Minecraft: Education Edition at MINECON Live 2019
MINECON Live 2019 beamed across the world on September 28 to showcase updates, epic builds, and real-life minigames with some of the community’s favorite streamers. It was a day of inspiration, connection, and fun surprises—like YouTubers flying around in giant bee-suits! During the pre-show, Minecraft: Education Edition took center stage, and our team leader Deirdre Quarnstrom was there to highlight our most exciting developments from the past year.
Deirdre was joined onstage by Benjamin Kelly, an award-winning Global Minecraft Mentor from Canada. He took the opportunity to speak about the Sustainability Shuffle, his worldwide collaborative learning project.
Here’s what Benjamin had to say about sharing his work with the MINECON Live audience:
The Sustainability Shuffle, my Minecraft: Education Edition project focused on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, had just finished two years of travelling the planet, with students from Kindergarten to Post-Secondary Education collaboratively building a better future within a single Minecraft world. At Minecon, Deirdre and I shared the idea of the Sustainability Shuffle, its progress, and an example build, and celebrated the brilliant efforts by teachers and students all over the world.
Ireland’s work emerged as the most relevant project since their “Goal 15: Life on Land” build featured bee sustainability. That also resulted in cow farts becoming a focal point of what was to be an otherwise upbeat but informative segment. 
You’ll have to watch the video online to see the context!
Benjamin’s work illustrates what a passionate educator can do when they engage the worldwide community of teachers and learners, and we’re looking forward to seeing what develops during another year of the Sustainability Shuffle!
Deirdre also outlined the biggest moments for Minecraft: Education Edition this year. Here are some of our favorite highlights:
- The Back to School Update dropped this September with all kinds of exciting new additions, including the Immersive Reader, which supports literacy for emerging readers and students with learning disabilities.
- We partnered with The World Wildlife Fund to help students explore biodiversity within a custom Minecraft world.
- We worked with NASA to offer a Minecraft build challenge where students explore the International Space Station within Minecraft: Education Edition.
- New Zealand game designer Whetu Paitai created an immersive Minecraft world to teach Māori language, culture, and history, which we launched in partnership with Microsoft for school across New Zealand.
- Deirdre revealed that a new Minecraft Hour of Code is coming soon. Stay updated by signing up for the Minecraft: Education Edition Newsletter!
It’s been an awesome year for game-based learning, and there’s a lot more to come! In the meantime, you can watch our pre-show segment and hear about all the amazing things happening in the world of Minecraft: Education Edition—not to mention discovering how cow farts fit into the conversation!
Find the full video here:
Head to education.minecraft.net to learn how you can get started with Minecraft: Education Edition at your school and empower game-based learning.
