So today’s Exploratory was a bit hectic and there was some griefing going on. Griefing, I learned, is when someone destroys something that someone else built. This generated some tension among the students. We stopped early and had a pow wow to discuss ideas of what they would like to accomplish. Many ideas involved developing communities (including an IConomy) of some sort or another and then going to war. Hmmm. How can I steer them away from this or do I just let that happen? Any ideas would be much appreciated.

“Mr. Kahn, I have some ideas for our Exploratory. Some of the kids are kinda frustrated because they feel like they don’t have enough time to work on their projects. It might be like a good idea if the server could be available outside of our Exploratory period?”

Other suggestions that Rhys maturely expressed to me included:

• Switching to survival from creative mode to increase the challenge.
• Starting a new world to level the playing field so to speak.
• Having it be every man for themselves at first.
• Students could then form alliances and factions (This made me think of Survivor.)
• Install IConomy from Bukkit- shops/stores/games to set up and manage.

I told Rhys that these were great ideas, but I saw three problems.

Continue reading →