Minecraft Education Edition Released In November

After a summer of testing runs, the full version of Minecraft: Education Edition will officially launch on November 1st. The service will require a $5 annual membership per user or a district-wide license. However, the Early Access edition will still be free until November.

According to the MinecraftEdu team, more than 35,000 students and teachers from around the world have been playing around in the sandbox of Minecraft since the game was launched at the beginning of summer. With the official launch, the team has added a number of new education-focused features like the "Classroom Mode" that offers a top-down look at the Minecraft world via an accompanying app. Teachers can manage the settings for the world and chat with their students in game and distribute items to students or teleport their kids around the map using a single interface. alusky's The education edition will be updated as the main Minecraft world grows. Teachers are encouraged to offer feedback and feature suggestions.

Finally, for any teachers who haven't stepped into Minecraft's blocky world yet, education.minecraft.net offers some starter worlds, tutorials, free lesson plans in subjects ranging from storytelling to city planning, and a mentoring program to connect them with other educators. At launch, Minecraft: Education Edition requires OS X El Capitan or Windows 10, plus a free Office 365 account to use.