{"id":432156,"date":"2017-10-23T08:55:22","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T15:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?p=432156"},"modified":"2017-10-23T14:02:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T21:02:13","slug":"code-minecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/code-minecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"MakeCode for Minecraft makes learning to code super fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A few years ago, my group<\/a> in Microsoft\u2019s research organization began to experiment with tools that make it possible for kids to learn how to code in the context of Minecraft (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, the wildly popular game where players build fantastical virtual worlds out of digital blocks, create and play mini-games within the game, and learn to survive monster-filled nights.<\/p>\n

Confused? That\u2019s okay. Many grownups don\u2019t understand Minecraft. Even if they think they do, they don\u2019t. That no rules, open-world environment is all part of its appeal. Our goal is to leverage this enthusiasm to teach kids how to code while playing Minecraft. After all, game playing is the most natural way for humans to learn.<\/p>\n

The research is an outgrowth of our TouchDevelop (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> program, which we started in 2011 to teach people how to program and build apps using the touchscreen on their phones. These devices are much more powerful, graphic and sensor rich computers than those we learned to code on as kids. Our TouchDevelop group wanted anyone to be able to program their phones as easily as we did 8-bit computers.<\/p>\n

Then Minecraft emerged as the game people everywhere were playing and we found ourselves wanting to code inside Minecraft, too. The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

Students in my after-school computer science classes lucky enough to tinker with coding in Minecraft went nutso crazy, in a good way. The ability to write code and immediately see the results in Minecraft, such as avatars that can jump 100 blocks high, dig through mountains and make it rain chickens, sent my students running around the classroom from screen to screen to see what their classmates did and shouting the IP addresses of their servers across the room.<\/p>\n