The Hour of Code endeavor has been a successful one, with a few pretty impressive statistics to back it up: 100 million students, 180 countries, 40 languages.
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Microsoft Corporation partners with Code.org to bring Minecraft to Hour of Code. Microsoft Corporation knows how much children love Minecraft, which it acquired through its 2014 Mojang acquisition, so it volunteered the game for the cause. The goal of the Hour of Code campaign is to introduce players to basic coding using the Minecraft environment.
Microsoft Corporation is using Minecraft to teach kids basics of computer programming.
Players are offered a set of 14 challenges, including free play time, to explore concepts they learn from the tutorial. It was created for the Hour of Code campaign that encourages global participation in computer science – part of Computer Science Week, which runs December 7 – 13. The tutorial will be accessible through a web browser so schools will not have to install the full game on their computers, something that schools might be reluctant to do.
Hour of Code is a global campaign to get kids involved in coding.
Games that take a shot at teaching coding in a more simple way have already been launched, one of these games being The Human Resource Machine by Kyle Gabler, the creator of the critically acclaimed gamed World of Goo and Little Inferno. “We want to break those stereotypes, demystify the field and break the barrier of intimidation and show this is fun”.
Over 60 million students tried it out last year, and this year’s event is on December 7th. Other modules, including a few based on Star Wars, “Frozen” and other popular content, are also available on the Code.org site. Minecraft has however, been the No. 1 request the group has heard for years.
A video, presented by Minecraft lead developer Jens Bergensten, introduces users to the module whereafter members of the Mojang team will help users build the code to enable their characters to move.
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Microsoft has announced a partnership with Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, that will teach kids the basics of programming using Minecraft.
