The world's first Minecraft(R) x programming education x free learning mod beta version has been released (HACK Inc.)

Hack Inc. ,

which operates programming classes for children and whose CEO is Morita, a director of our company, will be releasing the beta version of "8x9Craft," the world's first (according to Hack Inc.) Minecraft "mod for programming education and learning," on March 10, 2017.

8x9Craft details URL: http://craft.8x9.jp/ja/gettingstarted/

Below is the content of the press release

■Reason for releasing a mod for programming education and learning

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Summary of Discussions on the Form of Programming Education at the Elementary School Level" states:

• "As a prerequisite for implementing programming education, it is believed that the qualities and abilities that have long been emphasized as the foundation of all education, such as the development of language skills and thinking skills in each subject, will become increasingly important."
• "Programming education is about giving children the experience of being able to instruct a computer to perform the processing they desire, while cultivating 'programming thinking' as a timeless and universally required skill, regardless of the profession they pursue in the future."

It is important to foster computational thinking in elementary school students and raise them to become the type of people society desires

Furthermore, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's "Survey Results on the Latest Trends and Future Estimates for IT Human Resources,
" "As Japan's population declines, the working population (especially the young population) will also decrease, and
it is thought that it will become even more difficult to acquire IT human resources in the future," making it an urgent task to secure IT human resources.

In addition, the introduction of programming education in elementary, junior high, and high schools is being considered in the next curriculum guidelines to be implemented after 2020

At Kids Programming School 8x9 (Hack), we use the hugely popular Minecraft, which we believe will help children learn programming in a fun way,
develop programming-based thinking in a systematic way, and become closer to the type of person society desires.

 

 

■Three features of the "8x9Craft" (HackCraft) mod for programming education and learning

There have been tools available for programming within Minecraft up until now.
Kids Programming School 8x9 (Hack) has also used a mod called ComputerCraft
to provide programming education.
However, previous tools for programming within Minecraft
were merely extensions of "tools for enjoying Minecraft."
While these tools are certainly excellent,
they also fall short when it comes to teaching and learning programming.

we developed them from scratch
to address the shortcomings of previous tools and We designed this tool with a wide range of ages in mind, from third grade and above with a teacher, to fifth grade and above, using it alone.

We will explain three ways in which the newly released "8x9Craft" (HackCraft) is different from other tools

1. Tools designed for programming education and learning

Previous tools made it difficult to judge the optimization of a program and rank it as superior or inferior, but "8x9Craft" (HackCraft) uses a concept called "score" to rank programs, allowing you to find the best way to
write programs.
Furthermore, the difficulty of using the programming editor in ComputerCraft
was a major obstacle to learning programming.
For this reason, we focused on the editor, and based it on MonacoEditor, an open-source editor from Microsoft
, making it extremely easy to use.

2.Mod for learning JavaScript

"8x9Craft" (Hack Craft) is a mod that allows you to learn Javascript.
Most previous tools for programming in Minecraft were based on the Lua language, and
the learning outcomes were not directly applicable to familiar app development.
"8x9Craft" (Hack Craft) teaches programming using Javascript, so you can
apply your learning outcomes to familiar app development.

3. Basically free to use

"8x9Craft" (Hack Craft) is free to use for non-commercial purposes only.
Please contact us separately for the commercial version of "8x9Craft" (Hack Craft).
Kids Programming School 8x9 (Hack) is currently using "8x9Craft" (Hack Craft) on a trial basis, and
plans to start full-scale operation from April.

■ Future outlook

We plan to release the official version within the next three months, and also plan to release a commercial version of "8x9Craft" around summer 2017. We are currently
developing "8x9Craft" so that it can be used in programming classes.
We are also considering expanding overseas, and are currently creating an English wiki site.

blocks that will allow students to learn through experience both on a computer and in the real world about the optimal way to move things when racing with "8x9Craft."

By using "8x9Craft" (HackCraft),
we hope to carry out activities that will increase the number of children around the world who can program.

■ Contact information

[Contact for this matter]
Contact: Terui
Email: [email protected]
Phone number: 078-778-7891

[Company Profile of Hack Co., Ltd.]
Company Name: Hack Co., Ltd.
Representative: Representative Director Kotaro Morita
Date of Establishment: January 29, 2016
Location: Town Court Rokko 201, 2-16-3 Bingo-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture
Capital: 3 million yen
Business Description: Programming education business for children
Phone Number: 078-778-7891
Email: [email protected]
URL: http://www.8x9.jp/