美国国家公共电台 NPR The Cubist Revolution: Minecraft For All

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

"Minecraft" is the kind of videogame that can seem repetitive and mindless. The player builds three-dimensional virtual worlds with blocks - grass blocks, sandstone blocks, dark prismarine. But "Minecraft" gets high praise for its educational possibilities. Its, quote, "wide-open world" is said to encourage creativity. Eric Westervelt of NPR's Ed team visited a camp in California's Bay Area that tries to make sure all kinds of kids can benefit.

ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE¹: In the basement of Richmond, Ca.'s, city hall, just next to the cafeteria and a janitor's closet, 9-year-old Isiah Hammonds is intensely focused on building a virtual ice rink.

ISIAH HAMMONDS: I'm in a arena² that I made, well, me and my friends made. It's for ice boat racing³. Whee (ph).

WESTERVELT: "Minecraft" is incredibly popular - think building virtual Lego-like worlds and populating them with people, animals and just about everything in between. I asked Isiah, who's in the third grade, to try to explain why he loves it.

ISIAH: It's really fun. And you can build whatever you want. You can work with other people. You can build anything, anything if you put your mind to it.

WESTERVELT: A lot of tech summer camps cost upwards⁴ of a thousand dollars a week, but these 20 children are in the City Hall basement because the space is free. So is the program, which is run by the nonprofit Building Blocks for Kids collaborative with help from a group called Connected Camps. It serves predominantly low-income African-American and Hispanic children, many of whom face basic barriers to catching⁵ the tech and gaming bug⁶.

TERESA JENKINS: Access to the Internet, access to devices.

WESTERVELT: That's the camp's digital literacy lead, Teresa Jenkins. She says a lot of the children here are playing "Minecraft" for the first time. That's because a lot of the families who come here don't have computers at home, or if they do, she says, they can't afford high-speed internet or it's not a priority.

JENKINS: Rent, food, gas - how am I going to get my kids back and forth⁷ to school? How am I going to get back and forth to work? That's priority.

WESTERVELT: The Building Blocks program is trying to change the we're-not-welcome-in-tech feeling some-low income families in Richmond have, says Director Jennifer Lyle. Children here can see San Francisco from their city, and they hear all about nearby Silicon⁸ Valley.

JENNIFER LYLE: But they don't imagine that they can be a part of that industry. And so what we're trying to do is introduce young people and their parents to the kinds of things that, you know, wealthier folks get access to because they have a means.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Double click on the TeamSpeak 3 client.

WESTERVELT: "Minecraft" can be used to teach the foundations of coding, animation⁹ and more. Children can absorb the broccoli¹⁰ of computer literacy while reveling in the popcorn¹¹ of building elaborate worlds out of cubes. But to really get that full experience, kids need the PC or Mac version of the game, a verison not all have access to, says Morgan Ames. She's a post-doctoral scholar at UC Berkeley who helped create this camp and has studied its impact.

MORGAN AMES: Generally, we found that middle and upper-middle-income kids play the PC version more. Boys tend to play it more than girls. And in general, white kids tend to play it more than children of color. And we found this troubling because we found the PC version a richer version of Minecraft. It has more options. It has more opportunities to learn to code. And we wanted to make it more accessible.

WESTERVELT: For children like 9-year-old Jaiden Newton, who's conspiring¹² with her brother.

JAIDEN NEWTON: So he's trying to build a underground tunnel to the other person's arena so he can steal the flag.

WESTERVELT: What are those in the sky? Those are really cool.

JAIDEN: Those are ender pearls. It's like a teleportation.

WESTERVELT: How long have you been playing "Minecraft"?

JAIDEN: About three weeks.

WESTERVELT: As program director Jennifer Lyle puts it, we're sending a message to parents, schools and Silicon Valley - we belong here. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Richmond, Ca.

(SOUNDBITE OF C418'S "DROOPY LIKES RICOCHET")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

3 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

4 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

5 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

6 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

9 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

10 broccoli   

n.绿菜花，花椰菜

参考例句：

• She grew all the broccoli plants from seed.这些花椰菜都是她用种子培育出来的。
• They think broccoli is only green and cauliflower is only white.他们认为西兰花只有绿色的，而菜花都是白色的。

11 popcorn   

n.爆米花

参考例句：

• I like to eat popcorn when I am watching TV play at home.当我在家观看电视剧时，喜欢吃爆米花。
• He still stood behind his cash register stuffing his mouth with popcorn.他仍站在收银机后，嘴里塞满了爆米花。

12 conspiring   

密谋( conspire的现在分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致

参考例句：

• They were accused of conspiring against the king. 他们被指控阴谋反对国王。
• John Brown and his associates were tried for conspiring to overthrow the slave states. 约翰·布朗和他的合伙者们由于密谋推翻实行奴隶制度的美国各州而被审讯。