Workaround for Custom Skins

I have not been this excited in a fair while, I just need to share a great success I had earlier today. I have managed to figure a way to get custom skins for students in Minecraft Education Edition. Which means that teachers can collate a 'skin pack' for the class (or classes) and students will be able to choose these skins in game.

Check out my very excited 'tutorial' that doesn't really show you how to do it properly here.

I will record a 'proper' tutorial showing the steps to take the skin pack available in the video description and make it your own. It is simple, but likely to be time consuming, so don't let students change their skin every week. Or if you do, you may want to keep file names consistent between changes.... hmmmm.... more info for the tutorial.

Thanks for reading. Comments are welcomed as always.

Limitations and Workarounds

So, I have been doing a fair bit of map making over the last week or so. I have almost completed the Animal Cell map, I am working on a Reaction Times recreation, with more automation so that anyone can pick it up and run with it, and I also, just yesterday converted my Contour Maps world from Java to EE. A huge shoutout to Joel Mills, @iLearningUK for the tutorial showing how easy it is to do it. Here is his playlist of support videos if you are interested. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVM3VuEHQJSUCDXTqt7F9peUh5jtixhQr

I keep running into limitations within EE that I don't expect. Don't get me wrong, this is not a complaint, I am really enjoying hitting these walls. It brings back memories of 'the good old days' when we used to run into limitations in MinecraftEdu and we would work together to try to find workarounds to achieve what we wanted. I am very glad to still be part of the community that is still supporting each other to find those workarounds.

The biggest limitation I have right now, and the thing that is holding up the Animal Cell release is simply there is no 'great' way of getting relatively large amounts of text into the world without breaking the immersion I want in that map. The NPC's can have a bit of 'front facing' text, and then you can use commands to /whisper or /say the information to students nearby, but this just feels 'unclean' and has a few problems associated with it if it is a multiplayer experience, not to mention the 'wall-o-text' that students will have on the 't' screen after they have visited a few of the NPCs.

I would also like to be able to 'know' when students have gone to each location in the cell, but I am running into issues there also. Without scoreboard like commands, I have no ability to 'tag' players with extra data. So I had a look at using /give to give students named items, and then detect when they have all those items in their inventory, but can you believe it, there is no way to /give named items in EE/Bedrock edition without a whole heap of other mess involved. So I can do it, hence the workaround, but it is a very messy process that involves cloning chests on top of players, then destroying chests and hoping the item that was in the chest jumps into the correct players inventory. Which would be fine if this was only a single player experience, which it can be, but if a teacher gets multiple students in the map, a lot of things could go pear shaped with that solution.

Coupled with that, it appears that I cannot detect when players have particular things in their inventory. I could detect when those blocks are placed however, and that would be the next workaround. Essentially what I wanted, was once students have spoken to each NPC, they get swapped to creative mode and can fly around the cell having a look from different perspectives and being able to take more pictures if they so desired. I know that the teacher can do this manually, but for some silly reason I have it in my head that these things can/should be automatic, making it easier for others to use the map.

The other limitation I am working around is the lack of build tools. The /fill command, using relative coordinates is pretty neat, the lack of undo is a bit of a pain though. I have taken to grabbing a copy of the world folder before attempting any /fill (or /clone) that could take a while to undo manually. I haven't had to use the backup yet, the /fill with air command has been an adequate undo so far. I have also begun having a bit more of a crack at the /clone command, but this confuses me more times than it makes sense. It depends on which 'order' you put the coordinates in, and I am yet to see why it picks the particular corner it does for the start of the clone. I am sure there is logic there, and one day I may understand, but it is going to take some more trial and error.

The other workaround I am trying to get happening is the "execute detect setblock" group of commands, which is super helpful at swapping out large groups of blocks for another type, without ruining a structure. I used this to change the ER from netherrack to red glass in this video. I am thinking that this could be a very powerful tool if we get the ability to /summon command blocks with commands already in them, but until then, it is a tool for use in particular situations, rather than an auto-build tool. I can see this setup being able to 'auto build' almost anything for you, depending on what block you place down, but I am a long way from having that fully functional and easy to pick up and use.

I have also been streaming my lesson creation when the house is quiet enough to do so and I really enjoy it. I have been exporting these from Twitch to YouTube, so check out my YouTube channel if you want to watch my madness in almost 'real time' or follow me on Twitch if you want to see the madness in real, real time while throwing questions at me and trying to confuse me even more.

Thanks as always for reading, feel free to leave a comment below if you have another workaround I should try for any of the limitations I have mentioned, or if you have anything to say really. :D

I Am Back.... For Real This Time!

Hey there! I know I have said this multiple times over the last few years, but I am serious this time, I promise! I don't know how many of you follow my YouTube channel, I did release an update video a few weeks ago saying that I was actually finally returning to this space in a more active capacity than I have been for the last few years. Make no mistake, I have still been a part of the community, I am still a Global Minecraft Mentor and keep my fingers on the pulse and my thinking processes active in thinking of new maps or lessons I could create, but I acknowledge that have been quiet in the public space, mostly due to time constraints with 3 young children and new jobs and associated travel where Minecraft did not quite fit fully.

However, the great thing is, in my 'personal life' I have been beginning to find the time, limited of course, and energy, to work on converting some of my old MinecraftEdu maps like the Animal Cell to work in M:EE. Not only that but I have also been working on developing some new ideas, some in collaboration with multiple other Global Minecraft Mentors which is super fun and very exciting. I would like to thank to my youngest child for finally starting to sleep through the night multiple nights in a row. It is due to this somewhat regular unbroken sleep that the time and energy have started to return to my life. I am very pleased to say that I have been able to stream my thinking processes and decision making via Twitch when making maps/lessons in Minecraft Education Edition (thanks new computer and faster internet).

I encourage you to drop by and collaborate on map creation with me if you have time by interacting with me via the twitch chat while I am creating lessons. I know that the more ideas and perspectives we have incorporated into a map, the more students the map will be suitable for, and the greater the end result will be for the community. So far I have found this experience very enjoyable, https://www.twitch.tv/eduelfie is the place to find me live if you are interested, but I am also uploading these to YouTube afterwards, because, why not, so you can watch them there afterwards if you want, you just miss out on the interaction with me and the others involved. A word of warning, I am learning the process and software involved in streaming, next step is to figure out how to get the Twitch chat as an overlay on the YouTube videos so that my one sided conversation makes sense. I am also streaming my 3D modelling process there as well, so if you start watching and it doesn't look quite like Minecraft, feel free to watch, or disappear if you want and try again another time :D

All that being said, I can see you sitting there if you are a long time reader saying "Yeah sure Elfie, you have said this like 5 times over the last 2 years alone." and you are right, so what is different this time? I am super excited to be able to be more active in this space in a professional capacity over and above my personal passion. A change in role has meant that Minecraft is a part of my job again, rather than an add on and entirely passion driven volunteer activity. I cannot announce the full details just yet, but I will once it has all been finalised and made official. However I can tell you that a large part of this role will be coaching teachers in the use of M:EE in their classrooms and developing projects/lessons/maps to support them in this. Which of course means that these projects/lessons/map development is likely to be shared here, as will the reflections.

So, while I know I have said this several times in the past, and once already in this post, expect more regular and meaty updates from me around Minecraft in education, the projects, successes, failures and everything in between. The 'good old' days of me brain dumping here on a regular basis will be returning soon. So stay tuned!

Thanks as always for reading, feel free to leave a comment below. I look forward to posting more in the coming weeks and months as my new role picks up speed.