Microsoft anounces Minecraft: Education Edition

[CalciumTech]

Today, Microsoft acquired  MinecraftEdu from Teacher Gaming LLC (the creators of MinecraftEdu). Teachers have been using this in classrooms throughout the globe for years. Microsoft has now officially announced it's Minecraft: Education Edition. It will be arriving this summer.

 

 

Arriving this summer, the new title aims to reach more educators around the world with a richer set of features and a thriving community.

 

 

 

 

Many of the skills required to enjoy Minecraft to its fullest are important to educators who might be searching for inventive ways to engage their students. By bringing Minecraft into the classroom, we are empowering educators and students to teach and learn through building and exploring within a fun, familiar environment.

We’ve already seen it transform classrooms and curriculum. Since 2011, MinecraftEDU from TeacherGaming LLC from Finland – a version of Minecraft built especially for the classroom – has reached thousands of classrooms in more than 40 countries around the world, all reporting wild success. We don’t want to stop there. We believe this is just the beginning.

Today, we’re excited to announce Microsoft is acquiring MinecraftEdu and investing in a new and expanded version of Minecraft for the classroom called Minecraft: Education Edition. This new title – available as a free trial this summer – will build on the learnings from MinecraftEdu while offering an expanded set of features. And in support of MinecraftEdu customers, they can continue to use MinecraftEdu and we will offer the first year of Minecraft: Education Edition for free.

In the spirit of the Minecraft community, we are dedicated to making sure Minecraft: Education Edition is shaped in the coming months by a growing community of educators online at education.minecraft.net. We’re also excited to also share that these community pages will host a variety of resources like lesson plans and a new Minecraft Mentors page that allows educators experienced in Minecraft to connect with those interested in trying it for the first time.

 

However there are some requirements:

 

 

 

To access the service, children and teachers each need their own Office 365 ID, which can also be used to provide access to the Microsoft's cloud-based productivity software.

 

And here is pricing details:

 

 

Microsoft intends to charge an annual fee of $5 (£3.50) for each teacher and child.

That could prove more expensive than the current basic set-up, where schools pay a one-off fee of $14 multiplied by the maximum number of people they want to be able to log in at once, plus an additional $41 for server software.

 

 

This looks really promising. In my school, the grade 11 students Computer Science students (I'm one of them) will be soon able to operate a Minecraft server within school. I think my school uses MinecraftEdu though.

 

Note -

 

 

The Times notes that Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang has yet to boost sales of other Microsoft products, specifically Windows Phone, and suggests that to acquisition of MinecraftEdu could be a way for the company to remedy that by using it to cross-promote other Microsoft products such as Office and Skype to schools.

 

Sources:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35341528

 

http://education.minecraft.net/announce011916/

 

http://www.wired.com/2016/01/microsoft-expands-its-minecraft-empire-to-your-kids-school/

 

What are your thoughts on this?

[Muz]

Minecraft causes autism though.

[TacticalCuda]

Oh boy...Can minecraft just go away?

[CalciumTech]

Minecraft causes autism though.

Hate to break it to you. But minecraft attracts autistic people because of the ambiguity and simplicity of the game.

 

It does not cause it. People who have autism tend to play minecraft. 

[Muz]

Hate to break it to you. But minecraft attracts minecraft players because of the ambiguity and simplicity.

 

It does not cause it. People who have autism tend to play minecraft. 

It was a joke.

[TacticalCuda]

This needs to stop. Normal Minecraft is toxic enough 

[CalciumTech]

This needs to stop. Normal Minecraft is toxic enough 

Sorry but I have to disagree. I quite like minecraft.

[AllHokage]

What has the world came to... Video game high school irl and now this... 

I can't wait to see the education system in 20 years!

[Bl00dgod]

Hate to break it to you. But minecraft attracts autistic people because of the ambiguity and simplicity of the game.

 

It does not cause it. People who have autism tend to play minecraft. 

 

It was a joke.

nice

 

just curse the vaccicines for autism or minecraft ... dont think about.. genetics

 

so microsoft wants to earn more money and suck the blood out of the poor schools

 

i'd prefer education with VR or holo-decks, imagine the history classes       and this my little fellows was the roman empire              ...brutus stabs caesar... the end

[Guest]

Sorry but I have to disagree. I quite like minecraft.

I disagree that you like Minecraft. 

[TacticalCuda]

Sorry but I have to disagree. I quite like minecraft

I'm not attacking anyone. Just saying what i think

[manikyath]

Minecraft causes autism though.

please dont tho. authism jokes are very shallow, and often of discriminating nature.

its like jokes about any other disease or mental condition, some of these things just shouldnt be made fun of in the way it happens.

 

on topic: great, maybe now students dont have to play mindnumbingly stupid educational games that instead of motivating a student to be creative and eager to learn, motivate them to mindlessly cheat the system to get better scores.

[TacticalCuda]

Ah, I love the old flame war in the morning.

[comicsansms]

I wish this happened 5 years ago.

Minecraft is not fun (IMO) anymore.

[Minzo]

They should teach children to play Rust instead. Chaos would ensue world wide.

[suicidalfranco]

What has the world came to... Video game high school irl and now this... 

I can't wait to see the education system in 20 years!

 

there will no longer be a grading system cause grades may hurt someone's feelings, instead teachers will give positive remarks to the students works

[FPSwithaWacomTablet]

What has the world came to... Video game high school irl and now this... 

I can't wait to see the education system in 20 years!

SAO or nothing.

[Kobathor]

What has the world came to... Video game high school irl and now this... 

I can't wait to see the education system in 20 years!

It's a 3D based sandbox game, with programming ect build right in. Easy to modify with Java. I'd say it's a really decent teaching tool.

[dalekphalm]

What has the world came to... Video game high school irl and now this...

I can't wait to see the education system in 20 years!

You guys realize that teachers and schools are ALREADY USING Minecraft for educational purposes.

We have Minecraft EDU here at yummy library I work at, and it has some excellent tools and maps that teach all kinds of subjects, including math, science, etc.

[PCgamer324]

It was a joke.

ITS JUST A PRANK BRO

 

...I never have grasped how minecraft is supposedly such a great education medium, I'll be interested to see how this pans out for MS, schools 

[doeskydoes]

well the worlds officially in the shit and your children are fucked

[Yummychickenblue]

How about schools just install Gregtech 6 and let them learn about electrical engineering?

 

Actually I don't think Gregtech is very accurate to real life. It is tedious and rewarding though.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Hate to break it to you. But minecraft attracts autistic people because of the ambiguity and simplicity of the game.

 

It does not cause it. People who have autism tend to play minecraft. 

I agree. Because I have autism. But I would rather play 1.7.3 beta.

[stconquest]

How about schools just install Gregtech 6 and let them learn about electrical engineering?

 

Actually I don't think Gregtech is very accurate to real life. It is tedious and rewarding though.

 

lol no, Gregtech is not based on real world physics.  I hate that mod.  If you want to drive kids to suicide, then Gregtech is your mod. 

[Yummychickenblue]

lol no, Gregtech is not based on real world physics.  I hate that mod.  If you want to drive kids to suicide, then Gregtech is your mod. 

I keep convincing myself that the last time I played it was fun (Gregtech 3 or 4 all the way back in MC 1.4.6) then I go to try to play it again and see that my CPU isn't powerful enough and the Greg replaced every ore in the game with his own special version.