Imagine learning about ancient Egypt and then being able to construct your own pyramid that is accurately scaled. Or, imagine reading Charlotte’s Web and recreating the barnyard to explore on your own.
This is the reality for the 75,000 educators and students around the world who are using Minecraft: Education Edition in their classrooms. These educators aren’t just playing around in the many worlds of Minecraft, but rather are shaping the classroom edition itself.
“We’ve been working really closely with educators who are already using Minecraft in their classroom, educators who are using other games, and educators who haven’t used games at all,” says Deirdre Quarnstrom, Microsoft’s director of Minecraft Education. “They help us understand some of the challenges in bringing a game into the classroom.”
Quarnstrom says this is where features like classroom mode were introduced. Classroom mode allows teachers to see where all students are in the game and gives them the power to bring them all to one location.
Thanks to new teacher-approved features, adding Minecraft to your class has gotten even easier.
Educator-Shaped Updates and Lessons Expand Utility, Creativity
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced some new Minecraft: Education Edition features: Global Pause, a way to take a quick break or transition to another activity; text-to-speech options for in-game chat to boost accessibility; and a new user interface that makes it easier for teachers and students to manage settings.
In January, Microsoft also expanded its Minecraft Mentor team — a group the company works with regularly to improve the game — to 60 educators in 18 different countries.
These mentors offer advice on their favorite activities and are important thought leaders in the Minecraft community.
Since the launch of the education edition in November 2016, Quarnstrom says teachers have been overwhelmingly supportive of one another and more than 100 lesson plan starters have been submitted— some from Minecraft Mentors.
“Minecraft is a game used in education, not an educational game,” says Quarnstrom. “All of the objectives and quests come from educators.”
The pages of lesson plans available on the Minecraft: Education Edition website range from age 3 to over 18 and cover a wide range of topics.
One innovative Language Arts lesson has students creating a kingdom of words where students create buildings that reflect the parts of speech.
“All buildings and places should be designed to reflect the parts of speech they represent,” writes lesson creator Jon Greenberg. “The size and shape of each part of speech should announce their role in crafting a sentence.”
Quarnstrom said she’s continually blown away by how educators have their students use Minecraft for storytelling and sees it as a celebration of the versatility of the tool.
“We’ve intentionally kept it really open and have seen broad implications across K–12,” says Quarnstrom. “We’re really looking forward to seeing how school and teachers continue to utilize it.”
Minecraft enthusiasts that play the game on Microsoft’s Xbox One console have received a small update recently. Many of them probably unknowingly, have been subjected to a small update which pushed some important fixes into the game. The Minecraft developer also came out with a changelog list which was barely worth calling a list. That being said, the fixes are still very much appreciated and will increase the gameplay value of the game by taking care of some rather annoying problems.
Let’s take a look at what players can expect to see or feel differently in the game, if they haven’t gotten a chance to check out the change log:
Prior to the fix, the UI tended to mess up the icons for items which weren’t blocks by displaying the wrong LOD. That has now been fixed and will occur no longer in-game.
Players also reported that nether portals would sometimes take them to places they had no interest in arriving in, but that has been taken care of in update 40.
When jumping in a tight place, players would often times find themselves falling through the block that they were on. This was especially frustrating but the developers fixed this issue in the latest update.
Just to clear up any confusion, these changes have been made for the Xbox One version of the game. Anyone playing the game on another platform should not have to worry about this update, as it was solely meant for Microsoft’s console.
While the patch is rather small, it does a great job in impacting the game and taking care of some really annoying issues. This once again proves that the smallest issues are the ones causing the most problems. No further information has been disclosed to any potential future updates for the game.
If there was a Kids’ Choice Award for Best Reason for Attending the Kids’ Choice Awards, 8-year-old Juanita would have it in the bag.
The cancer survivor made headlines Saturday evening at the annual slime-infused Nickelodeon event in Los Angeles, hitting the red carpet to photograph some of the night’s biggest stars (including Gwen Stefani, above, and Nickelodeon favorites Kira Kosarin and Mace Coronel, below).
Juanita was sent to the event on behalf of the Pablove Foundation, whose mission is to help fund pediatric cancer research, educate affected families and provide opportunities in the arts for children living with the disease.
Juanita is part of the Pablove Shutterbugs program which, according to the organization’s website, “teach[es] children living with cancer to develop their creative voice through the art of photography.”
This isn’t the first time Juanita taken the red carpet at a glitzy, celeb-filled event by storm: In January, she attended the 2017 Golden Globes, snapping photos of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
According to E! News, Juanita is in remission after battling cancer for almost three years. She’s now back in school attending third-grade classes. She loves taking photos of her dog Charlie, recently learned to ride a bike and spent time last summer taking photography workshops at the Pablove Shutterbugs Alumni Summer Camp.
Igniting a passion for technology is the goal of Connected Camps’ online summer camps in coding, game design, architecture, engineering, and survival mode in Minecraft.
The weeklong virtual camps, priced from $69 to $99, commence June 26. There are 30 online camps to choose from, including girls-only options.
“We offer the fun hands-on projects, and cool counselors that you get at a tech camp, but in an online format that is much more affordable and accessible,” said Mimi Ito, Connected Camps co-founder. “We give kids a STEM learning experience at a tenth of the cost of the more traditional summer camps. The online format also means that kids can keep in touch with their new friends and counselors and keep working on projects even after the one-week camps. And, we run a free, moderated Minecraft server that kids can connect to year-round to continue their learning.”
It can be hard for parents to find tech camps that are affordable, work with their kids’ busy schedules and tap into a passion for all things Minecraft, added Katie Salen, Connected Camps co-founder.
“The best way for kids to develop tech skills and interests is through fun and challenging projects with peers and mentors they feel connected with. We run camps that meet kids where they are, catering to interests in games, exploration, and design, as well as girls-only camps.” Salen said. “Connected Camps draws on over a decade of research on STEM learning and online education.”
Campers, ages 8-13, can connect from the convenience of home, and learn in small groups from expert counselors who are passionate about topics like coding, game design, and creative building. Campers learn by doing, creating projects like race courses, cities, automated machines, mazes, and more. All campers receive a personal certificate of completion from their counselor, and can continue learning on the free Kid Club server with counselor-led building and survival challenges, mini games, and clubs for various interests.
“We think of Minecraft as more than just a game,” said Tara Tiger Brown, Connected Camps co-founder. “To us, it is a flexible, design-friendly environment that not only lets the imaginations of kids run wild, but also teaches them about problem solving, programming, and getting along with others.”
Those who purchase one camp are offered a 20% discount on all other camps. In addition, Connected Camps will be giving away a free Piper computer kit — a computer that kids assemble themselves and runs the Raspberry Pi Edition of Minecraft Story — to one lucky camper, who registers by March 19 this year.
To register for camps, enter the giveaway, or for more information, visit connectedcamps.com.
About Connected Camps Connected Camps is a benefit corporation providing connected learning experiences that foster creativity, problem solving, collaboration and interest-driven learning. Its mission is to build a global online community where kids build, code, play, and learn from one another. Tapping the power of youth tech experts to teach and mentor, Connected Camps has served thousands of kids through its online and community-based programs. Connected Camps is a member of the Connected Learning Alliance, which supports the expansion and influence of a network of educators, experts and youth-serving organizations mobilizing new technology in the service of equity, access and opportunity for all young people.
Josh Gad, who plays LeFou in Disney’s new live-action Beauty and the Beast, is speaking out about the controversy surrounding the movie’s groundbreaking gay moment.
News of the gay character has caused a stir in recent days: In the new movie, LeFou has a crush on his pal, the handsome, self-absorbed villain Gaston (Fast & Furious star Luke Evans) — and LeFou has what Gad calls a “subtle but incredibly effective” scene during the film’s finale that hints at a happily ever after. Gad tells PEOPLE that the moment in the movie teaches an important lesson central to the theme of the film: “Never judging a book by its cover.”
“What I would say is that this film is one of inclusiveness,” the 36-year-old says. “It’s one that has something to offer everyone.”
“There is so much fear out there of that which we don’t understand that which we don’t know,” Gad tells PEOPLE.
“And you have a character in Gaston who uses his charm offensive to whip other people into a frenzy to go and attack somebody they’ve never met. Somebody that’s different. Somebody that only represents a danger because [Gaston] says that he represents a danger.”
He adds: “I think that that theme is as relevant today as it was when Beauty and the Beast was first written 300 years ago. So that’s what I hope people take from it.”
Evans weighed in on the controversy at the film’s premiere, saying, “It’s about unity, it’s about never judging a book by its cover.”
“But digging a little deeper and understanding to not be fearful of things you don’t know or people who look a little different to you.”
He added, “Fear is not a good thing to fuel, and Gaston is responsible for that. But he fails — he fails miserably, and everybody finds love. Everyone!”
We’ve all heard the one about the deer with no eyes, but what do you call a deer with no soul? In The Walking Dead‘s latest episode, ‘Say Yes’, Rick Grimes had his back against a fairground ride, surrounded by zombies, and to escape the situation, he decided to shoot a nearby deer as a fresh-meat distraction. Only problem was, that deer looked like it had wandered straight out of Minecraft.
The glossy cervid in question was at the nadir of uncanny valley. It didn’t catch the light in the right way; it didn’t cast a realistic shadow, it didn’t fit cleanly into the 3D space it was meant to be occupying. It looked about as convincing as Donkey in Shrek. The result is totally jarring, especially considering there was a real-life deer in the second season of The Walking Dead. By comparison, this seventh season seems to be having weird budgeting issues – a lot of money seems to have been spent on making the zombies look as awesome as possible; deer, not so much.
Twitter’s reaction was strong, and there were many pisstakes. Pisstakes like this one:
