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"Combining Children's Imagination With Learning"

Why can't you have fun and learn at the same time? 

Why can't you play and learn at the same time?

Why are children playing brain dead shooters on their consoles? 

Why are they being subjected to microtransactions which promote risk taking and gambling?

Why are they playing games with repetitive and mind numbing, yet addictive tasks? 

Why do they have no educational value in most cases?

How can we change this? We know Minecraft already does so much with Education Edition, but this is something slightly different.

How can we channel and combine that child's thirst for both fun and knowledge into a single point? Why must they be separate, when together they burn more than twice as bright? 

Seeing the results, the level of focus, and the progress - says it all.

I didn't tell my son what I was in secret teaching him various methods, concepts, tasks and skills for over 2 years. He thought he was playing games, and having fun, which he was.

He was very annoyed when I explained to him, for about 30 seconds! Then when the realisation hit (not bad for a 6 year old) he instead gave me a massive hug, and thanked me. I have never been happier.

My son doesn't play games, he creates them!

I had a vague concept based on the success in reading. Is it possible to teach in a different way? The results, like the reading, were incredible.

My plan was to teach through another medium. In this case a project which spanned every (or most) subjects. 

The title of the project came 5 years ago from a then 4 year old Lightning King.

 "The Dark Is A Cold Lonely Shadow". Such profound words from someone so young, I wrote them down.

Then came the announcement, with such conviction: "When I grow up I want to work for Mojang".

Reading held no interest, but Minecraft most definitely did. To try inspire him to read I gave him a Minecraft book for Xmas. At night I would read a section, then refuse to read the next, instead offering to help him read it. 

This rotation worked better than I could have imagined. His thirst to read didn't just spark, it burst into flames. He now devours books faster than I did at his age, and I read a lot!

His imagination and stories were constant, and this sparked an idea based on that success. All of these great stories, ideas, characters, and such success? And so many ideas,  gone! How else can this be used to teach?

I suggested we linked them all together into a single project. His excitement was infectious. From that point no ideas were wasted, almost everything was thought of as part of that wider project. That character or idea he had, I asked how does that person interact with the wider story? Draw it, write it, code it, create it in Minecraft. Where do they live, and how does it look? Let's build it in Minecraft...

Again, the results were beyond anything I could imagine.

All that imagination was suddenly focused on a single project "The Dark Is A Cold Lonely Shadow".

The Lightning King, now 9 years old, is hopefully one of many young geniuses, with a limitless imagination. Not stunted by the shadow, not brainwashed by the sheer rubbish bombarding our children. Brain dead shooters, microtransactions, loot boxes promoting gambling, pay to win games. 

He does not want to play games, he makes them. He does not want to experience a game, he wants to craft it. His thirst to create, to learn and to code, is relentless, and his memory is unbelievable. I can proudly say his knowledge in some areas, especially in redstone circuits, surpasses my own. To have him teaching me is incredible. 

Mojang have produced a framework, and inspired something, and given children and adults alike a means to do more. I hated a lot of subjects at school, I didn't understand the point of half the subjects at University. What use is linear algebra, triangulation, sequences, loops, and/or/not gates, arrays, databases? Why should I even care?

Put it in the right context, kids are not interested, they consume that knowledge like a sponge, because they have something they can grasp, and they can see the results! 

Fun through education.

Mojang understand this, and now I do as well...

At the age of nine, his technical knowledge already exceeds mine in some areas, and I learn as much from him now as he does from me.

I was working on a solution to a problem in Minecraft, and after 30 minutes sighed in frustration. Within 4 minutes he had a more elegant solution. The coding was maybe beyond him, but the logic and pseudo code he provided was not only correct, it was a better more efficient solution. 

I realised that after 30 years of coding, an (at that time) 8 year old had just outsmarted me, and by no small margin. 

I might be embarrassed to admit that? No! I have never been so proud...and he continues to amaze me all the time!

One of the they key struggles seems to be getting a child interested in reading. Absolutely no luck, until 2 books were gifted - one on Minecraft Legends, the other on Redstone circuits. Suddenly the thirst was there.  Since that day he consumes books, he reads constantly.

Right I want to create something that summons a circle of fireballs around me? How would you do that? 

I'd just turn and place one here, here, here, and here.

OK great, and how do I do that in game?

And we are looking at rotation, elevation, up and down. There are 360 degrees in a circle. Division, calculations, etc...

See the Circles & Orbits Data Pack (not yet released) for more info...video to left.

Right I have a treasure map, let's go find some treasure?

We jump in a boat and I ask, which way is it?

That way!

Yes, but is that North, South?

And we are sketching down on paper, going through co-ordinates and directions...and he is happy, and we find the treasure.

Triangulation? Map  Reading / Co-Ordinates?

Pretty boring stuff..?

Do you want to find an End Portal in Minecraft?

Yes!

Did you know if you throw an Ender Pearl in the air, it will point to the nearest End Portal?

Of course Dad, everyone knows that? Look, it's that way...

OK so how far away is it? It could be miles away? It could be a few meters away?

And suddenly we are doing triangulation, sketching on paper, drawing lines with rulers, looking at maps, and he is enthralled.

And after he understands it, we find the End Portal, and have some fun!

Redstone Circuits?

AND / OR / NOT Gates / Repeaters / Loops / Power Signals / Timers?

Not that exciting either.

Right, today we're building secret rooms and puzzles. You have to build a secret room which requires a specific combination of levers to be pulled for it to be opened AND GATE

This time I want it so if you step on either of the pressure plates, it opens the door. OR GATE

Dad, I have this circuit, but I want it to trigger the door top close, not to open! 

NOT GATE

Now I want you to...err what's that?

Well Dad, its a combination of AND/OR/NOT gates, the secret room was too simple. Now you need to pull 3 levers then stand here...

And I couldn't have built that in the 5 minutes it took him!

Showing my son how to use animation applications to animate a 3D model frame by frame I was called out at work. I knew he had the basic concept and knew how to create a rough model. I said "create a caterpillar" while I work.

When I finished work 30 minutes later, he had a caterpillar in 4 sections where the caterpillar arched its back into a triangle then went back down, pretty much exactly like a caterpillar would. Playing the animation on a loop, there was absolutely no doubt that this was a caterpillar.

At the age of 5 or 6, with 5 minutes explanation from a not very good teacher, incredible...

How we can help you and your child learn...

Better concise tutorials incoming. More tutorial packs. More videos. Better documentation. New framework for data packs.

We No Longer Work On Sandbox, Only With Minecraft, and other Tools such as Gimp and Blender.

Some tutorial data and resource packs can be found on GitHub and Modrinth 

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Other tutorials can be found on this site or on Youtube:

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