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Adventures in Minecraft Pt. 3…DMCA? What!


Here’s what we know:

  • Adventures in Minecraft works on a teacher computer! Yay!
  • Adventures in Minecraft doesn’t work on the student computers! Boo!
  • Adventures in Minecraft does work with Minecraft Edu!
  • I need to build a Bukkit server compatible with MinecraftEdu 1.7. Gulp!

Creating a Bukkit server is a new challenge that I’m up for, so let’s get started.

Okay, I needed to download Bukkit…easy! I started by reading the directions. I know, imagine that! Reading the directions first. Who the heck does that. I created the required folders and searched for a Bukkit server. My Google search led me to http://bukkit.org/. I skimmed a few forum posts, read how to set up a server, making my way to the BukkitWiki where I found a link to the downloads (http://dl.bukkit.org/downloads/bukkit/A).

 

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Alright, I’m on a roll. I click on the info for a few versions to learn about the differences. I finally located the version I needed and clicked the download button. And what do I see…

 

Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 9.51.03 AM

 

WHAT! Confused, I do another Google search in hopes of finding the download elsewhere. But wait, this is the OFFICIAL Bukkit site!?! What’s going on? So, I read the DMCA notification and found this:

 

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So, this guy, Wesley Wolfe is claiming copyright on the Bukkit server. Alright then, I’ll go to his site to get the download. Highlight and copy the GitHub url…paste and we’re good! Right?

 

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I hit the GitHub page and skim the repositories. Several Bukkit options, so I dig in. I start with Bukkit-Bleeding. I skim through and stop at the Read Me…again with the reading thing, I know! As I read on I see…

 

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Ummm…did I miss something? The GitHub site is leading me back the to Bukkit site, which has a DMCA prohibiting the download of the Bukkit server files because of Wesley Wolfe’s claim on the Bukkit server.

Running into a dead end, I went back to the GitHub site to look at the other repositories. Oooh! CraftBukkit! That’s it! I click on CraftBukkit ready for my download!

 

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Really! How is this possible! Can you DMCA your own files? Even more confused, I clicked on the notice and see:

Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 10.23.44 AM

On first glance I was quite confused by the fact that this person (presumably) had DMCAed his own work, but I notices the “source” is the Bukkit-Bleeding repository. I spent some time digging through the files in the Bukkit-Bleeding repository, but couldn’t find a simple .jar file to download and I don’t know how to create one myself. So, time for option two…CanaryMod.

 

 

 

Adventures in Minecraft Pt. 1…Maybe


At the beginning of December my coaching partner and I were busy planning Hour of Code activities. During our planning I had the opportunity to dig deeper into Python and really enjoyed my learning journey. This journey got me thinking about how I could teach an elective on Python during the next session, so I started researching ideas, projects and resources geared toward middle school student.

advInMCEduAnd what did I find? Well, the holy grail of programming electives…Adventures in Minecraft! I came across this book thinking that it could have some fun ideas for my after school MinecraftEdu class. You know, build ideas, challenges, other fun things to keep the kiddos focused. Turns out its WAY MORE that fun things to build in MCEdu, it’s about how to use Python to program Minecraft! Whoa…wait…what…? You can do that? You can actually program things in Python and have something happen IN Minecraft! I was hooked. I bought the book then and there, tossed aside the work I should have been doing and began learning how one programs Python!

As I began reading the book and downloading files from the companion website I had a sudden realization that all this may be for naught. Why, you ask? Because I am using MinecraftEdu and work in a school. Nothing every works the “way it’s supposed to” in a school. I proceeded anyway determined that it would work, one way or another! As I continued along I found that this book, published in November 2014, was already out of date (as is often the case with techie books). The book is based on Minecraft 1.6 and I’m on 1.7 MCEdu! Ugh! This isn’t going to be easy.

Skip to Friday morning…I knew my work computer was still set up for MinecraftEdu 1.6, so I downloaded and installed the necessary files to my laptop while the Chapter 1 how-to video guided me through the process. Adventures in Minecraft folder saved to the desktop, Python downloaded, Bukkit server up and running! We’re a go! With all of the setup completed, I becan my first Python program for Minecraft! Here it is!

First Python Minecraft Program

Here what is, you say? Right there, in the chat! I made that happen…WITHOUT typing it into the chat window! Okay, so that may not seem so impressive, but every programmer starting a new language must start with a Hello world! script!

With the knowledge that I could program Minecraft on a school computer as a teacher, I set off to the computer lab to see if a student could do the same. Fingers crossed!

Hour of Code


The first week of December was Computer Science Week. An excellent opportunity to recognize how programming and programmers have changed our lives. Part of CSW was Hour of Code, created to expose students to coding and computer science concepts. Last year a few classrooms in our building participated in Hour of Code. This year my co-worker and I worked to schedule Hour of Code sessions with every student in SK through 7th grade. It was a busy couple of weeks for us, but we were excited to plan out such a range of activities.

Due to the number of actual classes and the various division-wide activities, we had to split it over two weeks. So, what did we do? Below are descriptions of what we did with each grade level, followed by a link to resources we shared with families. If you haven’t participated in Hour of Code these ideas are a great way to get started!

SK (Senior Kindergarten…think Kindergarten): SK students participated in two different activities that revolved around BeeBots. BeeBots are small, simple robots that young children can program. SK students learned about the BeeBots through the BeeBot app and followed that up with using the actual BeeBots to travel to the various planets SKers had learned about during their Solar System unit.

1st Grade: 1st grade students engaged in an hour of code by being PeopleBots. PeopleBots are a people representation of the BeeBots used in SK and perviously by 1st grade. As peopleBots the 1st graders proacticed giving and receiving directions to make their way around obstacles. Following their PeopleBot activity, students learned about Kodable, an app and website that teaches elementary progamming.

2nd Grade: 2nd graders began with the PeopleBot activity to review how to give and receive directions. After that, the 2nd graders used Scratch Jr. to complete an introductory activity and create their own animated story.

During each SK through 2nd grade classes I began with a staged situation in which I had missed lunch or ate lunch so long ago and needed help making a snack. I had soy nut butter, jelly, bread, a napkin, plate and knife. I asked each class to direct me in making a soy nut butter and jelly snadwich. Needless to say, by the end of the week the bread was stale and I had my fill of soy nut butter sandwiches. Kudos to all my kiddos, because most of them did a really good job of walking me through making my sandwich.

3rd Grade: 3rd graders completed an non-tech programming activity called Graph Paper Programming. In this activity students paired off; one being the programmer and one being a “robot.” The programmer wrote a programm designed to guide the “robot” through coloring in squares on a graph. Once completed, the “robot” followed the program to recreate the drawing. Following the non-tech activity, 3rd graders worked their way through the BotLogic website.

4th Grade: Like the 3rd graders, 4th graders started with Graph Paper Programming. Following that, students were introduced to Code Monkey, a website that asks students to type lines of code to complete challenges.

5th through 7th Grade: In each class we had discussions about what coding/programming is and why someone would learn to program. Most revolved around the idea that the students wouldn’t be able to do much of what they do now without someone to create the program. Following our discussions, students were introduced to the site Code Combat, which teaches Python or Java Script through a game. Students must type the code to battle ogers or protect villagers.

Code Combat was my favorite coding activity. Before I could engage my students I had to know what they would be doing. So, I had to spend time working through the challenges. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Overall, our Hour of Code went really well, engaged students, and opened their eyes to the joy of programming. You can see some of the resources we share with families HERE.