Notes

MakeCode for Minecraft makes Learning To Code Super Fun

A few years ago, my team in Microsoft's research organization began to play around with tools that allow for kids to learn to code within the context of Minecraft the immensely popular game where players build amazing virtual worlds from blocks of digital material, create and play mini-games within the game, and then learn to live through the nightmare nights.



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Confused? That's okay. A lot of grown-ups don't get Minecraft. Even when they believe they do, they don't. It is all about the open-world environment and no rules. Our aim is to capitalize on this enthusiasm to teach children how to code while playing Minecraft. After all, game playing is the most natural way for humans to learn.



This research is the result of our TouchDevelop program, which we launched in 2011 to teach people how they can create and program applications using their phones' touchscreen. These devices are much more powerful, graphically and sensor-rich computers than the ones we learned to code on as kids. Our TouchDevelop group wanted everyone to be able to program their phones as easily and as quickly as we did with computers that ran 8 bits.



Then Minecraft was born as a game people everywhere were playing and we began wanting to code in Minecraft, too. The rest, as they say, is the history of Minecraft.



Students in my computer science after-school classes who had the opportunity to play with coding in Minecraft went crazy, in a positive way. The ability to write code, and then observe the results in Minecraft such as avatars that can leap 100 blocks high, climb mountains, and even rain chickens, sent my students scurrying around the classroom from screen to screen to see what their peers did and shouting the IP addresses of their servers across the room.
FELA


Today we are pleased to announce that our Microsoft Research and Microsoft MakeCode teams are thrilled to make this learning experience accessible to all through Microsoft MakeCode for Minecraft on Windows 10.



The MakeCode for Minecraft editor has the pixelated appearance and feel of Minecraft. MakeCode lets visual blocks be coded. It has a drag-and-drop interface for beginners and it has a JavaScript interface with more advanced users.



Coding with blocks or text, MakeCode teaches the 101 of programming languages, such as variables control flow, if statements, loops and functions. Advanced users can easily advance to more complicated concepts like recursion, fractals, object-oriented or distributed programming.



The Microsoft MakeCode team also works on other editors that allow the programming of physical objects like micro-controllers, such as the micro:bit and the Adafruit Circuit Playground Express. In all these scenarios the coding is directly tied to creating something real which is the primary reason why computer programmers are taught to code in the first instance.



Instead of thinking that they are programming, students are playing a game, and building their next superpower. Minecraft is a game. MakeCode for Minecraft integrates the coding experience into Minecraft. Check it out.


My Website: https://fela.london/