Minecraft Education Edition Brings the Game and a Huge Variety of Educational Resources to The Classroom
Minecraft on Xbox. Minecraft in your hair. Minecraft in schools. It's everywhere. That's the intention behind Minecraft Education Edition an edition of the most popular videogame on the planet that's specifically designed for use in classrooms. It's for teaching kids as well as adults about anything from the past with meticulously recreated locations and buildings, as well as programming using Redstone.
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It's an extension of and purchase by Microsoft of the MinecraftEdu program, which has been in existence since 2011. They've even created a trailer outlining the various ways it has helped:
It's a brilliant initiative evidently. I would have killed millions to have something anywhere near as interesting or videogame-like as Minecraft is used as a learning tool in schools, at any age. I'd still prefer it if the PCGN style guidelines and policies were taught to me via the medium of blocks instead of terrible words. The key, as always, is to get people interested in the way they're learning so that they actually enjoy the process and absorb it.
The FAQ provides more details, including the cost. It costs $5 per user per annum, which is a reasonable price considering the number of schools across America and the potential applications. I wouldn't expect Microsoft to give it away for free, but given the fact that all of the students are likely to be captivated once they've spent some time in classes, it's not like there are no upsides.
Museums and libraries will have access to the data. There are a lot of custom-designed materials available now and more are in the pipeline in the event that they succeed. The two billion dollars are likely to be well-spent if things continue down this path.