Education edition update request

[David Hawkins]

I was away with a pregnant and sick wife most of the summer... so I did not spend as much time on Minecraftedu as I would have liked. Having returned to the scene, I am disheartened concerning what I am finding... Information that I have read about the Education Edition seems to be exactly the same as it was in June: vague and uncertain. I will now compare this to a game I enjoy on my free time: Dwarf Fortress.

 

1. Where are the features of Minecraft: Education Edition? Dwarf Fortress has a Development Tab that discusses all the features of the game in depth with actual color-coded entries letting us know whether a feature is partially done, being released in the next patch, or done and released. There is one guy working on that FREE game... how many people are on the Minecraft: EE team?

 

2. Where is the forum for Minecraft EE? This Minecraftedu forum seems to be the only place where there is any CONVERSATION going on about Minecraft: EE. The website for this thing has zero input capabilities for people to share ideas, thoughts, and criticisms. At least in June there was a place for people to express their concerns and ideas, but that was quickly shut down. When I questioned that in June I was directed to the website for Minecraft: EE where there is no conversation going on...

 

3. Even here there is limited discussion... where are the people who are testing out the EE? What do they have to say about it? I would love to test it out myself, but the district does not have Windows 10… a problem I am sure most everyone else has.

 

I am fortunate enough to have the presently invaluable 1.8.9 build 3 stored in various locations, but I am highly disappointed not many people were successful in acquiring it. That means there will be a very limited support group behind this wonderful product. The fact that it was removed quite quickly from the download options tells me how good of a product it was for Microsoft to fear its existence.  

   

[Jonathan Palles]

Is it safe to say Microsoft has successfully killed Minecraft? Between not supporting mods and not including any of the features that were built into MinecraftEdu, they have effectively neutered the game. I finally got a district to approve Minecraft and I can't do a bunch of the stuff I've been planning for years. Sad.

[Sharon Roche]

I agree with you on this...our library purchased a handful of copies and a server close to the withdrawal.  Now I get questions from our affiliated libraries who want to adopt our program for neighboring libraries; and I don't have a strong recommendation, other than doing it in a way I haven't tried (vanilla with a home server) and have no experience with.  We are - literally - "the only game in town".  You'd think that was good for us, but we are service-oriented and would have loved for this to be a groundswell around the entire county (which it would have been, without the Empire taking things over).  Hoping the TeacherGaming server continues as long as possible as that is also a very good deal for us.

[Scott Beiter]

Last I heard there is to be a big announcement at Minecon about the EE. I have been told to "stay tuned" for updates. I feel the frustration many others do. Our school MS rep can't even give us a clear answer on pricing and licenses. I was going to try it out with my after school club but can't even do that yet. Still using 1.7.10 MinecraftEdu. The added benefit is I can still use it with the worlds I developed for the classes I teach.

[Matt Coia]

Everything you need to know is housed at education.minecraft.net and I would scroll down to updates specifically.  The latest news is regarding the full release that happens on Nov 1.  http://education.minecraft.net/announce092216/

I think that your IT dept made the decision to move to EE without your input is pretty crappy.  Do they even realize how much more expensive it is going to be?  And how many features you'll be losing at the start?  Hopefully, you have a copy of MinecraftEDU stored somewhere for safe keeping (on a USB or personal laptop) so that you could go back to it, if needed.

I wish you luck!

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 3:10 PM, ksweckard <kswe...@jcsd1.us> wrote:

Hello! I too am a bit concerned! Our IT staff reimaged all my machines, removing MinecraftEDU and opted to move me to Minecraft EE...They can't tell me anything about anything...other than it is tied to 365, my kids will have to log in with an email address and that I won't have a server set up to house my worlds like before...that kids will have to join via IP.

HELP!  So bummed. Does anyone have any insight into how it works??

Thanks,

Krista

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[ksweckard]

I too have some questions! Our IT staff upgraded me to the new EE....even though it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for (after reading) They thought it would be better....although I'm finding it to be sad. It looks to be very basic and I'll sorely miss the Computer Craft mod....

Anyhow...for those of you playing on EE...

How is the lag? Is it correct I create a world and just share via ip? Basically like the LAN option of EDU? 

Is logging in via email address the only option? Even for K-1st? :-(

Anything else that I'll be surprised about?

On Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 1:30:25 PM UTC-6, David Hawkins wrote:

[Matt Coia]

​There are two HUGE features that we have conveyed to the MS team that need to be addressed asap and I know they are trying to get them into the application...that is 1. teacher build tools and 2. a ComputerCraftEDU-like programming interface.​

Some teachers have reported some lag once a handful of students enter a world but many do not see that happening.  Some of that may be network induced.  With this code running in C++ instead of Java, worlds do tend to generate much quicker from my experience.  As you can read from the links I posted previously, the classroom mode should provide a bit more control over the experience but we haven't seen much beyond pics on that.

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[gkis...@pvs.org]

After having used Minecraft EDU weekly for 2 years, my new school moved to Minecraft education edition. I am offering my opinion after testing it out in my classroom and looking for help:

Minecraft EE

+ Easy to join a network world (almost two easy as now any student can create their own game)

+ Runs very well on older laptops

+ Great idea to place the camera, portfolio, and maps in extra inventory slots (Although I have to manually do it for each world)

- Requiring Microsoft accounts was a huge pain for a Google Apps school

Questions and Concerns:

At this point I simply cannot use this in my classroom. Without any teacher controls, I am forced to go to do everything via commands. With a group of 30 students, I cannot always be hand typing each command and hoping that it works. 

Please let me know if you have solutions to issues I have:

1. I cannot freeze students to give instruction

2. I cannot easily teleport students or setup teleport locations

3. I cannot customize world rules before it is created

4. Minecraft EDU worlds are not compatible with EE 

5. I cannot use the build tools menu to quickly setup a lesson world

6. I cannot issue assignments for students to complete

7. Mod Support?

It seems they just took vanilla Minecraft and called it education. At this point we will not be purchasing this software come November. What am I missing? 

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[Matt Coia]

The Classroom Mode add-on that they have advertised should take care of some of the classroom issues, but not all. But unfortunately, they have not offered that on the pre-release trial for teachers to try before real purchases begin on Nov 1. 

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[gkis...@pvs.org]

That seems incredibly counter-intuitive. How would I know that my school would want to purchase the software without actually testing the real software?

Also, I just spent the morning researching and testing a way to view the Minecraft EE world maps. It seems that because Minecraft EE is using .mcworld files now, there is no way to view the maps that are created. How can I teach any lesson without having a basic map of the world that students are working in?

I really see this as another Microsoft purchase that they are running into the ground. Maybe I will check back in 2 years to see if they have added the basic functionality that Minecraft EDU already had. 

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[Shannon McNeice]

Yes, this is exactly how I feel. Microsoft has killed MinecraftEDU. :-(

On Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 10:22:40 PM UTC-4, Jonathan Palles wrote:

[ksweckard]

Quick question....downloaded the companion app (ClassroomMode). Can't seem to "make" it work??? Any help would be great as I can find none on the website. ugh

Thanks,

Krista

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[Matt Coia]

Hey Krista,

How far did you get?  I am able to download, and get it running but I cannot get it to connect to my world.  I had to go to settings to "Enable Cheats" also.

Matt

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[ksweckard]

Hi Matt--

That is as far as I could get too. Tried to point it to the server...but id didn't work. I didn't do the Enable Cheats....you would think there would be some guide to using this?? Or did I miss it? I saw reference to a TXT file...but I don't have that as the program didn't need extraction like it mentions?

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[Matt Coia]

​I haven't gotten this working yet personally, but I know others have.  I had a beta version of EE installed and the Education Edition team has told me to try un​installing the old version and reinstalling the new Nov 1st client, but that didn't work for me when I tried.  I need to try it again today.

i also informed them that the instructions on the Classroom Mode download page were wrong, so hopefully they fix that also.

if you haven't created an account on the Minecraft Education community site, that might be a good thing to do in cases like these so a conversation can be started there.

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[Diane Main]

I am on a Mac, so I didn't have a ZIP file with an included TXT file either.  Everything ran fine for me, though.

[Skait]

When i download minecraft education edition at last it shows "a part of this windows installer package" thingy problem, what to do? :(

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