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Add More Teacher Controls

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50 comments

  • Ethan Cooper

    Andrew Campbell I liked classroom mode as well. When running 25+ students, I did find that it bogged down and became unusable. Outside of that, it was as you said, a good start.

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  • Ian Donald

    Whole heartedly agree with all the posts here. I was introduced to the original MinecraftEdu back in the early 2000's and it was a fantastic resource because it was so controllable by the teacher.

    I am enjoying using the newer version. However, I have to be on my game to make sure students are using the software as I intend. 

     

    More controls please!

     

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  • Alex S

    It has been over two years since my original post here. Nothing has been done on the existing classroom mode application and still on version 1.82. The application doesn't work at all anymore.

    As the application is not supported any longer so I am not sure why it has not been taken down from the main site

    I didn't expect much change after a large company such as Microsoft took over this application from Mojang, but I didn't expect bug fixes, support and simple website updates to get as bad as it has. 

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  • Ethan Cooper

    Alex S Unfortunately, I have to agree. Classroom mode is not adequate in its current incarnation. I limped along for our summer Minecraft Camps, but if I ran the program for more than a few minutes, it just got bogged down. I'd have to wait for 30s+ before it woudl register mouse clicks. This was with around 30 students logged in.

    Even without adding any new functionality, even fixing the current version would be very much appreciated.

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  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    Yes need a major upgrade to the "classroom mode"
      It needs to supply the predictive text that you get when running commands in game to help teachers get the commands right.

    It needs to log more than just the chat.  It needs to log all events that are shown, like who killed who and if any commands are being run by students and when students log on/off.


    It really needs to be able to be implemented on student hosted worlds without making them operators.

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  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    I have just had the experience of a big row happening among students in a student hosted world that I had no way of supervising.  Now I have an issue of some of the students wanting to quit the Co-op because they are upset and feel that it will be too awkward to be in a class with the people who were abusing her and her brother in game.

    All Worlds and Servers that I host have Classroom Management Packs installed, I can set up chat logging, and I can choose the settings for those worlds so students can keep their inventory when they die and PVP is turned off unless it is an e-sports activity.

    But when students are able to join worlds that other students host without the teacher's supervision, none of those things are being done.

    I really want a server that I can control and that the students have to join for multiplayer on the tenet.
    Or if I can't stop them from Joining each other's worlds, at least I would like a way to inform them that they do so at their own risk.

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  • Paul Hudson

    Such a shame to see Education Edition just seems like an afterthought with little dedication from the developers (I don't mean individual people but the company as a whole) 

    You have a really powerful learning tool that engages children more than pretty much anything else and it is still missing so many features that are needed in a learning environment. 

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  • Andrew C

    I feel more and more like Microsoft doesn't know how transformative M:EE can be for their education business because it wont be routinely used by teachers without the implementation of apparently simple-to-design features. They also have significant competition, especially from Roblox.

    Minecraft is not that unique - its an open world creative sandbox game and there are many good ones. The longer that basic classroom management tools are absent, the more likely we are to find a creative multi-learner sandbox that meets our requirement for a simple teacher UI that includes classroom management and student safety tools.

    The main benefit of M:EE is not its popularity as a video game.  It is the app's potential usefulness as a learning/teaching environment that makes it worthwhile.

    Do you know any teachers who routinely don't know what their students are doing, saying, or even where they are located? I hope not.

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  • Tim Longman

    In their defence a lot of the worlds are useful as single player worlds. It is when multiplayer comes in that it has the potential to go wrong. It needs someway for the game to identify teachers vs pupils and then give teachers the power to allow or deny pupils the right to host multiplayer games. 

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  • Paul Hudson

    That's a big issue though. I find M:EE at its best when used collaboratively, especially with children that don't necessarily work well in a group structure in class and children that are usually shy and withdrawn.

    Just recently we've been building moon bases in a shared environment and these children have really excelled at working together, communicating and planning. Things that are usually a struggle in other settings just come naturally when they're in M:EE

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  • Debbie Alexander
    Moderator Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    Ahh, I am late to the party on this convo! Micah Beasley - in a classroom full of students, the job of keeping screens on task is definitely challenging, whether MC:EE is available or not. Being able to block azurewebsites at the network level, as Jordan Frankc mentions would essentially stop the game from functioning, I guess, but trust me, there are so many other ways to waste time on a Chromebook. The underlying problem for a classroom teacher remains, whether Minecraft is present or not. So for me, I'd rather have great, engaging material at hand, and deal with classroom management over MC:EE than Slither.io and shoe shopping. =D

    I agree with Aleece Landis that chat supervision is a uniquely necessary feature for teachers. There is too much potential for excess harm in digital messages to ignore adding accountability here, if it is at all possible.

    The shared worlds issues are real. Paul Hudson Tim Longman and Andrew C are making great points about the potential, the power, and also the trouble-making in them. I rule shared worlds with a grumpy iron first in my class. (*honest declaration here*) We only allow them in extremely well defined circumstances. 

    But they are mighty and transformative! lol, I just have to watch the balance between collaboration and design versus TNT and foolish impulses and loud voices! plus, as a teacher, a girl can only take so much!

    I love this discussion! Bryan Sanders I think you were in here four years ago!

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  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    Debbie Alexander Yes good point that devices can be used for all sorts of things OTHER than what the teacher wants available.  But I don't think we get to solve all the problems of technology from within the MCEE community and I don't think we can expect the MCEE developers to try to tackle that.

    I really wish there were some way though that the "administrator or teacher" for a tenet could have some control over the student log ins ability to Host multiplayer games and dictate what multiplayer games they are allowed to join.
    Along with being able to log the chat sessions in multiplayer games.  And it would be good if there were logs of commands and the command feedback.

    Some of this stuff (White listing what players are allowed and the logging and in world controls) would be far easier to handle on a dedicated server.   Back in the GOAT update I found it easier to maintain a "Class" world Using an "extra account" and "extra computer" since I could get everthing set up in the world using a "classroom management pack" and get the hosting account into a box in the nether so as not to disturb survival activities of the class.  Back in 1.17 we could use the IP address and port to log in and it was very stable, only very rarely needing to restart.  Now in 1.18 it is not stable, I constantly have to restart and re-share join codes/links AND I'm constantly having to re-connect the wss for logging (either classroom mode or the one I created.)

    Please, some one, we need to really upgrade the classroom mode to be more effective for classroom management.  The fact that you have to OP and student to run the connection to a student hosted world has some major problems.

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  • Bryan Sanders
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star Moderator

    Debbie Alexander FOUR YEARS LOL -- it's a struggle, but we live to suffer!

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  • Shannon McNeice

    I can't believe this thread is three years old with teachers begging for more control and nothing has been done. I am at my wits end with kids being able to start servers and set my worlds on fire with lava and tnt. This is not usable in a classroom setting.

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  • Bryan Sanders
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star Moderator

    Presuming you have student accounts setup correctly in the admin dashboard for Microsoft, you should be able to host a world, keep all students as members, and then use /gamerule allowdestructiveobjects false

    And

    /gamerule doFireDamage false
    /gamerule doFireTick false

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  • Shannon McNeice

    Is there a way for us to view a log? When I ran Minecraft Education by mojang, I could always see a log, but the players were not identified. Now, the players are identified and I would like to be able to see who is doing what, for example griefing in my world. Thanks!

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  • Alex S

    A reminder of this video showing the old teacher controls which existed almost a decade ago! Even that tutorial world was awesome. 

    How I miss those simple yet effective, easy to access and dedicated teacher controls such as

    • spectate mode,
    • freezing individual students, 
    • freezing all students (without freezing yourself),
    • disabling chat for individual students,
    • easy give command menu,
    • building tools...

    and to think it was all built into the MC program too. 

    The old MC by Mojang was more supportive to teachers in terms of providing controls, an array of tutorials and responsive and personalised online support. 

    It is obvious that Microsoft have given up on its classroom mode. Therefore, I wonder if a new version could be created on by an independent programmer. I've thought about starting up a GoFundMe page. I'm sure many teachers around the world would be happy to support this. 

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  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    Shannon McNeice
    Minecraft Bedrock has very limited to no "logging" capabilities build in the way Java had.
    That being said, you can get a chat log if you use the classroom mode, it will save the log.  Unfortunately, it will ONLY save the chat.  It doesn't log the command feedback or anything like that.  And I don't know of anything that would be able to tell the teacher who was doing exactly what/where/when within a world.

    I know EduElfie has created a wonderful Classroom Management pack that can provide MANY tools for teachers.
    But Alas, my students view these sorts of things as a problem solving challenge of how can they beat it.

    There are packs out there that can allow you to have a student "claim" an area to build in that won't let anyone else grief the area or indeed even let anyone else in.

    creative use of Game modes and or allow/deny blocks can also help.  Unfortunately, trying to set up video surveillance on all players may well be far beyond the scope of Minecraft and I expect many of the devices wouldn't be able to handle doing it via 3rd party video recording software.

    Alex S
    The use of WSS to create a logging program can be done, that is really what Classroom mode is, just a wss connection program.  They have changed the way wss works a bit lately but it still works.  I haven't had much time to look into how to log more detailed information or if there is some way to subscribe to command feedback without broadcasting the command feedback to everyone's chats.  I have been able to set up a logging program that would track all player join notices, player leave notices, and chat messages.  I was able to track when students opened the NPCs and what part of the npc dialogue they chose by having a /tell command in the npc open/close commands.

    I'm sure some one with more time on their hands and experience with coding this sort of thing could write an even better logging program to use wss in education edition.  Heck, I'm sure some 3rd party could probably make a vastly improved version of classroom mode.  Biggest problem being that the Hosting player needs to be an operator for it to work so it is probably only really effective IF the teacher is hosting.

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  • Tim Longman

    Aleece Landis nails it - MEE just needs a way for the teacher to allow/deny the ability for students to host multiplayer worlds. The logs point is also well made.

    if the teacher is the operator and is hosting a world then with some training on slash commands they have all the power that the old java edition gave. I would rate this as the number 1 education feature needed.

    I really wish there were some way though that the "administrator or teacher" for a tenet could have some control over the student log ins ability to Host multiplayer games and dictate what multiplayer games they are allowed to join.
    Along with being able to log the chat sessions in multiplayer games.  And it would be good if there were logs of commands and the command feedback.

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  • Ethan Cooper

    We just ran two weeks of Minecraft camp here using Minecraft Education. Classroom Mode's main use was for pausing the game, which is valuable in these sorts of camps (get the kids' attention, bio breaks, etc.). Since it gets bogged down and stops being responsive after some time, I'd keep it shut down and only load it when I needed to pause the game. Not sure if this is a bug or if it's an underlying design flaw, but this tool would have a lot more potential if it were usable in our environment. We usually run around 25 students and anywhere from 4-5 others (counselors/instructors). Also, the server account itself has to be logged in. Classroom Mode goes to a crawl and becomes unusable after only a few minutes.

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