I’ve been playing Minecraft Education—mostly with students or other teachers—for about four years now. My experience came to a head two weekends ago, when I attended MINECON, the annual Minecraft convention and fan fest held this year in Anaheim on September 24-25. I go to a lot of educational technology conferences, but I don’t have a lot of experience with “fandom conventions.” Experiencing MINECON 2016 as an educator, I found it to be a melding of the two—and a clear indicator as to why the education world is obsessed with Minecraft.
Bringing Together Teachers, Parents and Students
MINECON is definitely aimed at kids, who are among Minecraft’s biggest fans. I, in fact, took my 12-year-old son with me, who contributed to this article. But upon attending the conference, I found that there were a lot of parents and quite a few educators in attendance, as well. Minecraft is especially unique in the sense that it’s a tool that brings together each of those three different groups of individuals, all in pursuit of creative expression, adventure, and fun.
I know how I use Minecraft in my own computer science classes, and I’ve heard and seen amazing applications that other teachers have shared. But if you really want to feel as inspired as I felt coming away from this weekend, you need only look to the kids who use Minecraft without adult intervention. In mass amount, I saw how students try, click, play, guess, and take risks with computer applications and other devices, all in attempt to figure out “What happens if I…?” I’m ecstatic to see a generation of willing pioneers who know no fear when it comes to bravely experimenting and inventing, with little regard for adults who may want to steer them toward more traditional and pragmatic pursuits.
As Minecraft is a gaming experience popular with both adults and kids, it can often be a family endeavor, where parents and their children play together. Many parents I’ve talked to became interested in Minecraft themselves because they were curious about the obsession that had such staying power with their kids; it wasn’t a fad that came and went. As they started to see how much their kids were learning, they felt naturally drawn into the game themselves. And it’s worth noting: many families in attendance at Minecon were homeschoolers who use the game as a learning tool.
A Rich Variety of Activities, Projects and Partners
When it comes to Minecraft, the implications for student engagement and project-based learning are endless. A clear indicator of this is the list of top five favorite items that my son identified from MINECON, from his perspective as a student:
Celebrity Minecrafters: My favorite thing was meeting famous YouTubers who play Minecraft. I met, took selfies with, and got autographs from Stampy, Squiddy, Sqaishey, and Wizard Keen.
New Items Inside the Game: Everyone who went to MINECON got an email afterward with a code for the official MINECON 2016 cape that you can wear inside the game!
Minecraft Activities with LEGO and More: The LEGO booth had a fun activity where you could build a Minecraft LEGO solution to get Alex (a Minecraft avatar character) out of a problem. Two other activities (unrelated to LEGO) that we could partake in were punching trees and a Minecraft witch hunt in the game. These were really popular with kids!
Student Voice Panel: There was a student voice panel that had kids who talked about their Minecraft experiences, such as making games inside the game and making videos of their builds.
Exploring Biomes Exhibits: There were cool biomes—big physical constructions—in the expo hall, such as a real-life tundra, underwater, forest, and even a farm with Minecraft animals. There was also a replica of a Minecraft house with all the stuff inside that you would need in a real Minecraft house in the game, like a bed, a crafting table, a furnace, a jukebox, and cake.
A MINECON forest biome exhibit. (Cameron Main)
Leading the Minecraft charge is a small army of YouTubers—veritable celebrities in a setting like MINECON—who make videos of their game play as well as tutorials and artistic creations within the Minecraft world. I don’t know who most of these digital celebrities are, but my son knew of a few big names, and most of the young Minecraft fans knew who everybody was.
Minecraft itself has worked its way into so many facets of life—YouTube and LEGO, to name two—that adolescents connect with, and as such, the classroom is a logical place where Minecraft can help bridge the gap between life inside school and life outside of school.
New Minecraft Developments, to Keep Users Engaged
My focus on Minecraft in the education space has meant that I’m an early advocate of Microsoft’s new Minecraft: Education Edition, which officially launches on November 1st. This new edition, aimed at schools, includes some new features and some improved Minecraft features:
There are chalkboards of varying sizes, which can be used to post information in-game as part of the students’ learning experience. (Think directions or clarifications, for example.)
There are some NPCs (non-player characters) that can be added to the game. This isn’t an entirely new feature, but it’s an add-on to previous educational versions.
Cameras—and the portfolios they feed into—garnered the most excitement from teachers I have talked to about the new updates. Players can now place a camera to take a “selfie” with their work, or use the camera to capture images of their builds, caption them in the portfolio, and then export them to use in any applications they’d like.
Finally, a new classroom mode, which will be released with the new product in November, allows the teacher to check in on various worlds that students are using. Teachers can also view students’ in-game chat, move students around as needed, give students items, or communicate with them without having to enter each world individually.
Some of today’s students have already been lucky enough to be in classes with teachers who’ve been using Minecraft for the past few years as a learning platform. It’s popular with kids and teachers because it’s familiar and fun, but also because it provides a space in which students can visualize, build, and experiment in a 3D environment.
But there are so many more students out there, who have yet to really exercise their creative spirit and impulses. We’re going to need creative student thinkers, because they grow into courageous, innovative adults who can solve the world’s problems.
The collaboration, engagement, and exploration opportunities that Minecraft provides are well-suited to give kids the experiences they need to build tomorrow’s solutions—but Minecraft is just where they start.
Diane Main serves as Director of Learning, Innovation and Design (9-12) at The Harker School in San Jose, California. Follow her on Twitter at @dowbiggin.
The new “Chinese Mythology Mash Up Pack” DLC is priced at $4.99 or regional equivalent and brings a sense of Eastern wonder to the Minecraft Series. Purchasers of this DLC can enjoy:
An extensive pre-made world with ancient cities, huge sculptures and dragons
41 new skins
13 themed music tracks
Special map for the Battle mini-game
The latest free title update for Minecraft adds:
Polar bears and cubs roaming in frozen biomes
Craft personal banners to decorate your domain
Arctic biomes now include igloos
Discover ancient fossils buried in the earth
Farm beetroots and use them to make a restorative soup
New blocks including End Bricks, Grass Path, Frosted Ice, Magma, Nether Wart Block, Red Nether Brick and Bone Block
The Minecraft “Chinese Mythology Mash Up Pack” and free title update are out now on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
While you were sleeping, your Minecraft: Pocket Edition just got updated, and it’s got some goodies – err, we mean scary stuff – to get your game ready for Halloween. We expected this to be arriving, but it arrived pretty early. The update brings your game app to version 0.15.10, and it brings the Campfire Tales Skin Pack as well as fixes to some bugs.
The Campfire Tales Skin Pack gets your game ready for Halloween. The skin pack comes with 16 scary skins, including the Headless Haunter, Lumbering Jack, the Sea-Swallowed Captain, Ol’ Diggy, and a lot more. Mojang is asking you to share your creations with the hashtag #campfiretales, so be sure to check out the new skin pack.
The app had also been having problems with distributing the special MINECON skins and associated capes. This update brings the fixes so you can get and use these items. At worst, you may need to make a “free” purchase from the Google Play Store, using the code MINECON2016 to be able to get the items into your game.
Aside from resolving these issues, the update also brings some VR-related fixes, like random crashes when entering into VR-mode. If you don’t have the update yet, check the download link below.
Minecraft is a sandbox video game originally created by Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson and later developed and published by Mojang. (Photo : Facebook/ Mojang)
Mojang has finally revealed the latest snapshot update for Minecraft with new items and features across the PC, Xbox, Wii U and PlayStation 4 including the PS Vita.
The new version now includes new mobs, items and even a new procedurally generated dungeon called the Woodland Mansions. Players now have more to hunt, explore and to build as one of the world’s most popular games still grow several years after it has been released.
Minecraft now has more DLC support with new blocks and items thanks to the update 1.36, PlayStation LifeStyle has learned. Some of the new blocks include the End Bricks, Grass Path, Magma, Nether Wart Block, Bone Block and more.
Some of the new items include the Beetroot and the new Shulker box that can be built thanks to the new Shulker Husks from the previous versions. The new item improves the current storage options of the player so they can loot more without having to worry about where they can place their items.
Mojang’s new Chinese Mythology Mash-Up pack is also now available at $4.99. The players will be able to explore “epic terrain” and to see what China has in store in terms of myths and legends.
Besides the new DLC and items, Mojang is also including the new Woodland Mansion. The new procedurally generated Woodland Mansion dungeon includes more mobs and items to loot, Kotaku reported.
Players can now also buy exploration maps from Minecraft’s new cartographer village which show the location of the nearby Woodland Mansion or Ocean Monument. It would help the players find them faster instead of having to search aimlessly in the endless generated world of Minecraft.
Mojang’s procedural generation of dungeons seem to be improving and Minecraft players could expect to see more dungeons in the following updates. Unfortunately, the developers have not yet confirmed whether there will be new ones or what themes they have in mind for the dungeons.
Minecraft players can just update their game through the official launcher to see the changes for themselves. Multiplayer servers may need to reconfigure to accommodate all of the new features found in the new update.
Developers Mojang and 4J Studios are rolling out a new content update for Minecraft on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It includes a number of new blocks, along with additions like polar bears and igloos.
It’s here! Rolling out across consoles today and tomorrow: an update that brings polar bears young and old, customisable banners, beetroots and related restorative soups, new blocks, buildings and more. You’ll be able to take shelter from the harsh weather of Arctic Biomes in new igloos, and delve beneath the earth for primordial treasures in the shape of giant fossils made of Bone Blocks. Other new blocks include: End Bricks, Grass Path, Frosted Ice, Magma, Nether Wart Block and Red Nether Brick
Minecraft Xbox owners can also purchase and download the Chinese Mythology Mash-Up DLC pack, which includes a pre-made world, along with 41 new skins and 13 musical themes for $4.99. Read original article here:
Mojang is preparing to launch Minecraft‘s 1.11 update, which will add llamas, mansions filled with Illagers, and treasure maps, among many other changes.
Mojang is hard at work, as ever, on the upcoming 1.11 update for the original PC version of Minecraft. Debuting what the team has been working at over the weekend during Minecon, Mojang’s “Exploration Update” adds several significant pieces of content including llamas, mansions, and maps. Larger system-based gameplay additions like enchanting and experience are absent, but Mojang is hoping to make up for that with pure content.
Here’s a short list of the major additions coming in Minecraft‘s 1.11 update:
Woodland Mansion – Giant end-game dungeons that spawn in in Dark Oak Forests. Treasure Map – Leads to hidden structures like monuments and dungeons. Shulker Shell and Shulker Box – Shells dropped from Shulkers can be turned into boxes which keep their inventory when broken. Cartographer Villager – Trades maps. Illagers – Melee “Vindicators” and caster “Evoker” Illagers populate the new Woodland Mansion dungeons. Vex – Flying enemy type that is spawned by Evoker-type Illagers. Llama – Animal that can be saddled, tamed, leashed and equipped with a small 6-slot inventory. Observer Block – Observes block updates and outputs a redstone signal.
This is just a shortlist of changes from Minecraft‘s 1.11 patch featuring content shown during Minecon and does not represent the final list of changes Mojang will likely be releasing soon. As for when the patch itself will be released, Mojang says 1.11’s snapshot will be available as soon as Wednesday of this week, and an official change-log will accompany the snapshot’s release.
Minecraft 1.11 to Add Llamas, Mansions and Maps – Sheep
While the initial reveal of patch 1.11 was met positively, as no Minecraft fan would ever be disappointed by new content, some criticism has since followed. 1.11 has been known as the “Exploration” update for some time and many fans built up certain expectations regarding that title. While maps may encourage players to get out and explore more, some fans fear 1.11 won’t meet its obligation in creating new, exciting content worth looking for. The Woodland Dungeon is interesting for end-game players, but it’s not a new biome filled with interesting new blocks and units.
Patch 1.12, the “Fanon” update, is coming in 2017 and could deliver some of the content that those disappointed in 1.11 would like to see. It will include new types of trees, a new metal in steel, and a village generation in snowy biomes, as well as female villagers. Mojang has promised to deliver smaller, faster Minecraft updates so fans constantly have something new to try out — and to avoid the lengthy update hiatuses that plagued the game for some time.
The original Java version of Minecraft is currently exclusively available on PC, with update 1.11 planned to release on Wednesday later this week. The staggeringly popular “Pocket” version of Minecraft, available on consoles, mobile platforms, and through Windows 10, should eventually receive the 1.11 update, but it may be some time before that happens.
