Last November, the GamingEdus Minecraft server celebrated its first year anniversary.
In the time, I’ve learned that running a Minecraft server for teachers and students takes 3 Ps: Patience, Persistence and Plugins. I can’t help you with the first two. But with the third P, Plugins, I got you covered.
Here’s a list of my Five Essential Plugins for educators running a Minecraft server in school.
Caveats and Definitions
These are five plugins I think educators running a server should start off with. This isn’t a list of all the plugins I run on our servers, but it’s the ones I think no teacher or student running a school server should be without. In the future, I’ll post about the other plugins I use, the ones that add a lot of fun and complexity to our game world.
Another caveat: I use Craftbukkit to run my servers, so all these plugins will be the CB versions.
A Definition: Okay, I hear some of you asking: “What the heck is a Minecraft plugin?” A plugin is basically software that you install into your server files, that allow you and your players to do some pretty cool stuff. As you’ll see below.
Instructions on how to install plugins are usually found on the pages of each plugin, which I link to in my descriptions.
Ready? Okay, here we go.
Five Essential Minecraft Plugins for Educators
1. Essentials
This wins the prize for being the most useful plugin and the most aptly named, because it is essential to have if you’re running a server. Essentials is actually a collection of smaller plugins that allow you to set player spawn points. organize players into different groups with varying levels of permissions (Admins, moderators, players, etc) and much, much more. It’s the first plugin I install on every new server I set up.
2. World Guard
This is a protections plugin that can stop griefing in it’s tracks. It allows admins to protect existing builds from being destroyed, it can lock down building in certain areas, stop players from using TNT or lava and a lot more. If you want to have control over what players can and cannot do, then this is a key plugin.
3. Residence
Like World Guard, Residence is a protection plugin. The beauty of this plugin is that it lets players easily set their own protections. They can quickly protect their builds from others without having to ask an admin to do it for them. This works really well in student servers where griefing (even accidental) is a reality.
4. Backup
This plugin can be a life saver and a world saver. It automatically creates a back up zip file of all your world files. Crashes happen and world files can get corrupted. When this happens entire worlds simply won’t load properly again and everything in that world is gone. Forever. I’ve seen it happen. That’s why having a regular, set it and forget backup system is crucial. I’ve had to revert to a saved world file more than once in the year of running GamingEdus.
5. LWC
This is another protection plugin for players to use. With a few simple commands they can lock checks, doors, furnaces and dispensers. They can also password protect blocks to allow access to only approved players. It’s very handy in survival world. This GamingEdus Basics video explains how it works:
Five is Just the Beginning
That’s my five essential plugins for educators. As I said earlier, I run many more plugins on my servers, but these five are the first ones I install on any new server I set up.
What are your Essential Five Plugins for Teachers? Let us know in the comments below.
And if you’re an educator interested in seeing first hand how these plugins work, visit us on the GamingEdus Professional Play server. It’s a multi-age server for Minecraft-curious teachers and their families to play the game, connect with other educators and have fun. We’re very newbie-friendly, generously hosted by the EDGE Lab at Ryerson University and open 24/7.
Fill out a whitelist application to the Gamingedus server if your interested.
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Thanks!
Liam
What I’m trying to find is a way to diable single player, so that I can prevent kids from creating new worlds with cheats turned on. I want them to exercise problem solving and critical thinking. But that can’t happen when the solution to every problem is god/creative mode, and flying. I want them to actually have to THINK on how to get out of the hole they fell in.
Not sure if there is a way to disable single player, Alex. We play multiplayer on our server and that seems to be enough for the kids. We also spend a lot of time co-creating guidelines for play before we go into play the game. If they choose to break those guidelines, then they are shut down and sit out for the rest of the club.
That said, we do play in creative mode because many of the challenges they face with their builds, even with all the items at their disposal, still require a lot of critical thinking and problem solving (e.g. How can I get my redstone contraption to work? How can our PvP arena be a challenge without being too hard, etc.)
Just because you set up an abundance economy with creative mode, does not mean the opportunities for critical and strategic thinking vanish. As an educator, I’m always on the look out for ways to challenge my students as they lead the learning in the game. For a challenge to be meaningful, it must be intrinsic to the player. Often, if it’s something that’s come from the teacher, then it’s not meaningful for the student and it won’t create the learning you’re hoping to make happen.
Besides, if the kids keep creating new worlds with cheats on, they’re telling you something: they want the cheats.
Rather than struggling to lock down the game and what they can do. Stand back, let them do it and see where you can find opportunities for that strategic and critical thinking you’re hoping to foster.
You’ll be surprised how often these opportunities present themselves. And how much fun you will all have.
I’m thinking more in terms of having to actually use the pseudo-science of the game. Having to use the furnace to make the item, or use the craft block to use a recipe to create what you need, or use the potion stand to create the potions you need, or having to go find and collect your resources to make something. Creative mode and cheats take away a significant portion of the opportunities for critical-thinking and problem-solving that MC offers, lessons which translate to the real world skills. Even with the best of employers, one will vary rarely have everything they could want at their finger tips. Learning how to get it, or how to negotiate for it is important. Creative mode takes away a lot of the need for social learning in the multi-player environment as well. I’m not saying there can’t be a means to get things more easily, like using the essentials plug-in and its economy functions, or any economy system so that they could trade processed goods like stone (not cobblestone) for something of greater value to them.
Kids/students like challenge and MC appeals to them for the challenge. I still need to print off the formula charts for potions, and the recipe books. I don’t see it as “locking it down” I see it as providing challenges that translate to real world skills. Where you have to learn the recipe, or the formula, or the social skills (bargaining/trading) to get what you want.
Alex, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with your views that Creative mode takes away a lot of the need for social learning in multi-player. Drop by our GamingEdus server (gamingedus.org) any time to see the collaboration, negotiation and group building happening daily between players (young and old) in our creative world. It also happens in our survival world, but not to any greater or lesser degree from what I’ve seen.
It sounds like you’ve got some very specific learning goals you’d like to achieve with your students. Minecraft could be the right tool for the job, or it might not. It’s a great game for learning but it’s the right tool for every job.
Anyway, I’d say all you have to do is set up a survival multi-player server. If students sneak off to create their own single-player world with cheats, then remove them from the game until they’re ready to come back and play by the rules.
I know the comments are almost a year old but if I may offer the opinion that you guys are both right! 🙂
Liam is offering a more open opportunity for self-directed learning whilst Alex is offering a more focused and directed experience.
Consider it along the lines of asking pupils how to build the biggest tower possible versus asking pupils to build the biggest tower possible out of spaghetti and marshmallows. Both good learning opportunities but both with slightly different focuses.
Hey Ryan – thanks for visiting and being so diplomatic. 🙂 One of the things I love about Minecraft is that it is so versatile. It can be played just about any way a player or teacher can think up. If it’s the right tool for the job and the learner, then I’m all for it.
Thanks for stopping by!