Minecraft - for coding

[hadrianswall]

My 10 year old loves Minecraft. We just have a basic free account. I think he might be interested in doing some coding with it, but I'm a bit bamboozled by the various versions and account options and would ideally like to edge him in the right direction without having to become an expert myself first.

Can anyone give me an overview of how to get started with minecraft coding and perhaps recommend a book suitable for a 10 year old?

No clue about Minecraft coding, but this, I recommend if you would like your ds to start coding.

It's easy and explains everything with talk through videos. No need for parents to know anything. Can start with this:
www.khanacademy.org/hourofcode

and move on to this.
www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

Thanks Irvine. We're on top of the coding (Python) but it's just the Minecraft development environment we need more information on.

I've bought the Adventures in Minecraft book, so hopefully that will do the job.

What about a BBC Micro Bit. I know my DD1 has used one at high school for learning about coding.

They are not overly expensive.

Because compared to seeing a few lights scroll (very slowly) across a very tiny screen, being able to build huge Minecraft structures in seconds is likely to be slightly more appealing :-)

Be able to programme like this from scratch is not appealing?
Fair enough.

www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/browse

Irvine there are lots of ways of learning to code - Khanacademy is just one of many tutorial sites. For example my DS has been learning Python using the Code Club projects. But right now his favourite thing is Minecraft, and when I mentioned he could use his developing coding skills to do cool stuff in Minecraft too, he said he would like to do that.

So, thanks for the suggestion, but I started the thread because I wanted to know how to get started coding in Minecraft, not coding in general.

Studio Code has a couple of hour of code tutorials re Minecraft which might point you in the right direction...

code.org/minecraft

We use the full courses with great enthusiasm ages 5-18 (currently on course 3).

Ok, sorry.

WeakandUnstable, thanks, I looked at those Hour of Code tutorials but they're just using Blockly, which is a lot like Scratch, to cover some basic coding concepts on a Minecraft theme, rather than coding in Minecraft itself.

My older son has used Minecraft Pi - which is a special version of Minecraft on the Raspberry Pi that can be used do stuff with Python, so we'll default to that if necessary. However, ideally I was hoping to find a way of doing it on the laptop, within DS2's current Minecraft set-up, rather than on the RPi.

Looking at the Adventures in Minecraft book description, it will hopefully tell us how to do that - just need to wait for it to arrive now.

But in the meantime, if anyone knows how to get set up, let me know.

I teach children to code for Minecraft, using Python, in a school club. I would highly recommend Adventures in Minecraft, which I see you have on order. If your son is already coding using Python he will very rapidly have a blast. The chapters (adventures) and activities in the book are progressive, and I'd recommend working through them in order, and also customising as you go (can I make him jump higher? say something different / in a different place? use this in a different way? etc). Once he's figured out how to use time, position, post-to-chat and blocks, the world is his oyster.

My set-up uses Raspberry Pi computers and Minecraft Pi, so I haven't done this on a Windows PC myself. The Adventures in Minecraft book has clear setting up and getting started instructions for laptops as well (Windows and Apple) which should help him get started. There are chapters on coding for Minecraft in other Raspberry Pi books (useful if you have these books already, but not enough on Minecraft to be worth getting the books just for the Minecraft chapter), but I don't know what other books / resources cover coding for Minecraft on other systems (apart from Adventures in Minecraft). Hope he has fun!

Thanks RockGarden. Looking forward to it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24177844
How to make a career out of a minecraft obsession
Joseph is still working for the OS and still mad about minecraft