lots of questions.

[Chad Carey]

1. Can you have multiple worlds running at the same time. If so how?

2. Why do all the clients have access to settings and mods? How do you block them? This seemsike a bad thing and a huge distraction for students.

3. Why is there not a basin student client program that can simplify getting kids logged in? The current system is fairly convoluted.

4. Can you remove or block access to basic minecraft?

[MisterA]

Hello Chad,

Your questions are not clear cut, but I will do my best to help guide you to the answers. Many of the answers can be found by reading and searching the MinecraftEdu Wiki pages: http://services.minecraftedu.com/wiki/Main_Page

1. Can you have multiple worlds running at the same time. If so how?

The simple answer is, you cannot have multiple worlds running at one time. At least not on one server and without mods. It is possible to run multiple servers, but you would be required to purchase multiple servertool licenses, and have the resources to run two at once. You could achieve something similar to this by running mods like Mystcraft, but be warned the more you have going on the more resources you will need when running the server.

2. Why do all the clients have access to settings and mods? How do you block them? This seemsike a bad thing and a huge distraction for students.

MinecraftEdu uses forge as a base for modifications, this means clients need to have mods and such setup on the client. Why are the settings and mods available to the students? Well, they are by default, but you can customize the launcher so that is not something students can play around with. See the wiki pages for the directions on how to do this. I will of course have to disagree with you that this is a huge distraction. I have been running MinecraftEdu in my classes for a year and a half and we haven't had but a handful of students that I have had to talk to about being off task. With that said, I have had to talk to 0 of them about playing with the settings and the mods. They are too excited to just be playing with MinecraftEdu in the classroom. If you have run MCEdu in class and are having these issues, my advice is simple. Stop playing, talk to your students about expectations and consequences. If they are unable to meet the expectations of behavior, they can always do the work with a pencil and paper. You cannot under estimate the effectiveness of being very up front and direct with them about this. Also while you are at it, throw in a discussion about digital citizenship and Minecraft at Home vs. Minecraft at School.

3. Why is there not a basin student client program that can simplify getting kids logged in? The current system is fairly convoluted.

Again, I have 240 students come into my lab over the course of a week, for the past year and a half. Once they have been shown how to log in, they usually have no problems. Take the time to show them. My students are able to connect to the server and get started within a minute of coming into class. Teaching them skills like logging in and selection / choices is not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, let them explore the first time you start up the client..get it out of their system...then get down to work. The more you try to censor things, the more they will be curious as to what you are trying to hide. With that said, look on the wiki page there are definitely things you can do to minimize the distractions for your students. Customize the login, hide options, and things of that nature.

4. Can you remove or block access to basic minecraft?

Yes you can. again search the wiki and find the section for changing the launcher settings and the launchersettings.ini file. You can remove singleplayer, mods, update, etc...

Hope that helps, there is a ton of great information on the wiki page and I encourage you to spend some time exploring it, then let your students explore....and watch the learning happen.

MisterA

[Joel Mills]

I will attempt to provide an alternative view on the questions.

You don't specify whether you are using ordinary Minecraft or MinecraftEDU, so this give me the chance to give a different view.

1. Yes you can have multiple worlds running if you are using ordinary Minecraft. I run a Bukkit Server www.hullcraft.com and we run the MultiWorld Plugin. This allows you to have multiple worlds on one server. ALthough Bukkit is dead and you will struggle to get an original Bukkit Server download you can still get a Bukkit/Cauldron server here. Cauldron allows you to run both Server plugins (like on a Bukkit server) and Client side Mods (like on a Forge server). Best of both worlds.

2. Again, if they are using MinecraftEDU the comments from MisterA are very good advice. If you are running either Minecraft or MinecraftEDU you can also add any command to a list of banned commands in a separate file which will prevent the players form misusing the mods.

Again, running a Bukkit server where the customisation is held on the server and not on the client machine will still give you control over the players (worldGuard, PermissionsEX, AntiGrief, etc...) but will not put the load on the client machine. However you DO need to learn how to install these mods and customise them correctly (which is a great learning curve and one I always enjoy!) 

3. Agree with MisterA on the MinecraftEDU choices. Normal Minecraft can run in offline or online mode. The good thing about this is that students can only log in if they have a genuine Minecraft account that they have paid for. The bad thing about this is that students can only log in if they have a genuine Minecraft account that they have paid for.....

Offline mode does not provide the recognition or authentication so is not good for the classroom. So for what you are looking for, MinecraftEDU would be a better choice for the classroom environment, but you could use Minecraft (on a bukkit server or Cauldron Server) to provide similar functionality.

4. Again, Agree with MisterA on the MCEDU stuff. A normal minecraft server on Bukkit etc... can also restrict access to blocks. You can create a full permissions tree using permissionsEX which will allow different levels of access to commands, blocks and other restrictions.

I give all of this information out as so often, I want the students to carry on working on the Minecraft world at home or open up the server to the public and let them in, so I try to find solutions that will work in both kinds of server.

There is no one solution that fits all (as I have spent many, many hours trying to discover) and sometimes MCEDU will be a better solution and other times a Bukkit or Vanilla MC server will be the best option. 

The more you get used to setting up a server and customising it, taking it down, trying a different approach, the more comfortable you will be in getting different configurations to meet your needs.

Hope (some) of that helped...?

Joel