Minecraft Workshop @Huis Terloo

Today was the first Minecraft workshop of a series in the coming 3 weeks. Since this week it the “Digitale Week” in Belgium, this is a national event where everything will be organised around STEM and digital education.

So yesterday was de first event in Pepingen, the library had organised a week of events. Discovering books and then they had to create something in Minecraft around the story they heard which will be presented today on the slot event.

We started we the the youngest group age 5–9 years. Off course they told me they knew everything but as usual during the half of my introduction slides it became more silenced in the room.

After the introduction we got started with login and creating a new Minecraft world. And off course it went wrong with most of them. Most of them created a survival world and others had no clue how to move with the keyboard and mouse. Besides that there where some issues with some rental pc’s not having enough RAM.

After this struggle thing started to work out, kids were getting used to the mouse and keyboard. But again it proved that even kids of age 5 can start playing Minecraft. Besides that it will also improve there basic computer skills.

In the afternoon the second group came in age 10-15 years. And this went a lot smoother some of them even had their own computer and some brought their tablet. The second introduction went really fast because this group knew a lot more. But when I arrived on the section modding and programming they all got quieter. After this we got started and this time there were no issues. The kids went on building and starting to ask me a lot of questions. Some have shared worlds so the could work together. Others had mods installed and were using WorldEdit to make their creation.

Again I had a great time with the kids, but again I noticed some lack of digital experience. Things like using a mouse or keyboard should be learned in preschool in my opinion, a tablet is great but only one way of communication with devices/computers. Other thing like switching on/off wifi, or the notion of applications running in a OS. So if it goes wrong close the app and restart it .

It was a nice a event the kids had fun an learned a lot from each other. Big thanks to staff that was there and keep up the great work at huis Terloo.

Want to book me for a Minecraft workshop or as a speaker about Kids & Coding? Let me know and we meet with a coffee. info@webwizart.be