'Minecraft Education Edition' News: Microsoft Granting Early Access To Some Educators [Video]
Soon, a number of schools in the United States will start implementing a brand new teaching tool. Unlike the traditional chalk and chalkboard, however, this tool is far more versatile and tech-centric. In fact, it is something that many do not really link to education at all.
That's because this new teaching tool comes in the form of Minecraft: Education Edition.
That's right. The blocky, sandbox game is making its way to schools as a legitimate teaching tool, and Microsoft just has the plan to make it work.
The school-centric version of the hyper-popular video game was announced way back in January. During that time, critics of the initiative dismissed the potential of using Minecraft as a teaching tool. After all, Minecraft is a video game that millions of players, from pre-kindergarten kids to full-fledged adults, play on an everyday basis.
According to Microsoft, however, Minecraft is not really much of a traditional video game. In a sense. It is more like an open, endless virtual world, and for teachers who are creative and innovative enough, an endless, virtual world also equates to a limitless teaching tool.
Thus, starting November 1, Minecraft: Education Edition would be available for purchase for schools across the United States. Early access to the game's educational platform have already been given to select institutions back in June, and so far, the reception to the game being used as in a student-centered learning environment has been extremely positive.
The pricing of the game is rather unique. According to Microsoft, Minecraft: Education Edition would be available in the Windows Store and would cost $5 per student annually. The tech giant, however, stated that price breaks and other similar plans would be made available for school districts that purchase certain licenses. Thus, huge educational institutions with a bigger Minecraft: Education Edition program would most likely pay less for the game.
The game is set to improve over time, too, as promised by The Minecraft Education team.
"We will continue to update Minecraft: Education Edition to include new game features from other editions of Minecraft. All the latest updates to Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition beta will be included, such as leads and horses, additional player skins, pistons and the remainder of Redstone functionality and an updated user interface," the team stated.
