The Microsoft MakeCode team also works on other editors that allow the programming of physical things such as micro-controllers including the micro:bit and Adafruit Circuit Playground Express. More advanced users smoothly ramp up to more complex concepts such as recursion, fractals and object oriented or distributed programming. MakeCode allows coding with visual blocks, based on a drag and drop interface for beginners, as well as in text with a JavaScript interface for the more experienced learners.Ĭoding with blocks or text, MakeCode teaches the 101 of programming languages, including variables, control flow, if statements, loops and functions. The MakeCode for Minecraft editor has the pixelated look and feel of Minecraft. Today, our Microsoft Research and Microsoft MakeCode teams are excited to make this learning experience widely available through Microsoft MakeCode for Minecraft on Windows 10. 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. Students in my after-school computer science classes lucky enough to tinker with coding in Minecraft went nutso crazy, in a good way. Then Minecraft emerged as the game people everywhere were playing and we found ourselves wanting to code inside Minecraft, too. Our TouchDevelop group wanted anyone to be able to program their phones as easily as we did 8-bit computers. These devices are much more powerful, graphic and sensor rich computers than those we learned to code on as kids. The research is an outgrowth of our TouchDevelop program, which we started in 2011 to teach people how to program and build apps using the touchscreen on their phones. After all, game playing is the most natural way for humans to learn. Our goal is to leverage this enthusiasm to teach kids how to code while playing Minecraft. That no rules, open-world environment is all part of its appeal. Many grownups don’t understand Minecraft.
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