Using Minecraft to Teach English

I’m an ESL educator and I’d like to set up a Minecraft/Mumble server for English learning with a twist. The twist is a little complex to explain but the reason behind it is that I’m trying to devise a system that guarantees students will be using English during gameplay as opposed to using their native languages.

The way I imagine that could be achieved would be by using ip addresses [or some other criteria] to shunt players into games on the basis of country of origin.
For the purposes of explanation let me use a simplified scenario [See schematic below.] Say, for example there were nine players from three countries wanting to play at one time. As they try to enter a game they would be dynamically shunted to a session where their country is not yet represented. The idea is to devise some kind of mechanism to ensure that sessions are always linguistically diverse. Since English would be the only common denominator, players would have to use English for in game interaction. No instructor intervention would be required.

My question to then is, would such a scenario be even technically possible? If so what would it take to engineer it? Is it a massive undertaking or would it be relatively straightforward?

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perhaps using the server hub thingy, a multiserver connector then we allow permissions to portal ?

 

timtower Can you give me a very rough idea idea how much something like this might cost? In the $100s? $1000s? Gazillions?

smsunarto Something just went screaming over my head Any chance of dumbing it down a bit?

 

Bungee server and filter by an iplookup.

 

GroverB, If you are really committed to this idea I will suggest looking at the Minecraft Education Program.
This is the link http://minecraftedu.com/page/
To accomplish your request as TimTower said is not very easy, you can find a new a developer to make this kind of system. I believe you should brainstorm your idea, and bring more detail to your mind, but look at the Minecraft Education Program, and what it can offer. Good Luck on your great idea!

 

@skore8: Cryptic but I could understand it in the most general way. Something to go on, at least. Thanx.

SkyPaya: Yeah, I have been lurking at Minecraft Edu for a while. Maybe it's time to install a basic MCE server and see what it can do. I had MCE in mind but didn't want to complicate the description initially for the sake of simplicity and clarity. It's good to know what I'm up against in just general terms.

 

As others have said, a bungee network that sorts players out based on an ip lookup for their country of origin. You could check each server currently running and sort them in to the server with the least players of their country.

 

One more dumb question and I'm outta here:

Are bungeed networks, Minecraft Edu and Bukkit Server all compatible with each other?

 

That's a nice idea, but can't you just block their language?
As all 3 countries use different characters than english characters?

 

GroverB So you want only 1 player from a country of origin in a server ?

 

Technically possible, however there are a couple of things to consider:
1. When you join a minecraft server, the server cannot redirect the client to a different server. You have to connect to the hub using a seperate program (or modified client) and then connect to the mc server afterwards. You could also circumvent this issue by writing a server that accepts a minecraft client, checks it country and forwards its packets to the correct server. If possible, use the first option. The last option may be more secure and easy for the client, but it will introduce more lag.

2. Everyone that connects to your server, must first pass through the hub. So you either hide the real servers or implement a checking system. This means that you must use servers you control.

3. You will need to have enough players to populate several servers.