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

and whose representative director is Morita, one of our company's board members
, which operates programming schools for childrenHack Co., Ltd.,
will release a beta version of "8x9Craft (HackCraft)," the world's first (according to Hack Co., Ltd.'s research) "programming education and learning mod" for Minecraft, 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 Projections of IT Human Resources,
" "As Japan's population declines, the working population (especially the young population) will decrease,
making it even more difficult to acquire IT human resources in the future." Securing IT human resources has therefore become an urgent priority.

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 the kids' programming school 8x9 (Hack), we believe that using the hugely popular Minecraft allows children to learn programming in a fun way,
systematically cultivate computational thinking, and help them become the kind of person society needs.

 

 

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

There have been tools that allow programming through Minecraft before.
Our kids' programming school, 8x9 (Hack), has also used a mod called ComputerCraft
to provide programming education.
However, these conventional tools for programming in Minecraft
were merely extensions of "tools for enjoying Minecraft."
While these tools are certainly excellent,
they have shortcomings when it comes to programming education and learning.
Therefore,
we developed this tool from scratch, aiming to address the shortcomings of conventional tools and create something that we would be satisfied with for use in our school.
The target audience is elementary school students from 3rd grade and up with an instructor, and elementary school students from 5th grade and up who can use it independently; it is designed for a wide range of ages.

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 program optimization and rank programs based on their quality. However, "8x9Craft" (HackCraft) uses a "score" concept to determine the quality of programs, allowing users to pursue the
most optimal way to write programs.
Furthermore, the difficulty of using the programming editor in ComputerCraft
was a major obstacle for learning programming.
Therefore, we focused on the editor,
basing it on Microsoft's open-source editor, MonacoEditor, resulting in a very user-friendly editor.

2.Mod for learning JavaScript

"8x9Craft" is a mod that allows you to learn Javascript.
Traditional tools for programming in Minecraft often use the Lua language, meaning
the learning results weren't directly applicable to everyday app development.
"8x9Craft" uses Javascript for programming, allowing you to apply
your learning to everyday app development.

3. Basically free to use

"8x9Craft" (Hack Craft) is free to use for non-commercial purposes only.
Please contact us separately regarding 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 fully implement it from April.

■ Future outlook

We plan to release the official version within three months, and furthermore, we are planning to release the commercial version of "8x9Craft" (HackCraft) around the summer of 2017.
We are also developing it so that it can be used in various programming schools.
We are also considering overseas expansion and are currently creating an English version of the Wiki site.
In addition, we are developing additional tools. For example, we are developing blocks that will allow users to learn through experience, both on the computer and in the real world, how to best move their
characters when running a race using "8x9Craft" (HackCraft).

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

■ Contact information

[Contact Information for this Matter]
Contact Person: Terui
Email: [email protected]
Phone Number: 078-778-7891

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