So, I have been quiet again lately, not because I have nothing to share, unfortunately, it is mostly because I have been super busy. There are some things I am working on, which I am not allowed to share, but others, tied in, that I probably can. So I have decided to take the time (however long that is) to write this post detailing some of the work, and how I am pushing my own thinking, my practice, and making Minecraft do the work for me in some cases all the while making it easier for other teachers to pick up my worlds, and lessons, and run them in their own classroom.
Speaking of lessons, I have been working on this website here: https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/pages/meeclassroomideas and being very clear on the curriculum links and instructions to try and help people get up and running. Whether you are in a Victorian government school or not, you are more than welcome to use any resources on that page in your own classroom.
Now to the 'fun' stuff, as you may, or may not know, with 1.7 Bedrock came scoreboard functionality, limited, but enough there for what I want to do, and used to do back in the MinecraftEdu days. So of course I have been exploring, dabbling, updating old builds and creating new ones for Minecraft: EE! But what exactly have you been doing you might ask....
Well, a mini-game, sort of. It is an archaeological dig experience, that will sit 'inside' a larger project (which is the one I am not allowed to share specifics of) and put students into the role of archaeologists, researching the history of a particular building site and coming up with some inferences about what the site was used for in the past. This has been months in development, and started with a rough sketch of disparate ideas and command block 'systems' into the massive conglomeration and automation of all of these mechanics and systems into one nice, not so neat, package.
The mechanics in this game are quite complex, and I am still in relatively early testing phases, particularly in terms of large student groups in the world. I need to make sure to get the right balance between students finding 'things' and not finding things, but the basic mechanics all appear to be working from my testing. Here are some screenshots of what the command block arrays look like, as well as some attempted explanations about what these actually 'do' to students in game.
These first 2 arrays control the 'display' space, and are set up (top image) to prevent students displaying non-artefacts, and (bottom) prevent the same artefact being displayed twice, as well as prepping the 'researcher' for the particular artefact displayed.
This whole array is a double up split in half, the left half allows students to 'find' artefacts at particular 'hotspots' in the dig site, while the right half is 'breaking' artefacts for students who dig too fast.
All the 'little bits' that control the dig speed, clone all the tools and other resources students need, as well as open and close the 'security' gate at the entry location.
This one is the 'array' of researchers, that get prepped and ready to 'drop' in on students and talk about the item on display. It ties in with the second picture, and knows which NPC to drop based on what artefact is put in the display frame.
There is an analysis array too, which consists of a hopper sorting system, and command block array, that takes a 'mystery' item that students find, and then analyses it for them.
The second project I have been working on just over the last couple of days is a completely automated question generator in Minecraft. Again using scoreboards. Instead of me coming up with a 'generic' list of set questions that students must answer to find out the slope of lines, or the y=mx+c equation of lines, getting Minecraft to generate random ones for students, based on the parameters I have set within the map.
Again, here are some screenshots of the arrays and what they do, but what I really like about this is the 'conversion' of scoreboard values, to text on signs. This has some pretty big implications for truly interactive and fluid world interactions based on students choices, answers, and overall progress 'through the quest line' of our learning tasks.
This array converts the score for 'building a' and 'building b' to text for the display.
There are 4 arrays like this, that convert from a score between 0 and 63 to the floor number on signs for both building a and building b and puts them on display for students.
This is the job-search mechanic, randomly assigns various scores and checks and balances all the scores to make sure that students get a 'reasonable' job to complete, lets them know when it is done searching.
This is the display for the job board, while not a command block array, this is the output of each of the other arrays shown above. Pressing the button to the left, starts the process, and populates a new job on the signs for students.
I have also been dabbling in some new 'future' opportunities available in Bedrock 1.8, which will hopefully soon be the base for M:EE. It allows us to add custom entities, with custom behaviours, textures and the works. Which means to create a bike, I don't need to take over the horse mob, I can literally create a mob that is a bike, make it rideable, with custom animations and everything!
Of course, having heard this, my own children have conspired to guilt me into making them a whole heap of animals for their own worlds, so I am in the process of creating, foxes, fairies, crocodiles, platypus and sharks, plus a few that I have likely forgotten, but surely will be reminded of. But it is all learning, and getting easier each time to get the base packs ready. The modelling and texturing are still my least favourite parts, but I am getting better at that too, when I have time to do it that is.
What really excites me about this is, firstly, the opportunity for students to create their own mobs or characters in their own worlds to support their demonstration of learning, but also it expands our opportunities as teacher content creators to create even more immersive environments for learning. As one example; trading could be done with any entity we create, fully customisable. Coupled with the scoreboard stuff already available I can see massive implications for 'automated' worlds and differentiation based on what students have, and have not done.
Well, that is a very broad update, there, of course, have been many other happenings, and things I should share, so I will try and take time and write them up as it happens, rather than sporadically as I have been. Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment below.
Speaking of lessons, I have been working on this website here: https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/pages/meeclassroomideas and being very clear on the curriculum links and instructions to try and help people get up and running. Whether you are in a Victorian government school or not, you are more than welcome to use any resources on that page in your own classroom.
Now to the 'fun' stuff, as you may, or may not know, with 1.7 Bedrock came scoreboard functionality, limited, but enough there for what I want to do, and used to do back in the MinecraftEdu days. So of course I have been exploring, dabbling, updating old builds and creating new ones for Minecraft: EE! But what exactly have you been doing you might ask....
Well, a mini-game, sort of. It is an archaeological dig experience, that will sit 'inside' a larger project (which is the one I am not allowed to share specifics of) and put students into the role of archaeologists, researching the history of a particular building site and coming up with some inferences about what the site was used for in the past. This has been months in development, and started with a rough sketch of disparate ideas and command block 'systems' into the massive conglomeration and automation of all of these mechanics and systems into one nice, not so neat, package.
The mechanics in this game are quite complex, and I am still in relatively early testing phases, particularly in terms of large student groups in the world. I need to make sure to get the right balance between students finding 'things' and not finding things, but the basic mechanics all appear to be working from my testing. Here are some screenshots of what the command block arrays look like, as well as some attempted explanations about what these actually 'do' to students in game.
These first 2 arrays control the 'display' space, and are set up (top image) to prevent students displaying non-artefacts, and (bottom) prevent the same artefact being displayed twice, as well as prepping the 'researcher' for the particular artefact displayed.
This whole array is a double up split in half, the left half allows students to 'find' artefacts at particular 'hotspots' in the dig site, while the right half is 'breaking' artefacts for students who dig too fast.
All the 'little bits' that control the dig speed, clone all the tools and other resources students need, as well as open and close the 'security' gate at the entry location.
This one is the 'array' of researchers, that get prepped and ready to 'drop' in on students and talk about the item on display. It ties in with the second picture, and knows which NPC to drop based on what artefact is put in the display frame.
There is an analysis array too, which consists of a hopper sorting system, and command block array, that takes a 'mystery' item that students find, and then analyses it for them.
The second project I have been working on just over the last couple of days is a completely automated question generator in Minecraft. Again using scoreboards. Instead of me coming up with a 'generic' list of set questions that students must answer to find out the slope of lines, or the y=mx+c equation of lines, getting Minecraft to generate random ones for students, based on the parameters I have set within the map.
Again, here are some screenshots of the arrays and what they do, but what I really like about this is the 'conversion' of scoreboard values, to text on signs. This has some pretty big implications for truly interactive and fluid world interactions based on students choices, answers, and overall progress 'through the quest line' of our learning tasks.
This array converts the score for 'building a' and 'building b' to text for the display.
There are 4 arrays like this, that convert from a score between 0 and 63 to the floor number on signs for both building a and building b and puts them on display for students.
This is the job-search mechanic, randomly assigns various scores and checks and balances all the scores to make sure that students get a 'reasonable' job to complete, lets them know when it is done searching.
This is the display for the job board, while not a command block array, this is the output of each of the other arrays shown above. Pressing the button to the left, starts the process, and populates a new job on the signs for students.
I have also been dabbling in some new 'future' opportunities available in Bedrock 1.8, which will hopefully soon be the base for M:EE. It allows us to add custom entities, with custom behaviours, textures and the works. Which means to create a bike, I don't need to take over the horse mob, I can literally create a mob that is a bike, make it rideable, with custom animations and everything!
Of course, having heard this, my own children have conspired to guilt me into making them a whole heap of animals for their own worlds, so I am in the process of creating, foxes, fairies, crocodiles, platypus and sharks, plus a few that I have likely forgotten, but surely will be reminded of. But it is all learning, and getting easier each time to get the base packs ready. The modelling and texturing are still my least favourite parts, but I am getting better at that too, when I have time to do it that is.
What really excites me about this is, firstly, the opportunity for students to create their own mobs or characters in their own worlds to support their demonstration of learning, but also it expands our opportunities as teacher content creators to create even more immersive environments for learning. As one example; trading could be done with any entity we create, fully customisable. Coupled with the scoreboard stuff already available I can see massive implications for 'automated' worlds and differentiation based on what students have, and have not done.
Well, that is a very broad update, there, of course, have been many other happenings, and things I should share, so I will try and take time and write them up as it happens, rather than sporadically as I have been. Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment below.
