a teacher s guide to the computers 4 kids minecraft ... · minecraft education edition is the new...

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A Teacher’ s guide to the computers 4 kids minecraft education edition lessons

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© Computers 4 Kids 2016

Contents

What is Minecraft Education Edition? .............................. 3

How to install Minecraft Education Edition ........................ 3

How to log into Minecraft Education Edition ....................... 4

Setting up to start playing ....................................... 5

Create a New World ................................................. 6

Joining a game ..................................................... 7

Finding your game IP Address ...................................... 8

Profile Types in Minecraft Education Edition ...................... 9

Customising your world with commands. ............................ 10

Using /ability .................................................. 10

Using /gamerule ................................................. 10

Using /give ..................................................... 11

Using /time set ................................................. 12

Using /weather .................................................. 12

Using /say and /tell ............................................ 12

Using Fixed Inventory Slots ..................................... 12

Special Blocks .................................................... 12

Border Blocks ................................................... 12

Allow and Deny Blocks ........................................... 13

Slate, Poster and Board ......................................... 13

Camera and Portfolio ............................................ 13

Non-playable Characters (NPCs) ................................... 14

Making Learning Visible – Ladder of Feedback ..................... 15

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Higher Order Thinking ........................ 15

Computers 4 Kids Unit 8 Skills ................................... 16

Badges ............................................................ 18

Resources ......................................................... 18

Other Resources related to game based learning and constructivism ................................................................ 18

.................................................................. 19

.................................................................. 19

Computers 4 Kids ................................................... 19

PO Box 31143, Tokai, 7966 ............................................ 19

Cape Town, South Africa ............................................. 19

+27 21 7127800 ...................................................... 19

[email protected] ........................................... 19

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What is Minecraft Education Edition? Minecraft Education Edition is the new version of Minecraft specifically for schools.

The preview version became available in mid-June 2016 and the final version in November 2016, with updates regularly being made.

Minecraft Education Edition is a version of Minecraft which has been specially adapted for use in the classroom and has some extra features which make it quite nifty.

Don’t worry if you are not a Minecraft ‘fundi’, your students certainly will be, and that is fine! Your role here is to provide learning opportunities for your students and to guide their use of the virtual space. Let their imaginations run free to create constructions you probably wouldn’t ever have thought of!

How to install Minecraft Education Edition In order to install Minecraft Education Edition you will need:

Computers running Windows 10

Microsoft Office 365 Education (this is free for schools so find out how to get it for your school if you don’t have it)

A network and internet access to authenticate.

Minecraft Education Edition licences (you can contact us at www.computers4kids.co.za for information on how to purchase these).

Now go to the Minecraft Education Edition Website: http://education.minecraft.net/getstarted/ and follow the prompts.

If your school has already purchased Minecraft then you should be able to claim a Minecraft licence. Otherwise you may pay for an individual licence.

The installation file will now download and you can run this on your computer to install Minecraft. Note: Minecraft Education Edition is a Windows 10 app which has to be installed in your computer, it does not run online.

http://www.computers4kids.co.za/

http://education.minecraft.net/getstarted/

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How to log into Minecraft Education Edition Select the Minecraft Education Edition App from the Windows 10 Start Screen.

You will be asked for your institution email address. Login with your Office 365 email address and password.

Note: this is where Minecraft will make use of your internet in order to authenticate your users but after this point the internet will not be used again. The local area network would be needed, however, for the players to play together.

You are now on the start screen. You can choose to Play straight away or tweek some of the options.

Skins will allow you to change the appearance of your character. Click on the hanger under the character to see the options.

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Setting up to start playing Clicking on the Settings button allows you to set up Minecraft to your liking.

The top left section of the Settings window allows you to make changes to the Keyboard and Mouse Settings.

Note that you can use a Keyboard & Mouse (the mouse is really necessary, it is difficult to play with a touchpad), a Xbox controller or a touch screen.

The bottom left section of the Settings window allows you to make changes to the General settings. You can change settings such as the size of the screen and the GUI (that is the toolbar at the bottom of the Minecraft screen). You can hide it altogether if you want to.

You can turn sounds on and off with the Audio button and also use Minecraft in another

Language if you want to.

Click the cross at the top right-hand corner to close the window.

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Create a New World Once you click the Play button you will be asked if you want to use an existing world (they will be listed), create a New World, or Import a world.

Hint: give your worlds sensible names so you can tell them apart later and encourage your students to do the same.

Clicking on the tools next to the name of your world will allow you to see some options about the world. I have changed the World Name and I could change from Creative to Survival mode if I wished. And I could change the Difficulty of the world. I can also Export my world to Import on another

computer or Delete World if I wish to.

The Seed value represents a unique number which produced the world. If you create another new world with the same seed, it will be identical (although it won’t have anything you added to the world)

Make sure that Cheats are turned on so that you can use the commands in the game to control the play of your characters.

Sometimes you want the time to stay set to Always Day so that

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Joining a game If you want to join a game that someone has already started, click the Friends tab at the top of the screen. (Clearly I am friendless, which is not a consequence of playing Minecraft! Minecraft is very social, as you will see).

Click the Add Server button to get the option to add an IP Address.

This is what your students are going to do to join your world. You will tell them the IP Address and they will enter the numbers here.

What you call the server is up to you.

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Finding your game IP Address Once you are in the game you can press ESC at any time to pause your participation in the game and make adjustments to your settings.

The IP Address for your computer (which is acting as the Minecraft server) is clearly displayed on this screen. This is the number you will give your students.

All the other players playing in the same world will be displayed as a list on the right.

Resume Game allows you to resume your game where you left off. If you have your Minecraft installed on a particular machine with a static IP address (ask your IT technicians if they can set this up), then you shouldn’t have to give out a new address every time. The ‘server’ could be any computer on your network, it doesn’t need to be a dedicated server for only this task.

Again, I have a Settings button which allows me to do things like turn off the music and sound effects (which will be horrendous in a classroom with speakers!) This settings windows differs slightly from the Settings at game setup because here you can change your individual settings but not influence the whole game.

Save and Quit takes you right out of the game but saves your position so if you re-enter the game you will be in the same spot. This can cause problems when students get ‘lost’ within the game.

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Profile Types in Minecraft Education Edition There are three profile types in the new Minecraft: Operator, World Builder and Normal player.

When you log into Minecraft first and either load an existing world or create a new one, you will be an Operator. This means that you can use commands (more about those later). Anyone who joins your world after that has a Normal profile. They can use what is in the inventory but only have access to basic commands. In order to give a player operator ability, use /op. You can also /deop in order to remove their abilities.

If you want to be able to use the Education Edition blocks and other elements you need to have World Builder capabilities. World Builders can create and destroy and can ignore other restrictions. To give yourself Worldbuilder capability, use the following command:

/ability @p worldbuilder true

Hint: Just start typing the command and it will appear at the bottom of the screen. When you have finished, use the Back at the top right corner to return to your game.

Ref: http://education.minecraft.net/dwkb/profile-types/

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Customising your world with commands. In order to control what is going on in the world when you are an Operator or a World Builder, you will need to know how to use commands.

Luckily there aren’t that many and you will soon get the hang of it.

To use a command simply start typing. All commands start with a forward slash /

The command environment helps you out by suggesting what you might like to type next.

Using /ability We have seen that /ability allows you to give yourself or others in the game World Builder. You can also give other players the ability to fly.

Using /gamerule These commands allow you to control for damage taken during falls, setting a world to immutable, and turning on/off PvP (that’s where your students can hurt other players – not cool!) Here are the choices for /gamerule.

drowningdamage- toggles damage from no air falldamage- toggles damage from falling firedamage- toggles damage from fire and lava immutableworld- the world cannot be altered, but doors, levers, etc. can still be used pvp - toggles ability of players to do damage to each other

Ref: http://education.minecraft.net/dwkb/customizing-worlds-with-gamerule/

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Using /give The /give command allows you to send blocks and equipment to your students, either one at a time, on all of them at once.

/give @p apple 5

Would give the nearest player (which would be yourself) 5 apples.

To give all the players 5 apples use @a

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Using /time set /time set will allow you to set the time to day or night.

Using /weather This allows you to change the weather and specify a duration for the weather condition.

Using /say and /tell /say allows you to broadcast a message to all students while /tell will let you send a message directly to only one student.

Using Fixed Inventory Slots /setfixedinvslot will set a number of fixed inventory slots. Minecraft: Education Edition has up to three extra slots that can be used. Only the Operator can remove or place items into them and they must be created and equipped through commands.

Once you have an item equipped to a fixed inventory slot, you have an infinite amount of it. They appear to the right of the standard nine inventory slots in the main game, and you can use the 0 key to access them and keep pressing 0 to cycle through them.

/setfixedinvslot 1 camera sets the first slot as a camera. /setfixedinvslot 2 portfolio and /setfixedinvslot 3 emptymap set the second and third fixed inventory slots as a portfolio and a map.

A common set of commands to set up a new world is as follows:

This is a convenient way of starting players with certain tools you need them to have.

Special Blocks There are several special blocks which have been incorporated into Minecraft Education Edition.

Border Blocks Border Blocks allow the teacher to block off areas or contain students within an area of the world. Normal players will not be able to pass over, under or through Border Blocks.

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Allow and Deny Blocks These are useful to define areas where students either can or can’t build.

Slate, Poster and Board Basically these three do the same thing but differ in their size. You can write on the boards by right clicking on them once you have placed them.

Camera and Portfolio The camera tool allows the player to take selfies of themselves or pictures of things in front of them.

These are then placed in a Portfolio of labelled ‘photographs’. This Portfolio can be exported so that the student has a record of the work they have done in the game.

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Non-playable Characters (NPCs) Non-playable Characters are characters who do not take part in the world but can be used to give other players information.

To create non-playable characters in your world, you can use Spawn NPC Eggs to place them. Find the egg (it is rainbow coloured) and bring it to your inventory, then right click to place it on the ground. An NPC will appear in that space with the default Steve skin. If you are a World Builder, right clicking the NPC will bring up the customize screen. In this screen, you can change the name, displayed text, “learn more” URL, and skin.

The name of the NPC will remain visible from a distance, even through walls. When an Operator or Normal player right clicks on an NPC, they will see the displayed text, and a “learn more” button that launches the URL. Experiment with the “learn more” button, it can launch more than just websites!

Ref: http://education.minecraft.net/dwkb/using-npcs/

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Making Learning Visible – Ladder of Feedback The idea of the ladder of feedback is that students will learn to give their peers constructive feedback on how they have done in a task. This gives a framework to the feedback and allows for developing community amongst the students.

https://makinglearningvisibleresources.wikispaces.com/Ladder+of+Feedback

Ladder of feedback

Clarify: Ask questions which make the idea behind the work. e.g. “How did you make that structure”, “Why did you choose this colour”

Value: Say what you like about the piece of work. “I think you did a good job of…”; “I love …. About your work”.

State concerns: Say what is worrying you about the work. e.g. “I wonder if…” “It seems to me” (Don’t use negative phrases like “This is wrong”)

Suggest: Suggest an improvement which might make the work even better. e.g. “Have you thought of…?”; “What if you do … instead of …?”

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Higher Order Thinking

Minecraft is essentially about creating, and when we tie this to existing knowledge, we achieve the highest order of thinking. Evaluating is an important aspect of the game. Students can evaluate their constructions and those of others to see which are the most appropriate. Analysing is about examining and testing theoretical concepts. What better way to do them than in Minecraft? Can students use information they have in a new way? Minecraft allows plenty of opportunity to apply knowledge. Demonstrating understanding is easy when you can make a 3D model and use the Portfolio to describe what you have learned. Making hyperlinks to information on the Internet would help students to remember facts about the topic they are studying.

Creating

Evaluating

Analysing

Applying

Understanding

Remembering

https://makinglearningvisibleresources.wikispaces.com/Ladder+of+Feedback

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Computers 4 Kids Unit 8 Skills The Computers 4 Kids Coding and Game-Based Learning module follows the major trends in International education. The key aims are to teaching Computational Thinking as a method for problem solving and to promote creative thinking and problem solving through coding and gaming activities.

e-Learner Unit 8 Coding and Game-based Learning.

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Platinum

8.1 Open program

8.1.1 Open programming software or gaming software

8.1.2 Login (Minecraft)

8.2 Program / game

8.2.1 Create new program file / game

8.2.2 Open program file / game

8.3 Sprites / Blocks / Objects

8.3.1 Insert new sprites / blocks / object into program or game.

8.3.2 Change appearance of sprite / block / object.

8.3.3 Move sprites / blocks / objects around environment

8.3.4 Use blocks to build objects (houses, furniture etc.) (Minecraft)

8.3.5 Use blocks to craft other objects (Minecraft)

8.3.6 Delete sprites / blocks / objects from environment

8.4 Coding 8.4.0 Use key to decipher or encrypt a simple message

8.4.1 Create simple code to make sprites / objects move in environment

8.4.2 Make sprites / objects interact with each other (using code)

8.4.3 Change appearance of a sprites/objects using coding

8.4.4 Use if.. then… else decisions

8.4.5 Use loops

8.4.6 Debug simple programs

8.5 Use of variables

8.5.1 Understand data Input and Output in a program

8.5.2 Create variables

8.5.3 Store values in variables and recall values from variables

8.5.4 Increment variables (e.g scoring systems)

8.5.5 Use stored values to perform calculations

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e-Learner

Unit 8

Coding and Game-based Learning.

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Platinum

8.6 Stage / Environment / World

8.6.1 Start game with existing world / open stage or background.

8.6.2 Edit existing background / stage or world

8.6.3 Create a new background / stage or world

8.6.4 Create levels / additional screens / portals to move to other dimensions / stages

8.7 Planning 8.7.1 Understand what an Algorithm is

8.7.2 Follow Flowcharts to understand simple processes

8.7.3 Create simple flowcharts to describe simple processes

8.7.4 Create complex flowcharts to plan programs (including decisions and loops)

8.7.5 Follow Pseudocode plan to create a simple program.

8.8 Save 8.8.1 Save changes

8.8.2 Save as.. with a new name

8.9 Screengrabs

8.9.1 Take Screenshots

8.9.2 Record Screencast

8.10 Print 8.10.1 Print output of program / screenshots

8.10.2 Print code / program

8.11 Exit 8.11.1 Exit the game / programming software.

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Badges Students can achieve various levels of badges relating to their proficiency in terms of Minecraft skills. These can be awarded within Mozilla Open Badges: http://openbadges.org

Resources

Computers 4 Kids website: http://www.computers4kids.co.za

Minecraft Education Edition website: http://education.minecraft.net/

Check out the Computers4Kids YouTube channel for exciting lesson ideas and resources.

http://bit.ly/MinecraftC4K

Other Resources related to game based learning and constructivism http://www.edutopia.org/blog/great-teachers-do-not-teach-ben-johnson Great Teachers Do Not Teach (Ben Johnson) - Constructivism in the modern classroom

https://www.ted.com/talks/gabe_zichermann_how_games_make_kids_smarter (Gabe Zichermann)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH83NyjoXbU Gaming for understanding (Brenda Braithwaite)

https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world?language=e

n Gaming can make a better world (Jane McGonigal)

http://openbadges.org/

http://www.computers4kids.co.za/

http://education.minecraft.net/

http://bit.ly/MinecraftC4K

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/great-teachers-do-not-teach-ben-johnson

https://www.ted.com/talks/gabe_zichermann_how_games_make_kids_smarter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH83NyjoXbU

https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world?language=en

https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world?language=en

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Computers 4 Kids

PO Box 31143, Tokai, 7966

Cape Town, South Africa

+27 21 7127800

[email protected]

a teacher s guide to the computers 4 kids minecraft ... · minecraft education edition is the new...

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