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'Minecraft: Education Edition' The Game will be Available In Early Access

A new version of Minecraft designed for classroom use is now available for early access. Minecraft: Education Edition was launched in January, as part of Microsoft's acquisition of MinecraftEdu which is a team that has been developing the game for teachers. The upgrade will be made available free of charge this summer, before the per-student pricing model is launched for the academic year. Microsoft has provided MinecraftEdu customers a year's free access to Education Edition as a thank you. This will likely kick in after the trial expires.

Education Edition has a few advantages over the standard version of Minecraft. MINECRAFT Up to 30 students can play together in a single world. This removes the necessity of an individual server through services like Minecraft Realms. Teachers can create non-player characters (NPCs) to create an experience that is more guided, and also equip them with links to the internet to allow students access additional resources. There's also a chalkboard item to provide instructions, as well as cameras that students can use to snap photographs of their work, building an in-game portfolio as they go along.

Microsoft says it is currently working on many other features requested by the community. The new interface offers teachers an interactive map with markers for each student, the possibility of teleporting users (should someone wander off or mess up), and a chat area to manage class-wide and private conversations. Minecraft has already proven itself to be a highly effective educational tool for teaching geoscience, art, and coding. Now that it has an official version available for schools its potential and success are bound to grow.