http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/18/minecraft-tutorial-will-help-teach-students-computer-science
Minecraft game designers and Code.com have created a tutorial based on the popular PC game Minecraft. This was created for a annual event called Hour of Code, which is a week long event that teaches people about computer coding. I find this interesting because this is another way Minecraft is being used as an education tool. The article says that over 7,000 teachers have used MInecraft as an educational tool. Normally, I have read about MInecraft being used to teach things such as city planning or architecture. Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world currently and it is interesting how people are using it for more than just entertainment. This is a creative new way to use this technology and it will be interesting to see how people develop new and creative uses for this game.
I really enjoy this idea, bouncing off the idea that James Leo Caffrey offered. Minecraft is a game that I know is very popular with young kids, and my nephew plays it every day when he comes home from school. I think it is a great idea to incorporate learning aspects like this into games, so that kids can start getting an interest in what they find exciting in life at such a young age. I know that for myself, now being a junior in college and recently realizing my passion for coding, I wish I would have learned this earlier so I may have taken classes earlier or tried to teach myself. In my high school, there was only one coding class offered, but I didn’t take it because I did not know that I was so interesting in hacking. I feel like if I would have had a game like this growing up, I would have realized my interest earlier and it would have prompted me to take classes like this and kick start my profession in the technology field.
I really like the idea of incorporating a game into the teaching of computer coding. As a student who is currently taking a computer science course here at PSU, I have seen how negatively students can look at coding and how they often avoid it if possible. I believe coding is extremely important in many fields whether it be computer science, IST, or engineering, so it is exciting to see people are trying to take a new approach to teaching this subject in an attempt to make it more entertaining and enjoyable. Like we talked about in class, learning with objectives in a game like structure has proven to be a very effective method, and I believe we will see more people proposing different approaches to learning difficult material such as this in the near future.
This is great for young kids and build up there interest in to what goes behind making the game. Now that there is one game like this I can only imagine that more games will come out that also has an educational part behind the game or an add on of some sort. Minecraft is great for coding too because it show how you change the code directly affects what happens in the game. This is also a great interactive tool and breaks up the monotony of everyday coding.
I think it’s a great idea using a video game, specifically one as successful as Minecraft, as a teaching tool. There are a lot of games that offer little to the user besides just being fun. Not only is Minecraft useful in architectural planning and creativity, but being able to use it as a tool to learn coding is both fun and extremely helpful. Personally, after seeing the movie the Social Network coding seems extremely time consuming, difficult and tedious. If it’s possible to learn it in a fun way then maybe more people will get involved. Overall, I think it’s nice to see a game provide an educational opportunity.
With the amount of gaming that is going on in todays world, By using Minecraft as a teaching tool I feel as though it is a great opportunity for more people to understand coding concepts and use something that is not only enjoyable but very educational. Coding is something that I feel that scares people away from a branch of IST. By using something that promotes fun and excitement I think more people will try to learn. With more educated people more technological advances may come about. So by using Minecraft to promote learning coding I feel as though more people will be able to understand coding and enjoy it. But at the same time I worry that by using a video the teachings my not be sufficient enough to really understand coding. So a healthy medium must be made between gaming and learning for this to work.
I think it’s really cool that Minecraft is being used for educational purposes. Learning coding these days is extremely important to anyone getting into computer science. With that being said Minecraft is a very popular game played by nearly all gamers at some point. I think using the game to teach coding will help students while also entertaining them, which is a great way to get them to remember stuff. With the importance of coding, new methods to teach coding will also be in demand, making this a great opportunity.