There’s a new Minecraft tutorial available for this year’s Hour of Code. Code.org‘s Hour of Code is “a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.” Code.org provides tutorials that take about an hour. The Minecraft Hour of Code is the newest one.
The tutorial was created for anyone 6 and over and really does make it easy to get started. You can drag and drop commands. Then you can watch what happens when you run the program you’re creating. Finally, you can see the lines of code that you’ve created.
According to Minecraft in Education, the collaboration with Code.org was started because kids asked for a Minecraft-themed tutorial. “Designers and developers from Mojang and Microsoft teamed up with Code.org to create a tutorial that teaches students basic commands while staying true to the styling and game play that you expect from Minecraft. We made sure to include aspects of the Hour of Code tutorial meant for Minecraft fans while ensuring the experience is accessible for any student and educator on any device.”
The new Hour of Code tutorial is accompanied by updates to the Minecraft in Education site, a site that highlights how educators are using Minecraft:
Code.org has been providing Hour of Code tutorials since 2013. Now Hour of Code is one program among many at Code.org. There are also 20-hour tutorials in computer fundamentals and advanced tutorials in JavaScript and other programming languages and lesson plans for teacher-led tutorials. Code.org is a nonprofit “dedicated to expanding access to computer science, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color.” They want every student in every school to have a chance to learn to code.
Code.org’s got reasons for wanting more kids to learn to code.
