‘Minecraft’ News, Updates: Education Edition In The Works; No More Mods? [VIDEO]

by Stone Marshall | Apr 23, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Since “Minecraft” is already a big hit in schools and universities, Microsoft intends to release another update of its building block video game in order to be suitable for education. In May, hundreds of schools will commence testing the Education Edition of the game.

However, the tech giant did not reveal how much the schools will cost final version, or when it will be released. Microsoft creates the software as well as the projects to teach the instructors to use it.

Microsoft revealed via Cnet, “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 reusable projects.”

One factor that made “Minecraft” suitable to almost everything from computer, programming to art and history, is its “endless possibilities.” Particularly, students take their own initiatives to study the game by themselves, Education World reported.

This development for “Minecraft Education Edition” is a slice of the giant leap for the game. Mojang, Swedish developer started by utilizing Java programming language for the said project. That has been known for people who like to create changes, named mods that modify how “Minecraft” works. On the other hand, “Minecraft” Pocket Edition that operates on Apple iPads and iPhones, tablets and smart phones powered by Google’s Android, are encrypted in the C++ language, Tech Times reported.

The game’s Education Edition will utilize the same language, according to Micrsoft. This implies no mods. Microsoft plans to include command blocks and mods, which is next to the C++ version. This will need Apple’s OS X 10.11 El Capitan and Windows 10.

The C++ foundation is also used in the updated Microsoft’s reality headset, Hololens and Facebook’s Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

Are you excited for the Education Edition of “Minecraft”? Let us know what you think by leaving your comments below.

‘Minecraft’ News, Updates: Education Edition In The Works; No More Mods? [VIDEO]

Fan Creates Sleep Train Arena in Minecraft

by Stone Marshall | Apr 23, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

The popular computer game Minecraft allows players to live without traditional structure or direction. Thus, gamers are free to create whatever they want inside of the Minecraft world.

Fan Creates Sleep Train Arena in Minecraft

MINECRAFT SELLS 10,000 COPIES PER DAY — TEACHES COMPUTATIONAL THINKING

by Stone Marshall | Apr 22, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

For those not in the know, Minecraft is a bestselling open world game where players can explore and interact with a world of blocks (each carrying different attributes inside that world). The phenomena has spread far and wide, laying the foundation for one of the most creative digital playground in the world. A recent report from The New York Times reveals that the game is selling 10,000 copies per day. Considering that the game was first launched five years ago, that’s a very impressive sum.

Most games enjoy remaining relevant during a release window spanning no more than the first few months, which is when games tend to sell the most. Meanwhile,Minecraft has sold over 100 million units to date, helped in no small part to its availability on a multitude of platforms.

Given its simple graphics and enormous creative possibilities, it’s no surprise thatMinecraft also has seen huge success in the younger generation. These blossoming gamers can mine blocks and then use them to create defenses against enemies, or they can play around freely and create whatever they want. You can choose one of five different game modes, but you can boil it down to either playing or creating. The game’s creative mode is the component that engages players to recreate things like the U.S.S Enterprise from the Star Trek series, or the main capitol from Game of Thrones.

For kids, a playground that allows for all these different creations is driving their understanding of computational thinking. The report argues that this is one of Minecraft’s most powerful effects. It’s no surprise then that Microsoft announced Minecraft: Education Edition.

Minecraft’s worlds are enormous; an unaltered world consists of up to 60 million blocks. The block that drives this computational thinking is primarily the redstone, which allow players to experiment with logical functions and create other games inside the game itself. Some players have even created functioning computers. These stones basically work like electrical circuits, and specific objects you create inside theMinecraft world will be activated and perform a predetermined action when activated by a redstone. Of course, you can also connect redstones to one another, opening up a whole slew of possibilities. Working like this requires a lot of rewiring, and things won’t always work the way you imagine.

Kids are learning to engage in a visual form of debugging, where they have to experiment and find the issue. The report mentions a fifth-grader that tried creating a redstone door that didn’t open when activated, so she had to track down the failing component of her redstone setup and fix it manually.

Young gamers are learning problem solving by playing around in digital worlds, and they’re doing it in a way that resembles programming logic. Thus Minecraft is, perhaps, teaching our kids to learn programming more effectively than our educational systems.

MINECRAFT SELLS 10,000 COPIES PER DAY — TEACHES COMPUTATIONAL THINKING