Minecraft is being used in Schools; would Real Virtuality be a better option?

[walker 0]

Hi all

Minecraft is being used in Schools; would ArmA be a better option?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27936946

With its free tools and coding abilities ArmA has superior educational benefits, for art, science, programming and story telling.

Maybe BIS should consider an educational release?

Kind Regards walker

[mistyronin 1181]

Maybe BIS should consider an educational release?

I don't see in which way could Arma be used as an educational tool in schools ( besides for military and emergency training, but that's what VBS is for ).

Edited June 20, 2014 by MistyRonin

[walker 0]

Hi all

In Reply to MistyRonin on how to use the ArmA engine as an educational tool.

To teach kids scripting right up to advanced programming.

For the purposes of education in narrative for Language Composition and how it is used in film making and the games industry, via mission and campaign making.

In project planing for large events.

To teach mathematics with real world uses of maths, learning geometry using scripting makes the concepts more likely to stick.

To teach Physics.

To teach biology, consider linda.

To geography, map reading but more important creating a terrain based on real terrain and what were the shaping factors that create natural terrains.

I could go on but I am sure lots of other modders and mission makers will do so.

Kind Regards walker

[mistyronin 1181]

In Reply to MistyRonin on how to use the ArmA engine as an educational tool.

Well you have some good points there, but at least where I'm from, using a war/military game in schools would provoke a huge negative reaction ( protests, riots, and a long etc. ). In fact almost anything military related would be seen as fascism.

[L3TUC3 32]

While ArmA is a more robust platform, it's subject, focus and more photorealistic imagery is not really age appropiate.

Minecraft works because it's more abstract and simple.

[IndeedPete 1038]

Yes, don't forget that Arma is 18+ (at least here in Germany I think), and its scenario and military background is not really suited / comprehendable for (small) children. I think it also requires some better hardware than minecraft does and schools around here are usually running on low budget. Also, the educational aim shown in the video might be a little bit different than to what Arma can teach which is mostly programming and logic in my opinion; of course it also fosters creativity and is very inspiring. I don't want to play down children's abilities and intelligence (it's really impressing with what they come up sometimes) but they simply lack the mathematical / logical background most of us grown-ups had to learn in years of schooling and studying. I think Arma 3 is just too complex. Could be cool on university or later high-school level though.

[walker 0]

Hi all

In reply to the points about age and ArmA Content.

I am talking about the engine, not the game, I suppose I should have said Real Virtuality Engine. The Minecraft example is customised to purpose.

Same as Real Virtuality was re-purposed to War Z, VBS, Take on Helicopters, Iron Front: Liberation 1944, Carrier Command Gaea, Take on Mars and all the other User MODs a version of the engine can be re-purposed to education. The concept is to realise the engine is a cash cow.

Exposing potential programmers and gamers to the engine and its underlying concepts, would be a plus for BIS.

It just needs a small team to set up an offshoot core mod team of say four. The first bit would be stripping ArmA back to essentials. Then adding in basic educational materials. The idea being that users would add in additional content same as they always have in the BIS community.

Kind Regards Walker

Edited June 20, 2014 by walker

[negah 26]

There are far more accessible options for schools to teach children basics of programming.

We have to remember that Education is a department, for which our governemts are very eager to cut the finances, instead rather giving money to save some bankrupt EU countries or on other shady business.

So the schools most likely dont have the budget to get something like ArmA (you have to remember youll need many copies), besides there is the questionable military background of ArmA of course.

Instead, you can teach programming simply with editor. There is not much needed to write a simple "Hello World" or calculator program in C or Java, which is what most likely will be taught in schools.

For more complex programs, where syntax highlighting is essential if you dont want to debug each your typo, you can use Notepad++, it supports pretty much any programming language with the help of some plugins and its free.

For Java you can also use Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEs, which are also free (or have more simplified free version) and have pretty much everything you need to create runnable Java programs (for example Android apps).

So you have quite a ton of tools you can use for which they are explicitly designed for without paying for them.

The only way I can see why use a game with coding capabilities is because it would attract children. However it would work only as long as they can play, as soon as it becomes routine programming homework exercise, most of the kids will most likely lose interest.

Besides you have to utilize a game which would interest everyone. I doubt girls are that much interest in military stuff, besides tactical shooters/simulator genres are niche games anyway, whereas minecraft is accessible and interesting for a lot of people.

[Lenyoga 326]

Math in real world use, large scale project planning, programming, conceptualizing ideas, etc. - years of CWA/OFP modding have taught me that I lack all of those skills.

[maddogx 13]

Same as Real Virtuality was re-purposed to War Z, VBS, Take on Helicopters, Iron Front: Liberation 1944, Carrier Command Gaea, Take on Mars

WarZ, Carrier Command and Take on Mars are on different engines, not RV.

In any case, I've edited the thread title to reflect your clarification (Real Virtuality instead of Arma).