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Show HN: Teachcraft – Learn Python through Minecraft

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Re: Show HN: Teachcraft – Learn Python through Minecraft

#31

Post by JPKab »

corobo wrote: post #27
Confiks wrote: post #3

Looks like a great guide to get started with coding with Minecraft. There have been some efforts over the years, but this looks really complete. One obstacle for schools to get started with this however, is buying all the Minecraft licenses. To this end, I've been toying around a bit with an open source Minecraft clone called Minetest lately [1][2]. It's surprisingly complete, and could also have great uses in (progr…

> buying all the Minecraft licenses All the schools I know of have an iPad per child these days. I doubt it's an issue [Edit: Ok roger that, not all schools. Consider me told] There's also this https://education.minecraft.net/

Dude, the majority of people in the United States don't live near a Whole Foods, let alone the rest of the world.

If you think most schools have an Ipad per child, you live in a bubble.

Re: Show HN: Teachcraft – Learn Python through Minecraft

#32

Post by corobo »

JPKab wrote: post #31
corobo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> buying all the Minecraft licenses All the schools I know of have an iPad per child these days. I doubt it's an issue [Edit: Ok roger that, not all schools. Consider me told] There's also this https://education.minecraft.net/

Dude, the majority of people in the United States don't live near a Whole Foods, let alone the rest of the world. If you think most schools have an Ipad per child, you live in a bubble.

Quite possibly. I didn't think at all outside of my "jesus these schools are giving kids ipads now? When I were a lad the school had 2 PCs for the entire building" bubble.

For reference I was also talking from within a UK only bubble too.

Re: Show HN: Teachcraft – Learn Python through Minecraft

#33

Post by nikkidurkin »

This looks great! I run after-school coding lessons for Australian kids aged 8-12, teaching them to code Minecraft mods using scratch-like code blocks (if you're interested, its https://codemakers.com.au).

I've been looking for a solution for teaching the more advanced students who want to start using a 'real' language. I was initially looking at using Scriptcraft, but TeachCraft looks like another great option!

Re: Show HN: Teachcraft – Learn Python through Minecraft

#34

Post by laurentoget »

https://education.minecraft.net/faq/how-much-does-it-cost/

minecraft education is $5/year, with 'opportunities for volume licensing' which sounds affordable, but then it feels really misguided for microsoft not to give it away for free. Getting future developers to have some contact with the microsoft ecosystem is worth more than $5 i would think.

Re: Show HN: Teachcraft – Learn Python through Minecraft

#36

Post by JPKab »

corobo wrote: post #32
JPKab wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, the majority of people in the United States don't live near a Whole Foods, let alone the rest of the world. If you think most schools have an Ipad per child, you live in a bubble.

Quite possibly. I didn't think at all outside of my "jesus these schools are giving kids ipads now? When I were a lad the school had 2 PCs for the entire building" bubble. For reference I was also talking from within a UK only bubble too.

In fairness to you, I suspect the government schools (we call them public in the US, but I recall that "public school" means something entirely different in the UK) in your country are much better funded. I may be incorrect.

In the US, public schools are funded primarily by local governments, and are therefore extremely unequal in their funding, even within a relatively small geographic area.

I graduated high school from an impoverished rural county in 1999. The school I attended had a smattering of Windows 95 machines, enough so that about a 1/3 of the classrooms had a computer in it. There were only 2 machines in the entire school with internet access, and they were in the library. This was for a student body of roughly 600.

When I went to university, students from other (wealthier) parts of my home state of Virginia had been in schools where each student had a computer, and all had access to programming courses starting in middle school. Not surprisingly, students from these schools were disproportionately represented in my uni, and my "Intro to Computer Science" course was mostly filled with kids who had been programming for years. It made it very difficult to learn when more than 80% of the students have a huge advantage going in, and give the professors a false perception of how effective the teaching is. I sure hope the UK isn't like that.

Re: Show HN: Teachcraft – Learn Python through Minecraft

#37

Post by nikkidurkin »

laurentoget wrote: post #34

https://education.minecraft.net/faq/how-much-does-it-cost/ minecraft education is $5/year, with 'opportunities for volume licensing' which sounds affordable, but then it feels really misguided for microsoft not to give it away for free. Getting future developers to have some contact with the microsoft ecosystem is worth more than $5 i would think.

Unfortunately you need Minecraft for Mac/PC: Java Edition to use mods, so modding won't work on the education edition.

Re: Show HN: Teachcraft – Learn Python through Minecraft

#39

Post by Sylos »

Confiks wrote: post #3

Looks like a great guide to get started with coding with Minecraft. There have been some efforts over the years, but this looks really complete. One obstacle for schools to get started with this however, is buying all the Minecraft licenses. To this end, I've been toying around a bit with an open source Minecraft clone called Minetest lately [1][2]. It's surprisingly complete, and could also have great uses in (progr…

What's more, almost all content in Minetest is implemented as a mod with this Lua API. So, you can really do essentially anything you want. Changing a crafting recipe or what a block drops when mined, is a matter of five minutes. Don't know the scope of Teachcraft, but I doubt it's as big.

And also in my opinion really important, is that Minetest is a real thing. What you're writing isn't some elusive Scratch project that you're gonna find several years later collecting dust on your hard drive, nor is it some Python thingamabob that you've glued onto Minecraft. Your mod is something that you can use as long as you're using Minetest (which itself is something that you will always be able to use, as it's out there for free) and your mod is something that you can post on the Minetest forum to share with others. That, at least to me, makes a huge motivational difference.

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