Microsoft announces Minecraft Education Edition

Minecraft Education Edition is set for release in mid 2016 and will cost $5 per student.

World import and export, where teachers and students can create and save their worlds in the game.

“Minecraft Education Edition will be shaped by a growing community of educators throughout its development this spring and through the educator community online at http://education.minecraft.net”, according to Microsoft’s blog post.

Enhanced maps with coordinates for students and teachers to find their way around the Minecraft world together. So it comes as no surprise that Microsoft has today announced an official Education Edition of Minecraft.

This is exciting. I mean, maybe Microsoft could brainwash our offspring into becoming underachieving corporate cheerleaders with which to prop up a cyber-dystopia, but considering the extent of Microsoft’s resources compared to those of MinecraftEdu’s previous owners, TeacherGaming, it’s hard to imagine who might exploit (in a good way) the educational potential of Minecraft as fully. There’s no word on pricing after that first year just yet.

Microsoft is hoping that the hugely engaged Minecraft community will help develop this new version of the game.

Each teacher and student will need an Office 365 ID in order to access the new version of Minecraft. Teacher Gaming’s site describes the software as made by teachers, for teachers. Minecraft Education Edition will, the company has claimed, make things easier, with the prediction that deployments will skyrocket as a result. It’s become a tool to educate students. They’ll also be able to download and use Education Edition at home, so long as they log in with the same username. There’s already a lot of power inside Minecraft (you can essentially program within the game using torches and dust).