Setting up a Minecraft server in Azure (for use at weekly CodeClub session)

For almost one year, I've been doing a weekly CodeClub session at one of my kids schools, and sometimes at a local restaurant (see here)

Since there is quite a lot of passion in the kids for Minecraft, I decided that for this term, we would try to use a Minecraft server in class, and see if we (me and kids) can figure out how to use Minecraft without a mouse (ie, with only programming).

Since my first experiments with a Minecraft server where quite positive (see Setting up a CraftBukkit based Minecraft server on OSX (Nov 2013)) I decided that it was time to take it up a notch, and try to create a Minecraft server in Azure (so that the kids can access it from home).

Here are the steps I took:

Setting up a CraftBukkit based Minecraft server on OSX (Nov 2013)

Since I have my regular Codeclub Wednesday session later today, I finally got around to figure out how to run a Minecraft server (I have a number of kids that are starting to get bored with Scratch and REALLY like the idea of programming Minecraft)

There are a couple Minecraft servers out there (including an official one), but the CraftBukkit seems really powerful and very plugin-friendly (see http://plugins.bukkit.org/)

Here are the steps required to get an Minecraft CraftBukkit  server up and running:

1. download the CraftBukkit 1.7.2 development version from http://dl.bukkit.org/downloads/craftbukkit/
2. follow the instructions from http://wiki.bukkit.org/Setting_up_a_server
3. move the downloaded craftbukkit-1.7.2-R0.1-20131204.020906-17.jar into the BukkitServer folder and rename it craftbukkit.jar (you can delete the one originally downloaded)
4. execute ./start.command from a terminal window in the BukkitServer folder
5. open your Minecraft client (downloaded from https://minecraft.net/download) and connect to localhost (you will need a valid/paid account in https://minecraft.net)

Code Club - Video with Scratch Games created by the Kids I was teaching at a local school

For the last couple months (May till June 2013) I have been running a  Code Club session at my daughter school.

Every wednesday at 3:30pm, I went there for 1h and taught 14 kids (Y3 till Y6) how to program Scratch (with a brave one doing some Python)

To wrap up the year, we did a presentation to the Key Stage 2 assembly, where we presented the video below (to show some examples of their efforts and creativity):

Review of first CodeClub meetup in Chiswick (24th Jun 2013), with Scratch and RaspberryPI 'coding stations'

Following the 'Open Library' for my RaspberryPi, Arduino, BeagleBone, Pyhton, CodeClub books and materials on the Chiswick High Road idea and the creation of CodingLab , I organised a Code Club meetup at Chiswick's Union Jack which had a nice crowd and vibe.

Here are some pictures of this event and set-up

'Open Library' for my RaspberryPi, Arduino, BeagleBone, Pyhton, CodeClub books and materials on the Chiswick High Road

Yesterday I 'dropped' 10 Python books to a friend's kid house with a 'take a look at these books and pick one that make sense to you' workflow (they are trying to use a RaspeberryPI and learn how to code in Python)

Later that day one of the kids asked me '... can we keep two?..' , which is always a good sign :)

This got me thinking that that some of my books (I have lot of them) deserve to be shared with more kids :)

Maybe I could have them 'somewhere' on the local Chiswick High Road (West London) as a kind of 'Public Geek Library' for kids (and adults).

This could also be a great location to put information about CodeClub and examples of what I'm creating with the kids that I am teaching every Wednesday.