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New Minecraft Modding Program Teaches Kids to Code

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I’m sure you’ve probably played a ton of Minecraft mods. But what about making your own? A new program will teach you how to do that as it introduces you to some basic coding skills.

LearnToMod is an educational program that works with Minecraft. According to an article in Wired, it’s based on a classroom program that started in California which taught kids eight to 15 how to code by encouraging them to make their own mods for Minecraft, such as a portal gun or a Tetris game.

“Kids are already spending ridiculous amounts of hours on Minecraft,” said Stephen Foster, the co-founder of ThoughtSTEM, the company that’s built the LearnToMod module. “So we thought this would be a good way to help them learn skills.”

The coding is taught by the program’s software, videos and other materials in a way designed to be easy for even young children to pick up. The program is based around modding in Javascript with a program called Scriptcraft, but it also uses a virtual block-based programming interface called Blockly, so no tedious typing of code is required.

The program will be offered to the general public in October. You can find out more at the http://www.learntomod.com/.

About Shawn Hopkins

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