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How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

theguardian.com

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Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#81

Post by billfruit »

itronitron wrote: post #70
billfruit wrote: post #64

Realy though I wish that there was something like minecraft, but with an RTS-style disembodied god-view camera, with zoom, pan and rotate, which I think will make building things much more painless. Perhaps some mods can approximate that, but if there was something build up from the beginning for such an interface it would be a nicer thing to have for people who would rather build than walk around catching the scener…

I've given some thought to making a better world editor that would interface with Minecraft through command blocks or via the Glowstone MC server. There are a few existing world editor applications but they are quite sluggish (last time I checked). If you want to build small things with cubes then you should check out the latest voxel editors.

I checked some voxel editors sometime ago(unfortunately not remembering their names right now), they seemed geared towards modeling small things, not huge monuments, vistas, mountains or expansive landscapes like people seems to do in minecraft.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#82

Post by madrox »

ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #26
madrox wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But now a year later I've never read any paper books, all the books I've read are ebooks. This is the most mind-blowing thing I've read on HN. It really makes me appreciate generational differences.

I'm around 40 and haven't read a physical book since the Kindle came out. Same goes for most the people around me (including parents and older friends). I think I know one single person who reads physical books, and they're a collector/enthusiast. I don't think it's generational rather just some people "clicked" with ebooks and some didn't. I couldn't live without search, saving passages, device handover, hold-click…

It more blows my mind that there is a generation out there that's never read a paper book....ever

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#83

Post by throwaway123032 »

genidoi wrote: post #14
hrktb wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> war on screen So, is it like the war on drug and war on terrorism ? Also I remember when I was a kid, people were over my back for reading too much books, as I was supposed to “go outside”, “play with the other kids”, “make things with my hand”. I won’t use the eternal ‘I ended up fine’ argument, but in any day and age we’re grindingly pushing kids toward stuff they don’t care about for no decent reason. As a gener…

Everything in moderation. Such as stopping your 11 y/o kid from playing runescape at 2am when they should be sleeping. Source: Me.

My first year of university (and then associate degree when I failed univ) was spending my nights raiding in Everquest...Ahh those all night long 8pm-6am raids in VT.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#84

Post by jhbadger »

galactus wrote: post #80
aerique wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't care for all the ebook features you mentioned, I just like the convenience and lack of weight of having hundreds of books in your pocket. I do like the feel of a real book when actually reading it but don't mind reading books on my phone either.

I don't find there is that much convenience on having "hundreds of books in your pocket". Unlike music or films/series, most people are never reading more than two or perhaps three books at the same time and most books take days or weeks to finish (unless you are reading full time). Carrying a kindle is not that much more convenient than carrying a pocket book...

The question is where to store all your physical books though. I own hundreds of physical books (and that's after pruning the collection of books I have no desire to reread at some point). I prefer ebooks now because there's no issue of storage (plus being able to increase the font size is nice now that I'm approaching 50).

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#85

Post by jhbadger »

pnutjam wrote: post #55
chatmasta wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be living under a rock then, because Amazon has sold millions of kindles. They are not all kids buying them. Kindle causes me to read far more than I would otherwise. A few reasons: - Hundreds of books fit in a space smaller than a single physical book - Can read at night without an overhead light bothering myself or anyone else (and without blue light!) - Can travel (and/or move houses) without books taking…

I read everything on my phone, because I don't want to carry another device. I sync things with my calibre server.

I use both (and Kindle books sync your position between devices). It's nice to read on your phone because it is always there. But it is just more comfortable to read on a e-ink screen both because of the size and the fact that things like sunlight don't wash out the screen.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#86

Post by itronitron »

billfruit wrote: post #81
itronitron wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've given some thought to making a better world editor that would interface with Minecraft through command blocks or via the Glowstone MC server. There are a few existing world editor applications but they are quite sluggish (last time I checked). If you want to build small things with cubes then you should check out the latest voxel editors.

I checked some voxel editors sometime ago(unfortunately not remembering their names right now), they seemed geared towards modeling small things, not huge monuments, vistas, mountains or expansive landscapes like people seems to do in minecraft.

might be worth checking out >> https://ephtracy.github.io/index.html?page=mv_renderer

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#87

Post by aklemm »

Waterluvian wrote: post #39
sova wrote: post #5

Minecraft is absolutely not helping in the war on screens. As a former educator I laugh heartily at the proposition. Although, I did use "screen time" as a gift-able and earn-able commodity, and in a small classroom of kids it works great to encourage sharing, participation, group watch / observance, and "can I please share with Timmy now so I can have more screentime later?" [success fist]

I just don't get why screens are a bad thing. Find balance. Don't demonize the screens. Don't underbalance screen time. We hope all these kids will be successful enough that screens become a core of their careers.

If they demonstrably damage one's ability to thrive in the world, then we should demonize them. If.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#88

Post by pnutjam »

jhbadger wrote: post #85
pnutjam wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read everything on my phone, because I don't want to carry another device. I sync things with my calibre server.

I use both (and Kindle books sync your position between devices). It's nice to read on your phone because it is always there. But it is just more comfortable to read on a e-ink screen both because of the size and the fact that things like sunlight don't wash out the screen.

With a black background and Yellow or off-white text I have less problems. I also have a night text that is orange-ish or brownish if it's really dark where I'm reading.
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