I Always Forget.

I woke up at 4:30am the other day with some brilliant ideas on how to use Minecraft to teach Maths. I didn't bother getting up and writing the ideas down because I was sure I would be able to remember them. Turns out I was wrong, I cannot remember what my brilliant ideas were. So now I need to wait until they come to me again and when they do I will definitely write them down, and I need to get a notepad for beside my bed.

On another note I have joined a Minecraft in School community to help share some of the ideas I have on using Minecraft in the classroom to teach students. Here is a link to it.

The Minecraft Teacher gave me access to the latest version of the tutorial map to use with my students, I found a couple of exploits that I will be fixing and sending back to him. As I mentioned in the last post I think it is a great way to introduce the students to the wonderful world of Minecraft.

On yet another note Minecraft Teacher tweeted about a very interesting project, I think I am going to have to donate to do my bit to get this started and get access to the beta version. I have always wanted to be able to program games, specifically for educating students, and this project would probably give me the knowledge I need to do that. So I might be expanding my game based learning ideas even further.

[Edit]

I donated to the above project, downloading the Beta now. I will be having a play around over the next few days. Yet more school work that wont get done.

Tutorial World.

Well I had my first Minecraft lesson today, I started my year 7 Science class running through the tutorial world. I don't think it is the latest version of the world as I found a place where the kids could escape and plugged it quickly before they could. So I will probably have to make the students 'start again' once I replace it with the newest one. It is my own fault for being lazy, when I re-install the latest version on the school server I don't tick for the inbuilt worlds to be installed as they are already there. So I guess I will have to fix that before the next lesson.

The lesson itself started in chaos, for some strange reason, all of the computers MinecraftEdu should be installed on didn't have it installed, so there was a bit of running around finding the install file, putting it somewhere on the network where it could be accessed, and then running the kids through the install process, but even that was surprisingly simple and very successful. So double thumbs up to the development crew for making the classroom edition such a simple install that 12-13 year olds can do it.

I explained to the students that I was going to record what was happening in the lesson today to show other teachers how it works and hope that they want to join the 'fun'. So they were very well behaved, there was one student who was running around looking for a way to escape the boundaries, he was unsuccessful, but we had a good laugh about it anyway.

We didn't get very far through the map because of the time spent installing and connecting to the server, but the students had an absolute ball. I have to hand it to Joel and the others that built the tutorial map, so far it has been a great way to teach the students the basics of Minecraft.

It will be a week until we continue our journey of learning Minecraft as a class. After that I can get stuck into some custom maps for geography and mapping and some very quick 'concept' maps for some of the trickier Science concepts I need to cover this term.

I will be checking the footage from the class and will most likely upload it to my youtube channel if you are interested in seeing the students have fun, get frustrated and get helped out by their friendly teacher :D

Exciting News.

Hi all, I have some exciting news....

I have reached over 100 subscribers on my youtube channel, so I thought I should do a special video and blog post. So here is the post, and below is the video, I didn't think that just a video saying thanks was what I should do, so I also added in a quick tour of the 3d cell build so far. It is coming along nicely, and now I don't need the map until the later half of the year.

A massive thanks to all those who have subscribed to my channel and regularly watch my videos and read this blog. I really enjoy sharing my game based learning journey, and it makes it so much more meaningful for me knowing that there are people out there enjoying what I am sharing, and perhaps trialling it themselves.

Thanks again, here is the video.

Classes Start SOON!!!

I am very excited, I don't remember ever being this eager to get back in to the class room at the end of holidays. I have had a lot of ideas that I want to try using with the students in MinecraftEdu. Most are just quick, easy to make maps that teach a specific concept, ones that I think are hard to grasp. I hope that these virtual interactions will help the students understand the concept, and also remember the learning that occurred in game.

I have made absolutely no progress on my cell tour, I just keep putting it off, I think I was a bit overly ambitious with the size. I wont abandon it completely, but I have had other projects that I was thinking about and needed to do some work on. One was the sequential answer system, I now have a working model, including a 3 strikes and you are 'dead' function.

I attempted to record a tutorial on how to build one of these systems, it took a long time, so it is the first time I have had to split a tutorial into parts, 5 in total. I am not sure how clear the tutorial is, and if someone could reproduce what I have built by watching the video (or if anyone would want to). So if you get a chance to watch the 5 part tutorial your feedback would be very welcomed as to how easy you think it would be (or was) to reproduce a system like the one in the video. Part 1 is below.

I have had a play on someone else server since my last post, and I came across none of the redstone glitches I was having on my own school server. This leaves me with 3 options, the first is that the Minecraft update 1.1.0 had a lot of SMP redstone update bugs fixed. The second being that my server needs a bit (read lot) more resources, i.e. more RAM (most likely). The third, which is most unlikely, is that there are glitches in the Edu mod.

So I am waiting to see what happens when the Edu mod is released with 1.1.0 compatibility and if I still have the redstone glitches I will allocate more RAM to the server and hope for the best. Otherwise I will have to hassle the devs to try and work out what the issue could be.

That is pretty much all the news I have, I am hoping I will be able to do more Minecraft educating with the students over the next 9 weeks and keep you guys updated on our progress, instead of just rambling about what I have done, I will be able to get back to showing you what students have created in the wonderful world on Minecraft. As always thanks for taking the time to read.

Redstone Is Testing.

I have just spent the last hour or two working on a combination lock in Minecraft. The principle is sound, my idea works, it is just the darn redstone update glitches that are so common in multiplayer Minecraft that are causing me issues. So if I end up doing single player 'adventure' maps to teach the students things I have the perfect combination lock, or numerical answer question, or anything else that is order specific in terms of input. I will probably record a tutorial on it anyway as I think it is a cool idea. I have not worked on the cell since my last update so nothing interesting there. So I guess that just leaves screenshots of the combination lock. Enjoy.

 The 'interface' with the numbers 0-9 as buttons, and a reset button.

 The wiring heading towards the back, what a mess of redstone it is.

The whole build, at this stage anyway. While I was writing this post I remembered I need to add each incorrect digit to the reset line. And I have just had even more thoughts about what happens if they choose the correct first digit, then one of the correct digits for the second, but not the second. Hmmmmm, much more wiring to be done before it is a full working project. Better get back to it then. Thanks for taking the time to read.

[Update]

I have spent a little more time messing around and I think I have it fully working, except for the glitches. All the incorrect numbers reset the system, also the 'correct' numbers in the incorrect order will reset the system too. Here are the updated screenshots, notice the added lines on the red wool in front of the pistons, that is the reset line. I think it works pretty well.

The new and improved whole build.

 Now when the piston is retracted the signal sent down the wire will reset the system. But if you have the sequence correct, the piston will be pushed out and the signal will trigger the next piston in line.

I am sure this could be neatened up considerably, and made much smaller, a project for another time though.

Cannot Help Myself.

Hi all, I know in my last post I said I must not start any new projects until I finish my cell tour map, but I just couldn't help myself. I had a thought, and it needed testing. I had spent about a day hunting around for mapping tools trying to find one that I liked, and worked the way I wanted. Then I posted my last post, and went to bed.

While asleep I had even more thoughts about contour maps and how best to use Minecraft to help the kids learn about them, and what they represent. I had a brainwave that I needed to test out. So I set myself up in a fresh world on the Edu server and proceeded to record myself as I put my thought into action. Below is the resulting video.

I am amazed at how well it turned out. It is exactly what I was looking for and I can barely wait the 3-4 weeks it is going to be before I teach contour maps so that I can use this with my class to see how it goes with students. Until then I guess I will just have to keep thinking of new ideas. As always thanks for taking the time to read my blog, feedback and comments are welcomed.

Cell Membrane 1/4 Done.

Well it has been a while since I have let you guys know what is happening. It has been super busy this last week or so, it is coming up to the end of our holidays which means all the work that I was supposed to spread across the holidays has, as per normal, been left to the 'last minute'. I work better to a timeline anyway.

I spoke to one of the devs this morning and he told me about some of the cool new features coming up in the next release, which he also said should be within the next couple of weeks which is awesome. It hopefully will include 1.1.0 support. He did say that teleport blocks should be included, from what I understand these can be placed around the world, and teachers can access them from an in-game menu and teleport to any of them. Each teleport block can also be hidden or shown to students, and at each block you can decide which other blocks the students can get to from there.

Also included are some new build modes, one which is a more advanced version of the current 'horizontal build mode' that allows blocks to be placed in front of you. This is going to allow you to place blocks where you are looking, with distance chosen by scrolling. The other 'locks' you to the center of the block and you can move one block at a time, even through walls, so that measuring distances while building will be even easier.

I also made a request for a compass that points North instead of to spawn, as I am teaching Geography this year, which is not what I am trained for, but I think the potential for mapping and orienteering activities in Minecraft is enormous.

My first thought is contour lines, now these are difficult to grasp, I think because you cannot walk the mountain that you were just given the contour lines for (in a 1 hour lesson anyway). Step into Minecraft, where you can walk the mountain that you have just seen the contour lines, then you can pick another mountain, use some of the free mapping tools out there for Minecraft and bam, you can also draw your own contour map for a different mountain that you saw in the world of Minecraft.

Then orienteering, instead of, or more likely as well as, setting up an orienteering course around the school, set one up in a Minecraft world where there are 'prizes' (read diamonds) at certain points along the path you need to take, or perhaps the parts needed to build 'something'. All of this is just rough thoughts for now. I am nowhere near completed my cell so I must not start a new project/map just yet.

So now for the update on the cell, as I said I have not had a great deal of time to work on it, but I have completed the wireframe for the bottom half of the membrane and actually managed to fill in half of the bottom half, and since I am a maths teacher I know that means that the cell membrane is about one quarter of the way done. Here are the latest screenshots. Enjoy.

 I have started placing some torches around underneath just so that I can see the general shape and make sure it looks how it is 'supposed' to.

I think the overall shape is quite good, I am really happy with the 'randomness' and folds that are being created as I go.

As always thanks for taking the time to read, please leave a comment with your thoughts or suggestions if you have any.