Coding curricula is sweeping into classrooms across the country, thanks to programs such as Code.org. According to the Education Commission of States, about 20 states now require that districts allow students to apply specified computer science courses toward completion of mathematics, science or, as a foreign language. But is coding preoccupying the hearts and minds of students after school hours? This is the question that researchers at the MIT Media Lab are asking.
It was there that one of the most popular learn-to-code tools, developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group, was born in 2007. And while it has inspired a flurry of copycat offerings from other developers, Scratch has retained a loyal following: Today the platform claims over 100 million users around the world.
So what keeps these users, er, scratching their itch to code?
Upon entering the offices of the Lifelong Kindergarten groups, one immediately notices images of the whimsical orange “Scratch cat” plastered all over the walls. It is clear that the project has become a source of pride and the center’s claim to fame. That’s where we met Natalie Rusk, one of Scratch’s creators, who is now researching how kids find and sustain the motivation to code.
Rusk with the Scratch cat
To conduct this research, she interviewed over a hundred Scratch users who are active on the platform not just during or after school, but even after a student has graduated and moved on to another school. The key, Rusk found, are what she calls “interest-based communities” that play a strong role in keeping students engaged and learning to code long after school is over.
Scratch was originally built as a program to introduce children to basic programming concepts. Yet the online communities that have sprung suggest the tool wields a much larger influence. “Too often people are positioning Scratch as a stepping stone to other things, whereas we see from our interviews that Scratchers keep going deeper and broader and contribute back either online or offline to other people,” says Rusk.
She describes the Scratch community as a youth development program where many users start, some leave, but others stay and become leaders on the platform. The community, similar to those on other platforms like Reddit, is difficult to quantify since it simply consists of active members who engage with each other to the point that they call one another “friends.” Users do find ways to act on those friendships, celebrating “Scratchaversarys” (similar to an online birthday), by offering coding projects and comments as gifts to one another. Reading through the comment streams on projects, one can easily get a sense of the communal atmosphere where users congratulate each other on getting featured, wish each other happy Scratchaversarys, make jokes with one another and even share personal details about their lives.
New coding cards MIT offers to teachers to build interest-based coding activities
“Initially I was the one who questioned the word ‘community.’ I mean, they were posting projects and writing comments. How is that community?” says Rusk. But when she interviewed many of the users to see why they stayed on the platform, she found that many of them referred to each other as “friends.”
“We interviewed one kid from England who said he wanted to give back on the site because he benefited so much,” explained Rusk, “But when we asked him if he also did that in school he said, no, because he moved around [to different schools] so much.” She says several students share a similar sentiment—especially those whose friends and sense of community come from the coding platform. It is those types of students who she sees as lifelong Scratchers, ready and excited to code for life.
Rusk hopes to cultivate these online communities by allowing them to explore programming projects specific to their hobbies in music, arts and games. It is their theory that by allowing students to engage in interest-based groups that they will become engrossed in the community and code beyond the classroom.
Perhaps the only online coding community that could compete with Scratch for kids’ attention is Minecraft, which aims to provide kids with a similar sense interest- and peer-based exploration. Recently its developers released a coding addition to the game that has sold over 121 million copies.
Its developers at Microsoft hope to cultivate a large, open community for teachers and students around coding. “Before we launched the Education edition [of Minecraft] we spent about a year out with the Minecraft community, listening and learning,” said Neal Manegold, a senior manager at Minecraft Education, in an interview with EdSurge.
Educators told Manegold that most of their students spend a lot of time on Minecraft projects outside of the classroom, but they don’t view the projects as educational in nature as many of them are simply playing the game.
There was already a strong community of Minecraft users, but to maximize learning on the platform, he had to build an active community of educators as well. To do this, the Minecraft team offered a mix of in-person training and online sessions, including forums, Twitter chats and live streamed workshops where educators can teach each other, something Manegold says is important to keep them engaged and creative.
Manegold says that teachers have already been using Minecraft to teach subjects such as History and Engineering by having students recreate three-dimensional replicas of ancient ruins, and he sees the addition of coding expanding the opportunities for educators to use the software for interdisciplinary learning.
“Adding coding to the platform has brought people who were coding-focused, but not necessarily Minecraft focused on to the platform,” says Manegold. “They bring a depth of expertise for people who are interested in Minecraft but don’t have expertise in Computer Science. It is exceedingly valuable to all involved.”
Following on from the recently announced “Better Together” update for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition at E3, Mojang have now revealed their next DLC in the form of a graphics pack, the “Super Duper Graphics Pack”. They do point out that this upgrade is optional, so if you like things the way they are, you don’t need to change it.
This Fall, along with a free update that will allow Minecraft to be played with 4k graphics, the “Super Duper Graphics Pack” will improve a whole bunch of aspects of your game. Some of these include – “features like dynamic shadows, lighting that streams through fog, movement in leaves and grass, new textures for mobs and villagers, directional lighting, edge highlighting and more”. It all sounds very impressive, and to show it off a little bit more, we’ve got a trailer to share with you too.
The “Super Duper Graphics Pack” will be arriving, along with the 4k update, this Fall. It will be available for Xbox One, Xbox One X and Windows 10, with Mojang pointing out that this pack will be “performing best on high-end PCs and the Xbox One X”.
Minecraft is a global phenomenon. Nowadays it’s rare to find a gamer unfamiliar with the title itself. What originally started off on PC has expanded to nearly every device. Consoles, mobile — some gamers can even play it on their streaming devices.
Mojang made its presence felt at E3 2017. Aside from the Xbox One X 4K update, big news was revealed for fans of the series. Gamers can soon play Minecraft with friends on nearly every platform thanks to new servers. These servers will support Xbox One, PC, Switch, VR, and mobile. Check out the update reveal below.
The “Better Together” update is set to drop this summer.
It was just announced at Microsoft’s E3 conference that Minecraft will become a cross play title. This means that gamers will be able to play with their friends across multiple platforms including Windows 10, VR, and console. This functionality comes with massive servers and a community marketplace in the “Better Together Update”.
The “Super Duper Graphics Pack” will also be available for the game this fall. This update is a 4K visual upgrade for the Xbox One X. Check out the trailer for it below.
Both of these updates will be coming later this year, so prepare for cross play and some blocks that are about to look a whole lot better.
One of the big announcements for Minecraft this E3 was that nearly all versions of the game — Playstation consoles aside unfortunately due to a decision on Sony’s end — will be able to play with each other following the game’s upcoming “Better Together” update.
Following on from that announcement, Jens and Saxs from Mojang discuss the update a little bit more with Julia Hardy.
The “Better Together” update as well as the 4K update announced at the same time should both be coming to Minecraft later this year.
If you play Minecraft—or are the parent of an offspring who plays Minecraft–then you probably know that the international YouTube Minecraft superstar known as Dan TDM is on tour.
Dan TDM (TDM stands for “the diamond minecart,” kind of an inside joke among Dan and his 17.9 million subscribers) rose to fame by making videos of his Minecraft-playing adventures. His face appears in the corner of the screen as he narrates, providing tips and advice, but mostly entertainment. The man is a delight, even if you are the kind of parent who swears you couldn’t be entertained by a twenty-something English guy narrating a video game.
You see, Dan TDM is kind of a genius. Not only has he managed to rack up 10 billion views of him playing Minecraft, but also he has now figured out how to turn his video persona into a world tour, for which he has sold more than 85,000 tickets including 32 sold-out shows in the U.K., four at the Sydney Opera House, and 21 (and counting) in the United States. But you might have questions. The first of which is most assuredly, What does Dan TDM do onstage? Does he just play Minecraft?
“I’d say the top comment I get when I see people after the show, parents, they’re like, ‘We don’t know what to expect,'” Dan told PopularMechanics.com. “We’ve sold this idea of the live show on pretty much nothing, really—they know that I’m going to be there, but they don’t know what I’m going to do. But then hopefully, we do blow them away with this really cool show that does have gaming within it, but involves everyone in a much more personal experience. Which was my main goal: I wanted to take that one limitation about my videos, which is there’s always a screen between me and my audience.”
Having seen—and thoroughly enjoyed—the show, we are here to answer that and a few other questions about the tour, which runs through July 23 in Seattle.
What does Dan TDM do onstage? Does he just play Minecraft?
No. He doesn’t play Minecraft at all, actually. What sets his Minecraft YouTubing apart is his ability to create characters and tell stories, and he brings this creativity to life on the stage.
Will adults find him funny?
Yes, he’s funny, in a charming, self-deprecating, British way.
Is there merchandise for sale?
Ohh, yes. T-shirts, posters, Dan’s book, hats, stuffed pugs (Dan has two, who figure prominently in his videos), and plenty more.
Can the kids meet him?
Yes. At most shows, Dan does a meet-and-greet for a couple hundred fans before the show. The tickets for this are $95 on top of the regular ticket price, and you need to arrive several hours before the show. It takes a while. But that’s because Dan TDM is magic with kids. He doesn’t rush. He listens to them. He talks to them. He graciously accepts their gifts. He poses for photos, signs whatever they have, high-fives them. Buy the ticket. Stand and wait. Smile.
How long is the show?
About two hours, including an intermission.
Are there other people on stage, or just Dan TDM?
He is not the only human in the show. We’ll leave it at that. No spoilers.
Doesn’t all of this just encourage kids to play video games?
Not really, no. There’s a plot to the stage story, and it has to do with busting out of the virtual world into the real world. Dan TDM genuinely entertaining, he encourages kids to approach Minecraft with originality and a sense of adventure, and he seems intent on making kids feel good about who they are. In the show, he talks about his shyness as a child, and now here he is, standing in front of 5,000 people, hopping around telling stories, making people laugh and clap and have a truly enjoyable evening.
