creative and those who are better at math the two are tightly integrated as you use electronics (redstone), programming, to build elements that automate, compliment, and directly enhance your creative designs.

You might build your multi-building castle compound and build sophisticated circuitry to enable the lights to detect day/night and light the entire compound at night. You'll likely use plumbing on modern minecraft servers, even using series of tubes and control circuits so you can drop random stuff you've mined and collected in chests at various places and have it automatically sorted and stored into underground organized values for that purpose, then you'll build out chests, dispensers, and other storage objects at useful locations and have their contents auto-filled from these vaults. Even automatically filter known trash items and drop them on lava to destroy them.

Re:First....

[Frank Burly]

Don't forget, though, that he had six months to mature while all this was going on.

Re:First....

[Wycliffe]

You shouldn't be trying to discourage a kid from playing minecraft. Minecraft is a giant creative sandbox with extremely sophisticated logical circuitry.
You'd be amazed at what people build.

Yes, you CAN build anything just like you CAN build anything on an ipad or a computer. The problem I have with minecraft and other games like it is that the potential is there but what if all they do is spend hours and hours spawning and killing monsters? Or in software like tynker or scratch, they download a mario knockoff games that other people have already built and just play those. Minecraft is similar to a computer or an ipad. The potential to create anything is there but if your kid is spending 8 hours a day playing candy crush then even though the potential to learn on an ipad is there, that doesn't mean they are actually learning. Whether it is a computer, an ipad, or minecraft, you sometimes need to either limit it or at least encourage them to use it productively. A device or virtual world where "anything is possible" also means that the possibility of doing nothing is also possible. To be used in an educational setting where you actually want a kid to learn then you're likely going to have to give some kids direction and tasks to complete if you don't want them to play games all day.

Re:First....

[mspohr]

Comes pre-installed (and working) on Raspberry Pi.

One thing to remember about Microsoft...

[__aaclcg7560]

"Are your minecraft belongs to us!"

Re:Minecraft really is all that

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> into a game where dicks cannot rain from the sky

For what it's worth, in Minecraft "slime-powered" dicks can be built to move slowly across the sky, travelling horizontally.

An even better idea

[Marginal Coward]

Here's an even better idea: why not start kids as early as possible on this idea of making complex objects out of simple components? For example, I could create a system of interchangeable plastic blocks that very small children could put together, either free-form, using their own imaginations, or in specially designed kits that are intended to be assembled (with instructions) into an exciting macro-toy. Even better, after they get tired of the macro toy, they could tear it down and go free-form with the pieces!

I could envision such plastic blocks becoming popular world-wide, and could see them making their way into homes, daycare centers, preschools, and even elementary schools. Heck, I might even play with those myself. Imagine the educational possibilities for kids of all ages!

If my idea succeeds, I wonder how many billions Microsoft would pay me for it?

Re:An even better idea

[dwillden]

I'd bet you could even create a line of stores, Theme parks and even a movie about said blocks. That would be Awesome!

Re:An even better idea

[chispito]

For example, I could create a system of interchangeable plastic blocks that very small children could put together, either free-form, using their own imaginations, or in specially designed kits that are intended to be assembled (with instructions) into an exciting macro-toy...

Yeah but I never stepped on a Minecraft block barefoot in the middle of the night.

Re:An even better idea

[Marginal Coward]

Good point - Everything is Awesome!
I hope kids will work with the blocks in groups - Everything is cool when you're part of a team!
But even if all our big ideas to change the world never pan out - Everything is awesome when we're living our dream!

In my experience with my son...

[garcia]

So is Minecraft really all that?

I was always into computers, writing programs in BASIC on my Commodore Vic20 when I was barely old enough to read/write. When my son showed little to no interest in computers, I was disappointed but supportive in endeavors he did seem to enjoy which had corollaries to my obsession w/computers such as lego, puzzles, engineering, science, etc.

When he expressed interest in Minecraft, I was admittedly skeptical as I see most kids just playing it as a game. However, my son uses it like computer Legos, building shit over and over again and exploring the virtual world of a 6 year old.

Starting with this, I hope he continues to learn about items which interest him through his directly manipulatable world just like I did through my own when I was his age. While like any tool may not be the best for every child to learn, it has begun to pay off and allow him to grow and develop educationally w/o him wanting to play it only as a mindless game.

So no, it's not "all that" but it's certainly better than him watching TV or only playing games on a tablet or game system.

Minecraft

[fluffernutter]

I'm very confused about 'how' they are using Minecraft for learning to program. My kids play Miinecraft all the time and it's like using Legos, but in a virtual world. This on it's own is a creative computer game, not an educational game. A person can play Minecraft forever and not use a lick of code. Even installing modules on the client and plugins on the server I would call administration and not actual programming. So how are they teaching kids to program with minecraft? Have they designed modules in the game where there are blocks for common programming constructs? Are they having kids actually program modules or using server scripting? The way is not clear. My kids have expressed a desire to program client modules and things which I have supported but they much prefer to just play the game which is fine with me as well but it's not teaching them anything.

Re:Minecraft

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not privy to the details of the educational edition. But in the original minecraft, there is something called Redstone. Redstone acts like a sort of electricity(that is, it has a digital on and off state), and with it - you can create logic gates. When you combine redstone with pistons (a block that can push or pull other blocks), you can make really impressive stuff using these logic gates. I've seen elaborate doors, hidden away staircases, and elevators created using redstone. Really impressive stuff.

Factorio

[malditaenvidia]

There should be a factorio: education edition. It would certainly teach kids more about logic and processes than good ole minecraft, also it's more fun.

Minecraft + open source = Minetest

[jcdr]

http://www.minetest.net/

Still not as complete as the original, but giving the giant amount of Minecraft users, Minetest project is not likely to fail even is only a very small fraction of Minecraft users actually make contribution to Minetest.

To kill a mocking bird

[goombah99]

My son's language arts teacher wanted the kids to draw a map of the town the story occurs in. They were allowed to also build it in minecraft. I thought that was a great way to build engagement for the kids between doing something that love as a way to visualize a story that when taught in english class isn't terribly fun.

I also had great success in introducing my kids to python using the Adventures in Minecraft on a Raspberry Pi. It's a really fun introduction. They had it so when steve walked near certain flowers it would hurl him across the land. It's too bad the API for it doesn't let you do everything you might want to do. But it's a cool way to get kids really interested quickly in the raspberry pi and python. Perhaps most significantly to get them to learn to read documentations and APIs. That is to say, learning to teach yourself what you need to know to reach an objective.

I also set up a server for them but felt that was a bust. They just used it to play but never got into the whole maintaining a Linux serve thing.

So minecraft is great for sugar coating a lot of things and turning it into play while doing real learning skills.

Help children ?

[hpgmusical]

If it is determined that there will be help in learning and will assist in the cognitive growth ... so let it

Minecraft will not interest girls in science

[laughingskeptic]

It has been shown that girls want to know how science applies to making the world a better place. Minecraft is not going to accomplish this and will probably even be counter productive since it has nothing to do with reality. Our teachers are so poor that they fail at making this simple connection between the material to be taught and the application to the world that motivates girls. You want to motivate a girl in materials science, you tell her how lighter stronger materials make cars safer and save thousands of lives. For biology you tell her how fundamental research leads to life saving drugs. You give real examples of real women who have done these things. This is what is needed in the classroom, not a game.

Orwell....?

[dbreeze]

"...students can learn digital citizenship, empathy, social skills and ..." I just don't think handing over our children's education to government/corporations is a great idea...