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Microsoft Debuts Minecraft-Themed Coding Tutorial
theodp writes: In a few weeks, writes Microsoft Corporate VP Mary Snapp, "millions of kids and others will participate in an Hour of Code, a global call to action to spend an hour learning the basics of coding. Today, it's my privilege to announce that Microsoft has released a new Minecraft tutorial for Hour of Code, called Hero's Journey." The release of the new Code.org-touted flagship Hour of Code tutorial -- the third since Microsoft purchased Minecraft Maker Mojang for $2.5B in 2014 -- comes as Microsoft celebrates Minecraft: Education Edition reaching a milestone of 2 million users.
Microsoft boasts that nearly 70 million of its Minecraft Hour of Code sessions have been launched to-date, which is certainly impressive from an infomercial or brand awareness standpoint. But does [adding a Scratch block to] move a Minecraft character forward 7 times on an $800 Microsoft Surface offer all that much more educational value than, say, moving a peg forward 5 times on a $10.99 Pop-O-Matic Trouble board game?
Microsoft boasts that nearly 70 million of its Minecraft Hour of Code sessions have been launched to-date, which is certainly impressive from an infomercial or brand awareness standpoint. But does [adding a Scratch block to] move a Minecraft character forward 7 times on an $800 Microsoft Surface offer all that much more educational value than, say, moving a peg forward 5 times on a $10.99 Pop-O-Matic Trouble board game?
The very last thing this world needs is more fucking shitty posts.
FTFY. HTH. HAND.
you learn, if you want/need to learn. not because somebody else decided there is a need for it (usually because it helps their interests).
Is it true that Poettering wrote systemd using Minecraft?
It's what I learned on. Now I write open source code. All kids should start with Logo.
moar programmers = cheaper programmers
If we are allowing any comments other than snark, I'd argue the answer is YES. Making the activity about something they already have a passion for (minecraft) will attract a lot of kids and in the process maybe we find some kids who are really gifted that would not ever discover coding otherwise.
Programming with blocks is just as abstract as programming with words.
In the end, it is all high-level.
Block-based programming isn't just used in these sorts of systems, it is also heavily used in shaders and graphics engines. (see any decent modern game engine like UE, Crytek, etc.)
The simplicity in some of them are, paradoxically, more useful since it requires more thought in to the bowels of how shit actually works each loop.
And in that regard, one of the incredibly useful facets of block-based programming is the simple fact that it is 2D. Programming with words is very 1D. 2D allows you to see a considerably higher level of connection between things. (again, useful with graphics work in particular)
I still prefer word-based, but block-based has its place.
As an education tool, it works even better because it provides said visual cues.
The downside with some of them, though, is the sheer dumbness when it comes to the command features and such high verbosity in some of them. Some of them abstract WAY too much that it makes them useless as learning aids. (only helpful as, funnily enough, production tools!)
Instead of a 'Minecraft Themed' tutorial on how to use Scratch, if they really wanted a Minecraft coding tutorial it should have been in Java and they should have made a Minecraft Mod.
Previous "Hour of Code" themes like Star Wars made a bit of sense to just be some clip art glued to a generic coding tutorial...but Minecraft is already a game and famously moddable. It doesn't make sense to program it in a completely separate language and engine.
It's like if they had a Perl themed 'Hour of Code' and they just used Scratch to march images of Perl code snippets around to form a picture of a program.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
On careers.microsoft.com, a search for "programming" jobs returns more than 500 pages of results. GIven the volume of spam I get from amazon, google and countless headhunters, many other companies also are hurting for tech workers. Even the shitload of visa workers they bring in every year don't move the needle on this.
Maybe the real problem here is not the tech industry, maybe you just have issues that make you a poor candidate for real work. Do you wash your hands and put on clean underwears before going to job interviews? Clipping those long yellowing nails and removing the cheetos crumbs and dried kfc gravy from your beard could also help.
lucm, indeed.