Swedish School Employs Mandatory Minecraft Course

[SlaveNumber23]

Ummm...is there a franchise dedicated to simulating city planning? Darn it, what's its name? It's just so obscure. Seriously, why Minecraft over Sim City, if the objective is to expose to civil engineering?

Minecraft offers so much more freedom, the teachers can basically create their own rules and there are infinite possibilities as to what the students can build. Also not to undermine the intelligence of the students but Minecraft is a lot simpler than Sim City, it would be miles easier to teach. There's also the fact that every student in a classroom can be present in the same game of Minecraft at the same time, allowing for interactivity and cooperation between them.

I'm not sure Minecraft's simplified abstraction is quiet enough to give students an accurate representation of reality in city building.

That's where the teachers come in, just playing Minecraft is going to be nowhere near realistic city building but the teachers can make their own rules and criteria. In this case Minecraft is basically an alternative to using a blackboard, merely a tool used to enhance comprehension and focus.

 

[weirdee]

It's good to know that if I ever visit Sweden, there won't be a sudden burst in the lava dam.

 

[ritchards]

It's not like there isn't already an effort to bring Minecraft into American schools... like MinecraftEDU [http://minecraftedu.com/], or anything...

 

[Muspelheim]

I guess city engineers in Sweden need to learn how to design well-lit sewers that don't spawn monster mobs.

Öh, yöu wöuldn't believe the dämåge the regulär creeper-incidents cäuse... Every mörning, like clöckwörk, änöther citizen cläimed by the Green Peril... Every mörning, yöu run the gäntelöpe between the manhöles... Them sewer's ä deäthtråp.

But really, I doubt the only thing the Rydbergites will do from now is playing Minecraft all day long, we won't need to worry about the future (more than usual). I'm quite sure they'll be taught to use their brains by more traditional means as well. This is just a neat little aside.

I would have loved this, that's for sure... But me and my history teacher used to share experiences from Europa Universalis, at least. Another of the teachers I've had used to be in the military, was reasonably up to date on gaming and used that to make a few points to us lads, in a language we understood and had a common ground in.

 

[redisforever]

snip

Uhh, that picture isn't from Minecraft. It's from Sauerbraten: Cube 2. Someone ported a Minecraft map into the game. May want to change that.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Ummm...is there a franchise dedicated to simulating city planning? Darn it, what's its name? It's just so obscure. Seriously, why Minecraft over Sim City, if the objective is to expose to civil engineering?

Minecraft offers so much more freedom, the teachers can basically create their own rules and there are infinite possibilities as to what the students can build. Also not to undermine the intelligence of the students but Minecraft is a lot simpler than Sim City, it would be miles easier to teach. There's also the fact that every student in a classroom can be present in the same game of Minecraft at the same time, allowing for interactivity and cooperation between them.

I'm not sure Minecraft's simplified abstraction is quiet enough to give students an accurate representation of reality in city building.

That's where the teachers come in, just playing Minecraft is going to be nowhere near realistic city building but the teachers can make their own rules and criteria. In this case Minecraft is basically an alternative to using a blackboard, merely a tool used to enhance comprehension and focus.

I find graph paper to far cheap, more reliable, and more adaptable then Minecraft. Maybe I'm just old school though.

 

[Strazdas]

I guess city engineers in Sweden need to learn how to design well-lit sewers that don't spawn monster mobs.

well you know those Swedish trolls have to be contained somehow.

This sounds very nice, i wish we would have gotten minecraft instead of woodcraft in school. then again, back then school didnt have enough computers to support such a class anyway (let alone minecraft didnt exist).
i do wonder, what mods they use, because they woudl certainly need some if they want to build seware and water pipes and stairs that arent default blocks (the 1/8 blocks are great for stairs).

 

[Vhite]

I find graph paper to far cheap, more reliable, and more adaptable then Minecraft. Maybe I'm just old school though.

And far more boring. Which is probably the greatest issue with education ever.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I find graph paper to far cheap, more reliable, and more adaptable then Minecraft. Maybe I'm just old school though.

And far more boring. Which is probably the greatest issue with education ever.

Making things interesting might be number one, but funding is definitely number 2.

 

[Vegosiux]

I guess city engineers in Sweden need to learn how to design well-lit sewers that don't spawn monster mobs.

Öh, yöu wöuldn't believe the dämåge the regulär creeper-incidents cäuse... Every mörning, like clöckwörk, änöther citizen cläimed by the Green Peril... Every mörning, yöu run the gäntelöpe between the manhöles... Them sewer's ä deäthtråp.

What, yöu såy the sewers äre möre dångeröus thän the mööse? A møøse once bit my sister...

I'm all for involving games in educational process, of course. After all, edutainment [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YInfr0hm4A] can be quite fun, can't it?

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Here's an idea: Make the kids grind for resources before they can build anything, so you can easily fill the whole semester, NAY, the whole year with Minecraft grind, no need to prepare anything much. Being a teacher at Minecraft central would be just like living a life of crime, awesome!

Also, the kids would turn into adults that wouldn't mind working overtime at the factory doing monotone work, and they'd be pre-conditioned to obey like the well-trained puppies they are, perfect for resistance movements, elections, the average office environment and the army! Who cares if they're bad at calculus and can't compose a proper sentence!

Good thinking, Monica! Minecraft really is the best thing to happen to kids since the Hitler Youth!

 

[Vegosiux]

Good thinking, Monica! Minecraft really is the best thing to happen to kids since the Hitler Youth!

Oh come on, that's one of the silliest invocations of Godwin I have ever seen. It's not like their curriculum now only consists of worshipping the great leader Minecraft.

Seriously, you're not being witty with this >.<

 

[Blaster395]

I find graph paper to far cheap, more reliable, and more adaptable then Minecraft. Maybe I'm just old school though.

We don't have functional 3D paper you can draw on (and never will because we are not 4 dimensional beings) and isometric diagrams have their limits.

 

[waj9876]

Uh, that's not an image of Minecraft. It's a Minecraft MAP to be sure, but that's either some new ridiculously awesome texture pack, or not Minecraft.

Though if it is a texture pack, which it isn't. On the very, VERY slim chance it is a texture pack, anyone mind telling what it's called?

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Uh, that's not an image of Minecraft. It's a Minecraft MAP to be sure, but that's either some new ridiculously awesome texture pack, or not Minecraft.

Though if it is a texture pack, which it isn't. On the very, VERY slim chance it is a texture pack, anyone mind telling what it's called?

That's definitely a texture pack. I recognize the pattern in the terrain.