Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
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Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#2Has anyone here programmed minecraft? Can you report to the rest of us how the following compare as learning experiences:
1. Minecraft
2. Swift Playground
3. Commodore 64 or other old basic
4. Game Salad, or Game Maker,
5. Just learning Javascript in the browser
I know #2 is my favorite experience, but I think #5 is the most useful now. Just wondering if anyone has played around with minecraft to compare.
If I had to teach a kid: #2 > #5 > #3 > can't speak for the others
Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#3If you're a developer looking to fight this, I'd suggest taking a look at Minetest, which started out as a fully libre open-source clone of Minecraft but has really grown into its own project in its own right.
The core engine is C++ and mods are programmed using Lua.
Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#4Considering Chromebooks barely entered the market only about 4 years back.
"In 2015, Chromebooks topped 50 percent of personal computer sales in the U.S. K-12 education market for the first time, with Windows PCs trailing at 22 percent, according to a Futuresource Consulting report."
And looking at the chart in the report [1] is even stranger - Chromebooks have basically gone from 16% of yearly device sales to 50% of yearly device sales [2] in exactly two years. Does anyone else finds the numbers a little hard to believe? Don't the schools have any costs in migrating their systems to support Chromebooks?
[1] http://www.futuresource-consulting.com/2016-03-K-12-Educatio...
Edit:
Based on csharp's comment, changed wording from market to yearly device sales. [2] (For K-12)
Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#5When Apple makes an iPad app to teach kids a programming language useful only in the Apple ecosystem, they're promoting STEM education.
When Microsoft leverages a massively popular game to promote STEM education, they're weaponizing.
Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#6Has anyone here programmed minecraft? Can you report to the rest of us how the following compare as learning experiences: 1. Minecraft 2. Swift Playground 3. Commodore 64 or other old basic 4. Game Salad, or Game Maker, 5. Just learning Javascript in the browser I know #2 is my favorite experience, but I think #5 is the most useful now. Just wondering if anyone has played around with minecraft to compare. If I had to…
Regarding #3 as a kid, I remember spending hours in QBasic on our family's DOS 5 computer.
Also, nibbles.bas and gorilla.bas were very fun games written with QBasic that came with it on every DOS computer.
Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#7Considering Chromebooks barely entered the market only about 4 years back. "In 2015, Chromebooks topped 50 percent of personal computer sales in the U.S. K-12 education market for the first time, with Windows PCs trailing at 22 percent, according to a Futuresource Consulting report." And looking at the chart in the report [1] is even stranger - Chromebooks have basically gone from 16% of yearly device sales to 50% of…
These are all sales numbers, not market share.
Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#8Has anyone here programmed minecraft? Can you report to the rest of us how the following compare as learning experiences: 1. Minecraft 2. Swift Playground 3. Commodore 64 or other old basic 4. Game Salad, or Game Maker, 5. Just learning Javascript in the browser I know #2 is my favorite experience, but I think #5 is the most useful now. Just wondering if anyone has played around with minecraft to compare. If I had to…
What I really enjoyed with Minecraft was using a plugin which enabled you to connect a Clojure repl to the server [1]. It was great fun being able to write some code to spawn cows and then blow them up all in real time.
With a bit of work, and some better documentation I think a real time environment coupled with something that kids are really into could make for a great educational experience.
Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#9Has anyone here programmed minecraft? Can you report to the rest of us how the following compare as learning experiences: 1. Minecraft 2. Swift Playground 3. Commodore 64 or other old basic 4. Game Salad, or Game Maker, 5. Just learning Javascript in the browser I know #2 is my favorite experience, but I think #5 is the most useful now. Just wondering if anyone has played around with minecraft to compare. If I had to…
Regarding #3 as a kid, I remember spending hours in QBasic on our family's DOS 5 computer. Also, nibbles.bas and gorilla.bas were very fun games written with QBasic that came with it on every DOS computer.
This is exactly how i got my start.
I began by playing go chopper.
Then explored the file system read some computing magazines that my dad subscribed to and found out about qbasic.
I played gorilla and nibbles and then learned how to use the code files to cheat and experimented with the banana parameters in gorilla.bas[0] to make its explosion and throw distance bigger.
Those are fond (and old) memories.
Re: Microsoft is using Minecraft to vie for kids’ brain space and schools’ dollars
#10When Apple makes an iPad app to teach kids a programming language useful only in the Apple ecosystem, they're promoting STEM education. When Microsoft leverages a massively popular game to promote STEM education, they're weaponizing.
Yep. And the article doesn't even contain any specific allegations, it is just a clickbait term without meaning.
I'll cheer for anyone (Apple, Microsoft, Google, et al) who promote STEM and come up with novel ways to utilise software in education (including interactive games).