FAQ for Learning Partners

BLOCKALOT is a platform hosted by the Landesmedienzentrum BW. This tool allows learning partners (formerly known as teachers) to easily explore the use of game-based learning without much technical expertise and without having to set up their own server. Thus, they will be able to join like-minded colleagues on their way into the 21st century.

Users registered on the platform could create up to three so-called BLOCKALOTSpaces (learning spaces). Respecting the terms of use, they could also create an unlimited number of accounts for learners. Among other things, they could also set opening hours for the server, so that the adolescents will not spent half of the night playing because they feel that learning is so exciting.

BLOCKALOT is available for public schools, private schools and non-school educational institutions. Non-school educational institutions include, in particular, youth foundations that are concerned with education. All parties involved are obliged to contribute to smooth operation and to comply with the Terms of Use.

Teachers, teacher trainees, persons responsible for teacher training and employees of non-school educational institutions are entitled to use BLOCKALOT.

If you belong to the user group mentioned above, you could register on blockalot.de and get a free account for educational purposes. In BLOCKALOT you could create up to three virtual learning worlds, the BLOCKALOTSpaces. In return, you will develop at least one learning idea for the project and make it available to other interested parties under a free license. You will find out more in a personal conversation.

Learners are only able to use the Minetest server hosted by the Landesmedienzentrum BW in association with a teacher or a person equivalent to a teacher. According to the BLOCKALOT Terms of Use, learner’s user accounts are anonymous. When users log onto the server for the first time, they must accept the Terms of Use of the Minetest server.

You will get more answers to your questions in this wiki or by contacting the team:
Contact (blockalot.de)

Open the chat by pressing “T” on your keyboard. Put your messages in the now open chat box and press “Return” to send the message. This message will be displayed to all players who are currently on the server, this means to all learners who are in the BLOCKALOTSpace.

To send a private message to another player, click on the mailbox icon in the inventory. A menu will open that shows all personal messages. To write a new private message click on “New”. Similar to an email, you type in the name, the subject and the message. Once everything is filled out, you send the message by klicking on “Send”. It is important that the player’s name is typed correctly. Pay particular attention to the use of capital and small initial letters.

Enter the commands via text chat. Open the chat by pressing “T” on your keyboard. Most commands start with a / (slash).

You will find details on how to contact the team under
Kontakt (blockalot.de)

The use is currently free of charge.

Game-based learning aims at aligning learning with the lifeworld of adolescents. Game-based learning uses popular (classic) games such as Minecraft and Minetest. In order to achieve pedagogical goals, the learning partners (formerly known as teachers) no longer meticulously prepare each lesson and then teach according to a fixed pattern. Instead, they design a project – ideally in cooperation with learning partners from other subjects – that the learners work on with the help of the selected game. Thus the learners actively help to shape the project. In the process, they acquire a wide range of useful skills.

Find more information on the Website of Landesmedienzentrums BW 🇩🇪.

You could also watch this talk on game-based learning: Zurück in die Steinzeit - Fortschritt und Transformation des Lernens durch Rückbesinnung auf das Wesentliche. (Keynote #eal21) 🇩🇪

Yes, BLOCKALOT is compliant with GDPR. You will find all relevant information in the Privacy Policy.

Yes, the server hosted by the LMZ is compliant with GDPR. You will find all relevant information in the Data Privacy Statement of Minetest.

To get a first impression, you could read our handout(s) that give you basic information about technology and pedagogy. You will find them here:
BLOCKALOTStories

We also provide orientation, trainings and guided building sessions on a regular basis. During these meetings, you could also exchange ideas with colleagues. You will find the dates in our BLOCKALOTLab calendar on the BLOCKALOT website:
BLOCKALOTLab

If you have an idea, but do not know exactly how to implement it, we also provide personal consultation and, if necessary, pedagogical and/or technical support. In this case, please contact us by e-mail: minetest@lmz-bw.de

You could also get inspired by our growing number of learning worlds and learning adventures. You could select ready-made BLOCKALOTAdventures as templates in BLOCKALOT. Here you will find an overview:
BLOCKALOTAdventures

We are currently revising our parent letter template. If you need information for communication with parents, please contact the team:
Contact (blockalot.de)

Minecraft is an open-world game that was released in 2009. Minecraft became famous particularly for its blocky look. The entire game world consists of three-dimensional blocks. Everything you see could be taken down and rebuilt. Thus, Minecraft offers its players boundless freedom for self-realization. Players could build anything they could imagine, while at the same time exploring a huge world and constantly making new discoveries and experiences.

This innovative game concept has made Minecraft one of the most successful computer games of all time. However, it belongs to Microsoft, an American corporation. On the one hand, this means that Minecraft has to be paid for. On the other hand, there are certain privacy concerns – especially for minors. Above all, these concerns are taken very seriously in public education.

Minetest is based on the basic principles of Minecraft. However, unlike Minecraft, the game is open source-based and thus entirely free to use. You only need a server. This comes along with costs. Since Minetest itself is for free and a server could be rented for a relatively low price, educational institutions of all kinds have now turned to the game.

Minetest is an open-source game engine that could be customized with the help of modifications. That is to say, Minetest is an open world game in which you could customize the game world to your liking. It is also often simply referred to as a free open-source alternative to Minecraft, although it is actually much more.

The game experience could be easily customized by modifying it with the easy-to-use LUA programming language.

Whether in adventure or creative mode, the focus is always on collaborative building and the creative experience of the open game world. Worlds could be created, stories visualized, problems solved or coding could be explored.

Please find more information about Minetest on the official website:
minetest.net

Minetest provides an infinite number of possibilities to be creative, to collaboratively build worlds and to learn in an open-ended and problem-oriented way. Learners are able to have a range of experiences that they will not experience otherwise. They experience significant transfer processes in which they need to deploy their knowledge to find solutions. They experience simulations of what will happen in consequence of their actions or what might happen in the future. They are also able to assume new roles and explore their identity.

In this way, learners experience self-efficacy and learn actively through their actions in the virtual world. In particular, when these actions are embedded in a narrative, Minetest is a very good example of game-based learning and enables the sustainable transformation of learning. By simulating the features of our world, Minetest also makes future-oriented learning possible. This is because the learners try to solve real problems in the virtual world, learn from their mistakes and then transfer what they have learned to the physical world.

Of course, you could build a Minetest world that learners could explore. However, we highly doubt that this is particularly conducive to learning. Future-oriented learning is grounded in learners actively acquiring the competencies they need to help shape tomorrow’s world and participate in society. Thus, these competencies cannot be acquired through demonstration, but instead through learner’s activity and autonomy.

To adjust the opening hours for your BLOCKALOTSpace, open the chat (default key: t), type /opening hours and confirm with Return. A menu will appear where you could set the opening hours for each day and also define exceptions.

See: How do I change or reset learners’ passwords?

If you would like to remove a player from your BLOCKALOTSpace temporarily, open the chat in Minetest by pressing “T”, type /kick [player name] and confirm with Return. The player will then be kicked from the server, but could log in again.

If you would like to ban a player from the server, open the chat (default key: t), type /ban [player name] and confirm with Return. This will permanently ban the player from the server.

If you would like to unban a player, open the chat (default key: t), type /unban [player name] and confirm with Return. This will allow the player back into the BLOCKALOTSpace they were banned from.

You could support your learners with EDUtest. To use EDUtest, open the inventory by pressing “I” on your keyboard. Then click on the icon with the hat on the right side of the bottom bar. A menu will appear that allows you to see all the important functions for managing learners. You could give learners the creative privilege, turn on/off fly mode or teleport your avatar to learners.

To switch to creative mode, just use EDUtest by opening the inventory (press “I”) and clicking on the icon with the hat on the right side of the bottom bar. Then click on Creative Mode. A new menu will appear where you could select a player. Once you have selected a player, click on “Activate” to activate creative mode for this player and “Deactivate” to deactivate creative mode.

To teleport to learners, just use EDUtest by opening the inventory (press “I”) and clicking on the icon with the hat on the right side of the bottom bar. Then click on Teleport to a student. A new menu will appear where you could select a learner. Teleport to this learner by clicking on Teleport.
Click on Previous location to return to the place you were before your teleport.

To teleport learners to your location, just use EDUtest by opening the inventory (press “I”) and clicking on the icon with the hat on the right side of the bottom bar. Then click on Fetch learner and select the learner you would like to teleport to your location. With a click on Fetch the player will be teleported. Later you could click on Previous location to send the learner back to the place they were before the teleport.

You will find the terms of use on blockalot.de in the sidebar at the bottom in the right corner or under the following link
Terms of Use (blockalot.de)

You will find the terms of use for the Minetest server hosted by the Landesmedienzentrum BW under the following link:
Terms of Use and Privacy Protection of the Minetest Server

Use the time command for changing the time. Open the chat (default key: t, enter /time [time] and confirm with Return.
The time format is hours:minutes or an integer (0 = midnight and 23999 = just before midnight).

Examples:

For more information on time, please see: Minetest Wiki

You will find more commands and examples in our server commands overview:
Server Commands

Set the time to the desired time (see: How do I change the time). Then use EDUtest in the inventory on the right side of the bottom bar (the button with the hat) and click on the button “Toggle sun movement”. After clicking, the message Sun movement switched off or switched on should appear in the upper left corner of your screen. If you have switched off the sun movement, the time of day and thus also the brightness in the game will always remain exactly the same. Click the button again to reactivate the course of the day.

If you would like to undo something that a learner has built or mined the rollback command will help you. Open the chat (default key: t), type /rollback [player name] [seconds] and confirm with Return. This will roll back all activity for the last x seconds of a player.

Player changes are saved for 86400 seconds, which corresponds to 24 real-time hours.

You will find more commands and examples in our server commands overview:
Server Commands

BLOCKALOT is available for public schools, private schools and non-school educational institutions. Non-school educational institutions include, in particular, youth foundations that are concerned with education.

Teachers, teacher trainees, persons responsible for teacher training and employees of non-school educational institutions are entitled to use BLOCKALOT.

Create your account here: blockalot.de