Tunnels, Bridges, Houses, Farming, Railways all in Minecraft EDU

This visit to Minecraft edu took place in a couple days where we were able to build and craft using tools available and building our own. I thought it would be important to pick a spot that could meet the needs of the tasks for this assignment. I wanted to try my hand at building a house adding window doors, pads and have a crafting table and furnace near the water to help with growing crops.

I was able to create a hoe, a pic axe, a shovel and put the furnace and crafting table along with a chest for storing items in the house I built.

I wanted try to do more mining so I went dow a couple of blocks and made an effort to create a tunnel through the mountain to see what kind of minerals there were to gather. I did find some coal and cobblestone with a bit of iron ore. I laid tracks along the way and placed torches on the wall at regular intervals to light thee way. It took a while to get through and there were  a few challenge with rocks dropping but overall a safe environment.

The image below is from the opposite side of the mountain tunnel entrance.

When I got out of the tunnel I wanted to try something a bit more challenging to build a bridge or viaduct across the water. This was a bit more challenging as I could not place a block directly in front in the water. I manage a few tricks including setting blocks while swimming. What may not be obvious to see from the house and the bridge is I used temporary structures to assist in erection.

The image above shows the bridge viaduct with tracks and railcars. I was working to power the tracks using red stone. Once I had the connection across the water I focused on planting seeds. I didn't find them at first but luckily Tis visited and let me know she had added some to a chest. I made a few trips back to the library for supplies and eventually create a siding with track closer to the water falls for clearer access to the structure.

I dropped some fill back into the water similar to how they built Battery Park City in NY using fill from the World Trade Center. I had to craft a hoe then planted wheat, melons, and pumpkins. I had tested earlier planting saplings that  grew in minutes. The trees were so dense I needed to trim them to ensure light for my new garden.

Here I was able to use the  Redstone building a torch and placing adjacent to the track it powered the railcars.
If there was a plus side for this adventure I had my 3-1/2 year old Grandson watching and telling me where to go. He plays a version on a tablet. We installed Minecraft on another laptop and had him learn how to use the keys E for inventory, W move forward and spacebar to jump. We had to negotiate with him to go home and stop playing. His dad provided him a world that came with an inventory. It was amazing to see the progress he made.

Minecraft Edu

As we are moving through this course it is surprising how many different Games we are exploring. We learned some basic crafting skills in Minecraft and this past week we worked in the edu version that required using another server. After a brief visit through an obstacle course I found myself at a maze. The maze was not too challenging but there were other worlds I could see yet not access.

It was not so easy to figure out how to get out of the tutorial room. Here are got a bit carried away with breaking blocks and building an inventory.

After some attempts to get out of a loop I took advantage of my collection of blocks and built a stairs. This got me to the location I could see from the maze.

Now here there were options for new tools and more resources to use with a crafting table. At this point I was starting to see patterns of logic for building. There were familiar logic like in monopoly 4 green houses one red hotel. With the right combination in minecraft you can pattern tools that can do work for you and there was values to the minerals too.
As the options increase suddenly the inventory slots became important. With only 64 items per slot it did not make sense to fill them all with dirt.

In a n effort to hone my construction skills I tried to build a structure out of dirt. It was a challenge to craft with such a small footprint, funny too how quickly grass grew. I did manage to create stairs from blocks and add safety rails out of fence on the perimeter. I am sure OSHA and Civil Engineers would have me in court for violations.

On my next return visit I decided to utilize wood as I learned we would be moving to another world and could take our inventory with us. I crafted stairs and built a simple tower a rough house and used up a bunch of dirt blocks too building structures. I wanted to try and link structures together from adjacent building pad with some type of bridge but seemed there were limitation on the building sites and you were to stay within the footprint. I was not successful to cantilever past the building line.

As all things must come to an end we are now in a new beginning where we have access to a new Marlboro World. A blank slate for inventory and a checker board to transport home to. I can't help but think this is very familiar to our last Minecraft world especially with the animals and sounds. I will be exploring more here and see what challenges there are.

Building in Minecraft

So there is more to this then just breaking block.  After watching a tutorial a couple of times as the sound was very low so I needed to go over to understand what to do. I was able to build a craft table. This was not easy as I was not sure about the cross hair tool the video showed to highlight the spot they intended to break on the tree to get blocks of wood. It was such a concern for me I Googled missing cross hair then downloaded and installed and extra resource pack which gave my world a new look. The issue with the cross hair was not resolved as I found I only needed to press and hold and I would get the hunk of wood I needed to get started. See the different view below.

I was also a bit more comfortable traveling as I learned I could fly which came in handy to scout out locations. I found the birds eye view better for navigating the landscape and helpful to decide where to build.

Sadly I met my demise early on. I was having trouble with the day/night cycle and found myself in a desperate situation where it seemed the world above me was collapsing.

I was able to spawn another life but it was not a reincarnation as I came back with out any of my resources so back to square one. This was not a problem as it reinforced skills recently acquired and to me this is a good way to keep some of this new found knowledge.

With Craft table in place I now could put to use some of my real life experience. I created planks and sticks crafting tools for building. Sadly the key ingredient at this point was wood. This meant I would need to destroy trees. I did notice there were new ones sprouting. They may have been plants but I was thinking about the environment and wondering if cutting down the trees would affect my oxygen supply. 

I made an effort not to take more than I would need for my little house in fact I decided to use the side of the mountain to form a wall reducing the number of blocks. I also wanted to be close to water and near trees for shade. I was thinking ahead for how I might like to live in the real world.

I was surprised to find I got caught in the rain a real downpour making it not possible to work.

Here above you can see my simple house near the water with my pic in hand. I think this is a nice location but do have concerns about flooding.

I have yet to sort out the day/night issue. In forums there are options to adjust the time or set it for one or the other. I did notice our classmate Jasmin had built a beautiful home and furnished it too. She had torches lit for  night time.

I will say as we build in Minecraft you can get the similar sense of satisfaction and pride when building. Here is me and my first structure early in the morning with the sun just starting to come up.

Lastly I recall how we posed for selfies in Second Life. We must be fascinated by our own image even if it is a virtual representation in pixels.

Minecraft

OK this is a bit intimidating. I have a four year old grandson that plays Minecraft and so does his dad my son. I thought this would be easy to do but then I know I am always challenged with games especially electronic ones. I was able to set up an account but was not sure what to do once logged in. I managed to start breaking things but need a tutorial or to visit the kids in Delaware.

It appears I really needed to pay attention to instructions to get this game going. I was concerned about taking a screen shot with my character in it. I needed to learn how to change the person view of the camera to see me in the shot

So I manage to break some blocks and take a screen shot.  You need to press fn + f2 to take a screen shot in fact I decided I should check out more of the keyboard shortcuts. My Mac didn't have a mouse so it was necessary to borrow one to do some left and right clicking. It was important to set up the buttons to click. I notice that it gets dark quick and thus must have to do with the amount of time you are working. I found it made sense to start another world.

You find additional information as is displayed above. After taking the screenshot I did not know where to find them. Thankfully a youngster had create a video online which I have shared.

The key piece of information is go to finder>folders then add ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/screenshots/

I watched the tutorial to build a table but will need to review how to get the wood from the tree. Sadly I kept busting it when I needed pieces to turn into planks. Unfortunately my 40 years building trades experience have not been helpful to this latest endeavor.

An Impromptu travel with classmates Second Life Machu Pichu

As a few classmates were unable to attend the Thursday meeting a few of us had agreed to meet on Sunday. We met at Rocca Sorrentina, 1785: Italy and the "Grand Tour", Rocca Sorrentina. I had a chance to enjoy Impressionist and listen to classical music.We were able to share some links from Poem's tour and visit the Aquarium. In addition we went to Machu Pichu walking to the top. I explored a bit on my own and found a hang glider and was able to take it for a flight and navigated back to the group.  This was a very different virtual trip truly just exploring and sharing. It was unfortunate that the sound was not working which gave rise to communication issues. Like in real life folks were keen to get together to take selfies this I did find a bit odd not knowing how to face but thought it was fun especially as it was spontaneous and we had a big group show up. It seems that second life is a success for Sunday nights.

I was a bit exhausted having traveled to Marlboro to present on Friday and class on Saturday the long drives take away from school work. For this extra meetup it serves the class well and at the same time was a leisurely way to relax, learn and virtually get together with classmates.

Meeting With Poem

We had another guest tour guide this week in Second life named Poem. There were a few challenges with audio but we were able to visit new worlds. I tour guide was in real life from Uruguay and a Spanish speaker who could also Speak Portuguese. She showed us around Edunation and provided views of what appeared like and aviary and a tour under water.
There was scuba gear you could access to swim with the fish but we were all able to access and view the scenes without any concern for running out of air.
It was an opportunity to see how this world could be used to virtually visit other places and practice different languages. Poem noted that she had worked at the United Nations as an interpreter this is a very challenging profession.
An important thing we learned was to become friends so you can share things like landmarks and invite others to join you at different locations. This required some planning or you would lose your tour group members or the guide. Ultimately we were treated to Holodecks where we saw very different virtual worlds  providing a new level of virtual worlds. I liked the aquarium as it reminded me of Hawaii.

Virtual Meetings in Second Life with Gentle Heron and Real World Meeting Coverage at United Nations

We had a special guest meeting in Second Life with  Gentle Heron where we had a chance to learn a great deal about how people with disabilities are able to use second life. She pointed out that from her avatar you would never know she sits in a wheel chair and is living with Multiple Sclerosis.

During this meeting we learned more about how people with disabilities are able to use virtual worlds. In some case they are able to travel virtually to other worlds. There was a box in the center of the room that contained a number of virtual destinations we could travel to. I found it interesting how teachers could use Second Life to share with students and also rules related to youth.

For example you must be 18 years of age to access Second Life. There is a limited option for 16 year old youth where they have limitations to what they are able to access. In addition there is potential to have place in world where younger children can access but with strict limitations to the region specific to their special access.

We also had another guest Esme who many of us had taken course with previously. Gentle Heron was curious about Jokaydia grid. I believe Jokaydia was a great place to begin and learn many skills in a relatively close environment. Rarely did we find visitors or distractions. It was described as sandbox. I see the Second Life world is much more developed with a greater number of visitors. It was noted that this could be a way to meet people speaking other languages. Portuguese surprisingly was a top language along with Spanish and English. Gentle Heron noted that there were also a lot of German speakers.

When I arrived to the destination I found a couple of characters and as we all had new names I asked it they were here for class. Then one spoke Spanish and I realized the other who was trying to communicate was not a native English speaker. As it happened one stumbled into our meeting and when addressed they did not respond. Suddenly there was a lot of loud background music as the visitor had their microphone with music piping through unknowingly and apparently efforts to speak English did not connect. I do think they realized they had landed in the middle of a meeting then left.

The lesson here was to be aware of your surroundings. I t was interesting to listen to Gentle Heron who brought back memories of a good friend who had MS. At work we pay attention to accessibility and have frequent meetings that require attention to details and access.

She mentioned Education initiatives from Australia and this week at work we hosted a forum on education with very special guest speakers to include the former Prime Minister of Australia, the Director of CERN along with many different panels and advocates for education.

I was working as a Photographer at this event where a colleague Frances from IISD took this image. I am actually seated at the table in the center. It is interesting to note that this room is accessible with ramps to take you to the podium on the dais. You can follow this link to see where I work this is the news group IISD that covers our programs http://www.iisd.ca/hlpf/2015/

HLPF 2015 participants heard a keynote address from H.E. Julia Gillard, Former Prime Minister of Australia,and Chairman of the Global Partnership for Education.

You can see examples of my photos on the slide show of our offices web here https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

Note the photos on the slider change as the images from the High Level Political Forum is what I had been covering.

The connection here is that all the speakers were stressing the value of education especially to starting early and the value of ICT. Internet Communications to play a bigger role in our work and the key to success is education. Virtual meetings now take place using Video Teleconference as the image below the Secretary General participate in our meeting held in NYC while he was on mission in Norway

L-R: H.E. Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; and H.E. President 

Paul Kagame, Rwanda, adressed HLPF 2015 via remote video from Oslo, Norway

We could have meeting virtually as avatars. I think the possibilities to level the playing field could provide new solutions by removing cultural bias and eliminating hierarchy.