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?

Comments

Should have been a Java Tutorial

[Marc_Hawke]

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.

Re:Should have been a Java Tutorial

[lucm]

if they really wanted a Minecraft coding tutorial it should have been in Java

I know you probably think knowing Java is important to shape the mind of a programmer, but the truth is that in today's tech industry, learning Java is like learning RPG or Cobol 15 years ago. What matters today is solving business problems quickly, not creating majestic pieces of software engineering.

Don't get me wrong; the world will always need real coders using real languages. But that's not the problem those code bootcamps are trying to solve. They're just trying to take the people who would normally become Excel power users and give them the push to go a little bit further so they can participate in the mass production of apps and scripts.