by Stone Marshall | Apr 16, 2016 | Minecraft News |
Microsoft has revealed it will launch a beta for its educational Minecraft splinter in May, allowing teachers to use the phenomenally popular sandbox game in the classroom.
Announced on the Minecraft blog, the beta will encompass more than 100 schools in 30 countries around the world, allowing educators to provide feedback on the project and help develop a final version and “fine-tune the experience across a diverse set of learning environments.”
The next phase comes a month later, when the company will release Minecraft: Education Edition as an early access program. This will be available in 11 languages and in 41 countries, and available to download and try for free. Across the summer, Microsoft will “be focused on working with educators on building out lesson plans, sharing learning activity ideas, and creating re-usable projects.”
The freeform nature of Minecraft makes it highly adaptable to lessons in many subjects, from accurate (if blocky) recreations of historical sites, through to molecular science. Developer Mojang’s core version also allows the creation of circuits using certain materials, making it perfect for engineering simulations, and there are countless examples online of users using it for programming and coding tutorials.
Microsoft’s educational version of Minecraft was announced in January, after it aquired the original version of MinecraftEdu. Dating back to 2011, the first iteration was co-developed by TeacherGaming and Mojang.
Once Microsoft launches a final version of Minecraft: Education Edition, schools with an existing license will be able to add the new version to their agreement, and new licenses will be available on both direct and high volume bases. The game will run on Windows 10 and Mac OS X El Capitan, although teachers and students will also need to register a free Office 365 Education account using official school email addresses.
Anyone still using the current TeacherGaming version of MinecraftEdu will receive support through to the end of “this school year” (unspecified, but likely based on American school dates), though teachers will need to opt in to continue receiving information on the switchover to Minecraft: Education Edition.
Minecraft: Education Edition launches beta in May
by Stone Marshall | Apr 16, 2016 | Minecraft News |
Minecraft is already a hit at schools. Now Microsoft plans to release a version of its blocky video game tailored for education.
A hundred schools will start testing Minecraft Education Edition in May, but more can get it in June when a free early-access program begins, Microsoft and its Mojang game studio said Thursday.
Microsoft didn’t reveal how much the final version will cost or when it will arrive. But as Microsoft develops the software itself, the company will also create projects to help teachers use it.
“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,” Microsoft said.
Majoring in Minecraft
Minecraft players turn trees, animals and minerals resources into tools, weapons and shelter to survive nightly monster onslaughts. It’s a major hit, with more than 70 million copies sold. It’s not just about survival, though. A creative mode lets players build fanciful structures, automate pig farming and even reproduce the complicated internal workings of computer logic circuitry.
This open-endedness has made Minecraft adaptable to everything from computer programming to art history. Especially because kids take the initiative to learn with Minecraft on their own, it’s no wonder schools like it and parents don’t freak out so much when kids get obsessed.
Minecraft Education Edition is part of a big transition for the game. Swedish developer Mojang began the project using the Java programming language. That’s been popular for people who like to write modifications, called mods, that alter how Minecraft works. But newer versions of Minecraft, notably the Pocket Edition that runs on Apple iPhones and iPads and on phones and tablets powered by Google’s Android software, are written in the C++ language instead.
The Education Edition will use this C++ foundation, Microsoft said. That means no mods, at least initially. But Microsoft plans to bring mods and command blocks — another key way to tweak Minecraft — to the next C++ version. Education Edition will require Windows 10 or Apple’s OS X 10.11 El Capitan, Microsoft added.
Minecraft for Facebook’s Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and for Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset also use the C++ foundation.
School’s out for summer? Not for Minecraft Education Edition
by Stone Marshall | Apr 15, 2016 | Awesome Book News |
Beacon Hills High School is welcoming a new teacher in Teen Wolf‘s sixth season. (Any chance he isn’t harboring a supernatural secret?)
Pete Ploszek (Workaholics, Shameless) will recur on the MTV drama as Garrett Douglas, a “charming” educator likely to catch the eye of several students, our sister site Deadline reports.
Few details are known about Teen Wolf’s upcoming season, but given BHHS’ penchant for hiring shady teachers — I haven’t forgotten about you, “Jennifer!” — it’s entirely possible that Mr. Douglas is connected to the Nazi werewolf who broke free in Tuesday’s finale.
“I can absolutely confirm that the soldier has left the machine and will be a part of Season 6, a threat,” showrunner Jeff Davis recently told TVLine. “It was something we were planning for a while, and we weren’t sure if we were going to use that final shot, but once we started shooting Season 6, we figured we might as well use it.”
Your thoughts on Teen Wolf‘s newest addition? Drop ’em in a comment below.
by Stone Marshall | Apr 15, 2016 | Awesome Book News |
“Teen Wolf” Season 6 is still months away from its premiere on MTV but fans are already excited to learn more about what’s next for Scott, Stiles and the rest of the Pack. Spoilers for the upcoming season hint that Peter Hale will be back in Beacon Hills, which led to speculations that Tyler Hoechlin may also reprise his role as Derek.
This article contains spoilers. Read on if you want to learn more about this story.
“Teen Wolf” Season 6 spoilers reveal that Peter Hale will be returning to Beacon Hills and his character is supposed to appear in episode 2, reports Movie Pilot. This led to speculations that another Hale will be returning to town.
As many fans and viewers can remember, Tyler Hoechlin announced his departure from “Teen Wolf” in Season 5. The show, however, still left the story open for Hoechlin’s return in the series as Derek Hale.
However, “Teen Wolf” Season 6 spoilers reveal that Hoechlin still will not be appearing in the first half of the upcoming season. There also won’t be any new Hales arriving in town; instead, the show will be introducing three new teenagers to the cast in an attempt to focus on a younger Teen Wolf.
Carter Matt also reports on Cody Christian’s possible return in “Teen Wolf” Season 6. While his character, Theo, was presumed dead after the Season 5 finale, several reports claimed that Theo is still alive and will be back in Season 6.
Christian also seemingly confirmed his character’s return during a Comic-Con in Perth, Australia, which definitely came as good news to fans and viewers. However, the 20-year-old actor recently clarified that his statement was not a confirmation of his character’s return.
‘Teen Wolf’ Season 6 Air Date, Spoilers, News & Update: Peter Hale Returns; Will Tyler Hoechlin Reprise His Role As Derek?
by Stone Marshall | Apr 14, 2016 | Awesome Book News |
Another one bites the dust. Arden Cho, who played Kira Yukimura on MTV’s supernatural teen drama Teen Wolf, announced via YouTube on Monday that she won’t be returning for the show’s upcoming sixth season.
“I just want to say I love Kira Yukimura so much,” Cho said in the video, which you can watch above. “I love the Yukimura family. I loved my experience on Teen Wolf. I love the cast and crew, it’s been an amazing three-and-a-half years. It’s gone by so fast, but unfortunately, it looks like we are wrapped up with Kira’s storyline and she won’t be coming back for Season 6.”
“Sometimes I think in a show where there’s so many characters, there isn’t always room for everyone and everyone’s storylines, so I guess that was it,” she continued. “I do wish we would have developed a little bit more of her powers and [the] skinwalkers and just [that] there would have been more of an epic ending, but you never know with Teen Wolf. I mean, people might come back. It is what it is.”
Teen Wolf is no stranger to losing cast members, but this is the first time it sounds like it may have been a creative decision and not the actor’s choice to leave. It’s a bummer to have to say goodbye to Cho, even though it’s true that her character was often relegated to the sidelines in Season 5 or disappeared altogether as the show attempted to tell a very ambitious but messy storyline that basically worked out in the season finale because the show said it worked. And to that point, the veteran series has struggled in recent seasons to give its female characters well-developed storylines that encourage character growth. But writing them out of the story in between seasons without giving them a proper ending—because Kira’s story was not “wrapped up” at all, she just went to the desert to work on harnessing her powers and was always expected to return—is not really what we had in mind when we listed our 5 Ways to Fix Teen Wolf and said the show needed to “figure out the women of Beacon Hills.”
While a smaller cast and a more streamlined version of the series is desirable, dropping Kira from the story may prove to be just another mistake in another long line of mistakes for the series. And although her character thankfully isn’t dead—well, let’s just assume she didn’t die out in the desert, anyway—the character being written out in this way doesn’t exactly look good given the way female characters have been treated lately on television. Last week, no less than six shows killed off major or recurring female characters, and that was after the outrage following a fan-favorite female character’s death on The 100. It also calls into question what creator Jeff Davis said following the Season 5 finale, which was that the writers were planning on returning to WWII and Cho’s turn as a Kitsune trapped in a Japanese interment camp. Storylines can always change, of course, so we can’t really fault him for that, but the news of Cho’s departure doesn’t really alleviate any of our concerns about where Teen Wolf is headed in Season 6.
Her departure also just reminds worried fans of how the revolving door at the MTV series has hurt it overall. Because Teen Wolf is no stranger to saying goodbye to cast members: Colton Haynes left the series after the show’s second season, leading lady Crystal Reed departed at the end of Season 3 (but later returned as a guest star to play the ancestor of her character Allison Argent in Season 5) as did Daniel Sharman, and Tyler Hoechlin left for greener pastures after Season 4. Along the way, the series also said goodbye to characters played by Gage Golightly and Adelaide Kane after the actresses were cast in pilots, and Max and Charlie Carver, who played twins Aiden and Ethan, were written out after Season 4. Meanwhile, fans are still wondering WTF happened to Keahu Kahuanui’s Danny. Storylines have been dropped time and again on Teen Wolf but this may be the most obvious and potentially the most confusing version of this we’ve seen yet.
What do you think of Cho’s departure? Will it help or hurt the show?
Teen Wolf: Arden Cho Isn’t Returning for Season 6—Watch Her Announcement (VIDEO)
