I started a programme at my son's primary school to teach rudimentary programming skills using Computercraft, but ultimately found the Minecraft environment proved too distracting for the children. Supervised, they did absolutely fine, and Computercraft essentially provides a Logo like environment using a modern programming language which is superb. Computercraft is engaging, and setting up tasks for the kids to perform with the turtles was instructive and fun. Left to their own devices however, the children were more inclined to just mess around in the sandbox. I still think Computercraft can be a useful tool for an educator, but it absolutely requires supervision and guided learning.
Yeah I think this is where the new(ish) adventure mode in mincraft can come in handy because I see the same thing. With adventure mode you can define world parameters such as "only these blocks are mineable" and so forth. With that you could setup a world where only the tasks you want accomplished could be possible. But I'll be honest, that's a lot of work for someone trying to teach!
Interesting, I wasn't aware that adventure mode allowed for that kind of customisation. I don't think that mode was available in Minecraft when I was running the workshops, but can see how that would be useful. You're right that it's a lot of work though - teaching with something like Scratch is certainly easier to get up and running.
Yeah, those features are very new. IIRC, they were introduced in the snapshots for 1.8, so they haven't even reached the stable version yet. (Minecraft 1.8 is nearing completion, after ~8 months of development).
Once 1.8 is officially released, someone could create educational adventure maps. I have played some 1.8 maps, and the new features can essentially make Minecraft into a game engine for voxel-based adventure games.
