Functions are Flipping Fun and Potently Powerful.

Firstly, let me apologise for the title of the post. I was feeling somewhat creative and flippant, and well.. unfortunately this is what happens.

To business, the latest update of Minecraft: Education Edition brings with it massive functionality that we can use to 'smooth the waters' and begin to develop really supportive 'things' for teachers (and students) to use in their classrooms. This functionality, with no pun intended, is actually the /function command.

Just the yesterday I released the first public version of my 'Classroom Management Pack' and while still under active development, it is very, very neat in my humble opinion. It takes all of the suggested 'fixes' for classroom management concerns from community members that I recorded and published in September last year, but it also adds in a freeze all players option as well as a few other new tweaks I learnt along the way. Check out the video here:

None of this would have been this 'easy' without functions being available. Essentially what a function is, in the simplest terms I can think of, is a series of Minecraft commands that are run 'all at once, but in order.' It is super simple to get started with, and I will have a tutorial and supportive documents to help you out in getting started yourself 'soon' but in the mean time, start thinking about all the things you could automate.

I know using these functions took my latest project from 1000+ command blocks down to maybe 300 or so. It also makes editing things much easier, as they are just plain old text documents where if you find a mistake, you don't need to edit it in every command block but 'find and replace' has become my new best friend. I even found a find and replace in all files option in Notepad++ that I used on a few occasions to do bulk changes across the entire map, saving me hours of command block editing, even if I were to do it in MCEdit.

But what I am really excited about, is that I think this functionality could really support teachers in a much more active way than classroom management, and that is in 'building' as ridiculous as that sounds. One of the biggest limitations I have had with M:EE as opposed to the old Java MinecraftEdu is the inability to have 'worldedit' functionality in-game. I much rather being in-game building things as it gives me a much better perspective. However I have been 'resorting' (sounds so bad, but really it isn't) to MCEdit, and while that is also super powerful, and has a place in my workflow for creating worlds, it would be awesome if I didn't have to export out of M:EE every time I wanted to do a simple import of a schematic.

Now I don't think I have the capability to do a complete 'worldedit' pack, but I am going to have a stab at it, but before that I do that, I am going to create a 'build pack' where there are some solid, functional builds ready to import to a world, while in world. This would not be a 'simple' thing to add to, the way I understand it right now, but I remember ages ago, that Shane used to have the same 'start layout' in each and every map he made. This could be a reality again, if you wrote the function to create that build, then you could just have the 'build pack' in each world, and type the command to build that start location almost instantly.

Imagine you could have a function to build the structure, prepare all the scoreboards for one of my complex scoreboard builds (ECAS or ECAAS) to do multiple choice answers in-game, and the teacher only needs to run the 'create' command and then copy/paste the appropriate commands into the appropriate command blocks. This removes, what I believe to be the biggest barrier to using these kinds of things in multiple lessons, and that is using MCEdit to import schematics into a world. Don't get me wrong, it is possible, it is just not something that teachers necessarily have the time, or inclination to learn.

Anyway, exciting times ahead, thanks as always for reading, if you want to follow the progress of the 'build pack' (I will try to update here as often as possible) follow me on Twitter @EduElfie. If you have any comments, or questions please leave them in the comments below, reach out on Twitter or ask in the Mentor Discord: https://discord.gg/7fSQBdx 

Playing Games as Opposed to Learning In Games

Back to normal broadcast this post, brain dump time! I have been grinding my brain over something that has been bothering these last couple of weeks, and I think I now have my mind ready to go and put my thoughts into some form of coherence here. The topic is, how is playing games while learning, different to learning while playing games, and which is best for classrooms. I have a summary right at the bottom, for those who are short on time, and don't want to read all the ramblings, but just want the essence of what I came to realise.

Might seem a curly topic, and I really should probably explain why this has come about. Recently I have come across resources that have students playing disconnected mini-games in Minecraft while looking at models, or trying to solve problems. The key point there is that the games are disconnected from the learning, they have no connection at all, and in some cases the game actually gets in the way of learning.

I am not trying to point fingers, or put down somebody's work, however I just cannot see how this is a positive thing to be available for community members to access, and I think it makes it even harder for teachers to get started, or even continue their journey.

So, I want to try and clarify my thinking about this. I am a big proponent of using the game to support teaching, in fact I think that is one of the best uses of Minecraft is to actually use the game mechanics to support the teaching focus or learning outcome. I think another key idea here is that learning can be fun, but having fun doesn't necessarily mean learning is taking place. A lot of people talk about engagement being a key factor in their decision to bring Minecraft into their classroom, and let's not beat around the bush here, it is a game, it is fun, and it is engaging, but none of those should get in the way of a good/better learning outcome for students.

So what is the difference between playing a game, and using the game mechanics to support learning? I am going to be honest, I just spent 20 minutes writing up some examples to try and clearly define my thinking here, and it just muddied it even further, as each time I thought I had a 'game' as opposed to 'mechanic supporting learning' I thought of a way to change the 'game' so it was supporting learning or a specific learning outcome where it would be relevant. So let's discuss fighting of mobs as this is something, in my experience, that some kids regularly request when they first get into Minecraft in a classroom.

I am not talking students in survival and writing a journal of their experiences, as the 'game' is leading to the writing and planning there. I am talking about kids being given 'time' to go and kill mobs in Minecraft, kitting themselves out in whatever gear they want and going out in the night(or day) with the goal of slaying as many bad guys as they can.

When would I use this in my classroom? Well, how about the learning context is probability, and students are tasked with trying to find out the difference between the levels of the looting enchants and what the likelihood of various monster drops are. Or students are collecting data on how many mobs they can kill with different types of sword, and comparing the durability or attack damage of each.

When wouldn't I? As a 'boss battle' at the end of the class or while students are trying to do some learning task within Minecraft. While students are building a model of a solar system, is not a good time to start a battle with mobs in Minecraft.

I think the key idea here, as I sit and write this, is that the game(the fun) doesn't get in the way of learning. It has to be connected to it in some way. That is using the mechanics in the game to support students to achieve a learning outcome. If I cannot clearly outline how the particular activity students are doing supports them in reaching the learning intention for the lesson.. then why am I doing it? This seems so simple, and I am not sure where this has been lost in some of these resources.

Engagement should never be the answer to the "Why am I doing this?" question. "We have done our learning in Minecraft, now lets fight some mobs." with the goal of trying to make sure students have fun is not the way to go in my opinion. It devalues the tool, and will make it more difficult to keep the learning happening without 'the fun' in future lessons. Learning can be fun in Minecraft, you don't have to 'add' fun games on top to try and make students enjoy it.

A well planned and executed lesson in Minecraft is engaging on its own merits. If students are asking to play games, or PvP, then perhaps the lesson is lacking something, but the answer is not to then disconnect from the learning and go do something 'fun.' The answer is to revisit the learning goal, think about how you would normally teach this without Minecraft, and critically reflect on what Minecraft can replace in this lesson, what it can add to, and what it may detract from. You can always stop the lesson, and talk to the kids about how they think Minecraft can help them with their learning if you don't know how it might apply better.

I guess this has all come about, because even though there are these resources out there, which I would be unable to suggest any teachers use, I am also working on a very 'game centric' lesson currently. I am trying to solidify why my 'game' based lesson is OK, while the others I am being critical of are not. I still think it comes down to the play is part of the learning, not disconnected. It is, I guess, a role play, where students take on the role of a particular profession, and do a whole heap of 'underlying' learning while completing the 'game' in Minecraft.

This is massively different to playing (mini)games with no connection to the learning focus or goal if that makes any sense. Well.... I am not sure I have actually achieved my goal of making my thinking clearer. It certainly isn't muddier, and only time will tell if I can clarify my thinking any further.

Here is a summary:There is now a big difference in my mind between playing 'while' learning and playing 'for' learning, and it comes down to whether the play is connected to the learning or disconnected from it.

Thanks as always for reading, and feel free to leave a comment below if you have an opinion you would like to share on this. I think with more thoughts and opinions this can only get clearer and easier to distinguish the 'good' learning while playing from the 'not so good' playing while learning.