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GAMING

UK teacher challenges Swedes to Minecraft

An English high school has taken notice after teachers in Stockholm introduced compulsory Minecraft lessons for 13-year-old students, with one Englishman keen to pit his own students against those in Sweden.

UK teacher challenges Swedes to Minecraft

After The Local wrote about a Stockholm school and its compulsory Minecraft lessons, one Englishman has been particularly moved by the Minecraft must.

Andrew Richardson Medd, assistant head teacher at the new Thomas Ferens Academy in Hull, is keen to get a similar programme running for his own students.

“When I saw the article, I thought – this is what I’m looking for – a lot of our students were playing Minecraft already and I’ve been trying to find something for our project-based learning programme,” Medd told The Local.

With his own students at the Hull school already equipped with their own iPads, Medd believes that interactive work with the Swedish computer game could be the perfect platform for a summer project for his own 13-14-year-olds.

“Learning has changed. Pupils aren’t receivers any more, the boundaries are greyed. Learning has become more collaborative, and that’s what I like about the game,” he said.

“Students are digital natives; they learn through experimenting whereas adults learn by questioning.”

Minecraft has already proven to be extremely popular worldwide since its release in November 2011, with over 40 million registered players and 17.5 million games units sold.

The three dimensional game demands that players find creative solutions to construction problems. According to its website, the idea is as simple as “arranging blocks to build anything you can imagine.”

While Medd is yet to hear back from teachers in Stockholm about their project, he is keen to throw down the gauntlet if that’s what it takes to get noticed.

“My vision is that the two schools could come together in an online collaborative project. A competition would be fantastic – let’s take on the natives, so to speak,” he told The Local.

“I cant profess to be a techie myself, but the kids would be really up for the challenge.”

Oliver Gee

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BALCONING

Balconing in Spain: New computer game promises all of the ‘fun’ of the leap without the risk

A new computer game turns the dangerous craze of balconing into a low-risk experience.

Balconing in Spain: New computer game promises all of the ‘fun’ of the leap without the risk
A computer simulator allows players to find out if they could make it to the pool unscathed. Photo: Humber Bundle

It is a question that most (sane) people ask themselves when they read about a trend in Spain – especially Balearic Island resorts – that sees tourists injured each year when they leap from a hotel balcony.

The dangerous craze has been dubbed “balconing” and has cost dozens of lives of mainly British tourists who plummet to their deaths from hotel rooms.

Balconing was first identified as the ultimate drunk holiday challenge, after videos showed young  men leaping from balconies several storeys up into the resort’s swimming pool below.

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But the term has also broadly come to mean any of the dozen incidents involving holidaymakers falling from balconies that occur during each tourist season.

Sometimes these deaths, or incidents resulting in severe injuries, come about when a holidaymaker attempts to climb from one balcony to another, either because they have lost their way, or lost their key or in the pursuit of some amorous encounter.

But sometimes they occur in purely accidental circumstances, although more often or not, the victim is inebriated.

Now a computer simulator has been developed to offer gamers the “enriching experience” of jumping from a hotel window into a pool “with practically no risks for your safety.”

The game involves a player attempting to guide his somewhat inebriated avatar through a hotel room full of obstacles to reach the balcony and from there launch over the precipice to the pool below.

It is designed to answer the question that it claims we all ponder when we return to our hotel room after a night on the tiles.

“If I jump, will I reach that pool?”

Balconing Simulator 2020 is released on December 6 from developer Fancy + Punk and will form part of the Humble Trove collection of indie games.

 
 
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