Plans, Problems and New Plans.

Why is it that that the best laid plans always run into problems. I had it worked out perfectly. I was going to teach the kids the basics of Minecraft during the lesson on Monday, then on Tuesday they were going to go through my 21 question quiz map to find the address of the free build server and then invest some time in creating a place in the free build area. My plan was to get the kids invested in the free build server so that they would want to go through the teaching phase of the lesson to get to the free build.

The original problem of no licenses is fixed but there are new problems. Number one problem is that I am not going to be in class on Tuesday for our double lesson, so there is one and a half hours that I wont be there to work with MinecraftEdu in the classroom. I have to head to a 2 day conference in Melbourne. I also will probably not have internet access at the conference so I wont be able to supervise them in the world of Minecraft either.

The next problem is what do I do now. Do I still spend Monday teaching them the basics of Minecraft, or do I hold out another week, after promising them it would be happening this week?

And the new plan. Quite simple really, I have created a new survival world, almost free build. The catch is there is limited space and limited resources. I think that there are only about 4 or 5 trees in the area that the kids can access. I have done a little bit of exploring and found that there is coal and iron quite close to the surface to get them started. I have also added a chest with a few tools and other necessities to get them on their way, but not enough of any one tool to supply all of the students, so they are going to have to assign jobs to individuals. So while they will be creating a server that I hope they want to be involved in, they will also need to work together as a team.

I did consider assigning the 21 question map on Tuesday when I am not there, but there are two reasons I feel that it is a bad idea. First is that it is untested, if things go wrong I would like to be there to fix it on the fly. Second is that I have put a lot of hours into creating the map, and I would also like to be there to see how it goes.

So the plan for Tuesday? Well I am not sure yet, I think I will have to wait and see how Monday goes and how much the students get done. Or I might save the collaborative survival world for Tuesday and teach them how to survive on Monday.

And as normal here are the latest screenshots of the question map, it is getting closer to ready.

The third rooms are all complete, so is one of the fourth. It is not getting quicker, but I am finding a rhythm that makes it easier.

Just showing the amount of redstone going into the wiring.

This just shows how big the build is going to be. I have mapped out the foundations of one set of paths.