Minecraft on the schools network

[Kawlindakew]

I am being asked to install Minecraft on to some of our PC's, which are on the schools network.

 

I'm not really comfortable doing this as I have no experience of Minecraft at all.

 

What are the implications of doing this, any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you

[Joanne]

I want minecraft for my school!

 

Have they bought it? Is it licensed? You can get special educational prices.

MinecraftEdu

[sted]

main issue is finding a "server" to run it on (and DONT update java to 8 (or i havnt got it working with 8 and the teacher who used it updated the version id set up)) Other than it installs in the worlds dumbest location and isnt a fan of uac if you install it in the obvious one (c:\program files(x86) ) its not too bad can be deployed with a copy script and it will only connect to internal servers iirc to its as safe as any other internal only application

[Kawlindakew]

Thanks for the quick replies.

 

What the teacher wants is for a few kids to be able to play minecraft at lunchtime, I don't really want to get into installing servers etc.

 

Is it possible just to download and install the game so they can get to wherever it needs to on the web, or are there security concerns etc.

[Joanne]

In that case your only issues are:

 

-buying it

-remembering which machines it is installed on

 

There shouldn't be any security issues. If only a few children are on it and being supervised properly, there won't be any problems. The game will probably save locally to the machine, so kids will have to log onto the same computer each time they want to continue building.

 

EDIT - minecraft can be bought for £4.99 for use on ipads if that is any good? I might end up doing that!!

Edited March 5, 2015 by Joanne

[JRowley]

If the kids have their own accounts do you still need to buy it? I wouldn't have thought so. Something to consider perhaps, though doing it like that excludes those who don't already own it.

[Kawlindakew]

So as far as I can tell now...

there are no security issues, it is a paid for game but if the kids already have accounts they will just be logging on?

[Joanne]

Might be best to have school accounts to keep them focused? Or am I being a killjoy?

[JRowley]

Might be best to have school accounts to keep them focused? Or am I being a killjoy?

 

I don't think it really makes much difference, the account is just a name and skin at the end of the day. It really depends on what the club will be doing I suppose. Personally I would suggest buying it if possible as the MinecraftEDU thing provides some resources I believe, though if it's just for random building and you don't want to pay anything then using existing accounts should be fine.

 

When you buy Minecraft you are effectively just buying an account, the client itself doesn't have any license attached to it and can be downloaded for free.

Edited March 5, 2015 by JRowley

[Kawlindakew]

Thanks everyone,

this has been a great help, I have been deliberating over this for the past couple of days.

[FragglePete]

We've got it running here in one of our ICT suites. The 'server' can just be the teacher's machine which runs the Server App which they launch from the MinecraftEdu Launch. The kids then connect to that IP address of the machine which the teacher displays on the screen. As you can imagine, it's proved immensely popular. Our PTA pitched in and purchased the licenses and we looking at extending it to another area of the school (once the appropriate licences are purchased). I think it costs us about £300 in total for one room.

 

I forced the installer to put it in c:\Program Files (x86)\minecraftedu folder on all the machines. We use CSE to switch on/off the menu icon in the start menu that runs the Launcher.jar file. We're running that latest version of Java here with no known issues as of yet.

 

Pete

[JRowley]

Just a note if you do decide to host a server and don't want kids to be aware of IP addresses or the worry of trying to explain it to them. An internal CName DNS record does the job quite nicely.

[Meldrew]

I'd say that supervision is important. I ran it for a week and we had loads of griefing. Caused quite a bit of upset between some students.

 

Meldrew.

[webby74]

We run it for a term and it was a nightmare. We did it at lunchtimes and had loads of grief. Pupils arguing, running mod clients, cheating. Wouldn't recommend it, created loads of extra work.

 

If you are really keen, look at the edu version, seems to solve a lot of the issues we were experiencing.

[Kawlindakew]

Thanks for the advice, bit worrying though that 2 of you mention arguments, but then again that is for the teacher to sort.

 

Will post on here what i find.

 

Thanks again to everyone.