Minecraft: Education Edition to Launch November 1
Minecraft: Education Edition continues to be built on feedback from the educator community and features and capabilities they have told us are important to enhancing the learning experience. While we debuted several of these features with early access in June, we’re excited to roll out even more key capabilities in November, including: Classroom Mode: A companion app for Minecraft: Education Edition that enables educators to manage world settings, communicate with students, give items and teleport students in the Minecraft world. It displays a map view of the Minecraft world, a list of all the students in the world, a set of world management settings and a chat window. There is even a Minecraft clock to show time of day in the world. Classroom Mode offers educators the ability to interact with students and manage settings from a central user interface.
New Minecraft game features: 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 Editionbeta will be included, such as leads and horses, additional player skins, pistons and the remainder of Redstone functionality and an updated user interface.
“Once I understood the fact that teachers don’t have to be experts or gamers, I got started in Minecraft. Let the students be the experts – they are a great resource. I love how working in Minecraft makes my students engage in, reflect on and talk about history – or any subject, really!” -Katja Borregaard
We’re committed to releasing the highest quality product that is reliable and secure to use in classrooms around the world, and we will continue to improve Minecraft:Education Edition with each release. Please continue to share your suggestions for future features and capabilities at http://aka.ms/meefeedback. Those new to using Minecraft in the classroom can also check out education.minecraft.net, which includes lesson plans, starter worlds, a tutorial experience, and the Minecraft Mentors program, which connects educators with others experienced in teaching with Minecraft. Explore ideas and lesson plans created by educators covering topics from storytelling and poetry to city planning, sustainable living and geometry. The complete version of Minecraft: Education Edition will be available for purchase on November 1stand will be available for $5 per user, per year, or through a district-wide licensing model. To begin usingMinecraft: Education Edition early access: • Upgrade your computer to Windows 10 or OS X El Capitan • Sign up for a free Office 365 Education account using your school or district email • Download Minecraft: Education Edition and start playing! For more information and resources on Minecraft: Education Edition, and to sign up for updates, please visit education.minecraft.net. We look forward to continuing this journey together.
