With 30 million trials of last year’s Minecraft Hour of Code tutorial, Microsoft and Code.org believe the new offering will again introduce tens of millions to coding for the first time
SINGAPORE, 16 November 2016 — Microsoft Corp. and Code.org on Tuesday unveiled the Minecraft Hour of Code Designer, a coding tutorial for students and educators created for Hour of Code, an annual, global campaign held during Computer Science Education Week, Dec. 5–11. The new web-based tutorial — available for free at http://code.org/minecraft — enables beginner coders to create and share their own simple “Minecraft” game, and is designed to empower anyone to begin learning the problem-solving and critical thinking skills required in today’s tech-fueled world.
Created by “Minecraft” game designers at Mojang and Microsoft, in partnership with Code.org, the fun and easy-to-learn one-hour experience builds on the success of last year’s record-breaking “Minecraft” tutorial, which reached more than 30 million students worldwide. With the goal of inspiring millions more to try coding for the first time — and to keep going on their journey of learning computer science — as of today’s launch, the tutorial is available in 10 languages. It is scheduled to be available in 50 languages by Dec. 5.
With the immense popularity of “Minecraft” around the world, Microsoft and Code.org believe the tutorial has the potential to reach people of all ages and likeness. Women and girls already compose nearly half of the game’s global fan base. The tutorial also underscores Microsoft’s commitment to ensuring all young people have the opportunity to learn computer science, an economic and social imperative in this era of digital transformation. Computer science and coding help build the fundamental skills required for the future workforce, when technological change is expected to create 2 million new jobs by 2020, while displacing more than twice that number, according to research by the World Economic Forum[1].
This importance is further reflected in findings from a recently released survey by Microsoft, Driving Transformation in Education, where nearly 1 in 2 schools in the Asia Pacific region believe that students will find it hard to adapt to the future workplace with low digital literacy levels. In the survey, problem-solving skills were rated the most important for students to be equipped with for 21st century jobs.
Incidentally, students in the region are keen to pursue coding – some 85 percent expressed their interest to learn, with three in four respondents in Asia Pacific wishing that coding were offered as a core subject in school, according to another Microsoft poll last year.
“We are partnering with Code.org again this year to make computer science more accessible to millions of youth around the world with ‘Minecraft’ and Hour of Code,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “I am inspired by the ‘Minecraft’ generation who view themselves not as players of a game, but as creators of the new worlds they dream up. This is the generation that will imagine, build and create our future, and together we can equip them with the computational thinking and problem-solving skills to seize the opportunities ahead.”
Designed for ages 6 and up, the Minecraft Hour of Code Designer teaches students to create their own “Minecraft” experience where they can program the rules. They can make chickens that drop gold, or zombies that run away instead of attacking. Along the way, students use Code.org’s familiar drag-and-drop coding interface to learn computer science concepts such as object-oriented programming, event handlers and repeat loops. Players face a series of 12 challenges, culminating in creating their own simple game, which they can share with friends.
Incidentally, students in the region are keen to pursue coding – some 85 percent expressed their interest to learn, with three in four respondents in Asia Pacific wishing that coding were offered as a core subject in school, according to another Microsoft poll last year.
“We are partnering with Code.org again this year to make computer science more accessible to millions of youth around the world with ‘Minecraft’ and Hour of Code,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “I am inspired by the ‘Minecraft’ generation who view themselves not as players of a game, but as creators of the new worlds they dream up. This is the generation that will imagine, build and create our future, and together we can equip them with the computational thinking and problem-solving skills to seize the opportunities ahead.”
Designed for ages 6 and up, the Minecraft Hour of Code Designer teaches students to create their own “Minecraft” experience where they can program the rules. They can make chickens that drop gold, or zombies that run away instead of attacking. Along the way, students use Code.org’s familiar drag-and-drop coding interface to learn computer science concepts such as object-oriented programming, event handlers and repeat loops. Players face a series of 12 challenges, culminating in creating their own simple game, which they can share with friends.
[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-18/rise-of-the-robots-will-eliminate-more-than-5-million-jobs
