Introduction

What is "Minetest: Education Edition"

"Minetest: Education Edition" is an interactive educational world application based on the open-source voxel game engine, Minetest.

Interactive game world for Minetest

The concept of "voxel" in Minetest is similar to building blocks like Lego. In the interactive world, players can use these blocks to create houses, tools, and more. Unlike expensive Lego bricks, players can explore the virtual worlds they create and experience the new environments they design using these building blocks.

Experience the "new world" you create

The interactive world of Minetest allows for the use of material blocks to build a wide variety of creative structures, from houses and farms to cities and tools. Players can mine and sculpt metal ore into ingots, then use those ingots to create different types of tools and structures. Unlike expensive Lego bricks, players can explore and experience their creations in a virtual world. For example, players can use ladders, make glass blocks from sand, and watch the square sun rise from their porch.

The interactive educational world of "Minetest: Education Edition"

Letting children play in the interactive educational world does not serve any educational purpose.

Even in an interactive educational world, children may avoid completing tasks and instead engage in meaningless play if there is no adult supervision or guidance: jumping from a high place to commit suicide (the child calls it bungee jumping), after being resurrected, and running away again... It can be a joy to play.

Parents/teachers can manage game content, control playtime, and have educational exercises periodically appear during gameplay to enhance learning.

• Separates game interface into gameplay and password-protected content management screens for parents/teachers.
• Control of gameplay time to protect children's eyesight
• Periodically presents educational exercises to improve knowledge while playing
• Single-player game support different users to use a shared computer
• Write interactive educational world courses using approximate natural language text outside of the game(to be implemented)

To enhance the learning experience, we developed the Quiz player challenge mod to implement periodic exercises during gameplay, ensuring that children are consistently practicing and learning.

To make it easier for parents and teachers to manage game content, we directly modified the interface of Minetest by separating the student game interface (gameplay) from the teacher interface (manage game content). This makes it easier for teachers to manage the game and customize it for their students.

In addition, Minetest: Education Edition comes with a variety of built-in educational mods, including mods for mathematics, automation, electronic circuits, programming, and more. These mods provide a wealth of educational content that can be used to enhance learning in various subjects.

Looking to the future, we plan to develop a specification for a near-natural language text format, which will be used to write interactive course content. The course content written in this format can be converted into Minetest game worlds using a tool that we'll develop. This means that teachers will only need to maintain the course content text, rather than the game world itself.

This approach will make it easier for teachers and parents to collaborate on course content, as they can review and revise the text-based course content without having to deal with the complexities of building and maintaining a game world.

The game world is engaging and encourages children to keep practicing if they want to continue playing. With Minetest: Education Edition, children can explore and learn in a fun and interactive way, with the freedom to customize their learning experience to fit their interests and needs.

We hope that by releasing this open-source project, more people can benefit from the learning opportunities presented by Minetest: Education Edition.

Comparison with Minecraft: Education Edition 🎯

	Minecraft: Educational Edition	《Minetest: Educational Edition》
Offline	Can only be used online (you must log in before entering)	Software that can run offline (no registration and login, and it can also be used without a network)
Type	Paid Commercial Software	Free (Free) Open Source Software
target users	Only for educational institutions, not for individuals	Parents/teachers are free to use
Courses	About 700 online courses	None
Modules	Not supported	Local built-in education-related modules (mathematics, science, automation, electronic circuits, programming, etc.) and selected modules
Stand-alone server	Not supported	Local network or Internet game service can be set up on a professional Linux server
Game time control	Not supported	Support game time control
Game content management	Not supported	Support game content management
Interspersed exercises	Not supported	Support periodic exercises during gameplay

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• Minecraft: Education Edition:
  • Essentially an online service (must log in before entering)
  • Paid commercial software
    • No modifications or improvements can be made to the software itself
  • Only for educational institutions, not for individuals (individuals must rely on institutions)
  • 700 standard compliant lessons built into the in-game library (not natively built in, need to be downloaded in-app)
  • Trouble writing courses: essentially building in the game
  • Officially does not support custom mods
  • Does not support independent self-supporting local network or Internet game services (only services can be provided in the game)
  • Does not support controlling game time
  • Does not support game content management
  • Intersperse exercises that do not support play
• "Minetest: Education Edition":
  • The essence is a software that can run offline (no need to register and log in, and it is also available without the Internet)
  • Free (free) open source software
    • The software itself can be modified or improved under the premise of following its open source copyright license (LGPL3)
  • Parents/Teachers are free to use
  • Freely combinable module architecture design
  • Local built-in education-related modules (mathematics, automation, electronic circuits, programming, etc.) and selected modules.
  • No courses for now, need to create by yourself
  • Support self-hosted local network or Internet game service on Linux server for multiplayer games (minetestserver)
  • Support control game time
  • Support game content management
  • Periodic exercises during gameplay