Heads up, educators: With the new school year in full swing, you’ll soon be able to purchase the full version of Minecraft: Education Edition. Until then, you can still try the game out for free via the early access version, which will remain available right up until the full product launches.
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It’s hard not to think that once Minecraft: Education Edition goes public, it’s going to be anything short of an educational phenomenon.
Priced at $5 per user per year and available on Windows 10 and Mac OS X El Capitan, the Education Edition is aimed at encouraging school students to be creative through using the game’s crafting and building mechanics in a virtual world which can be shared with their classmates.
“Over 35,000 students and educators have participated in this program and provided feedback to help us fine-tune the experience across a diverse set of learning environments, including a STEM summer camp program in New York City and classrooms around the world”, Mojang noted on Minecraft’s website. Based on their comments, the company plans to add several new features for the November launch, including a Classroom Mode companion app that lets educators manage world settings and communicate with students from a central user interface.
Education World has been patiently waiting for the release of Minecraft’s education edition because of the many implications the tool can have on learning as we know it. Classroom mode is provided for teachers who may want to observe student activity without being in the game.
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Mojang also promises that the Education Edition will include new game features drawn from other editions of Minecraft, and it’ll get all the latest updates as seen in the Windows 10 Edition beta such as leads and horses, player skins and so forth.
