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Microsoft To Release Educational Version of Minecraft (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the pink-floyd-on-high-alert dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has announced that it will release an educational version of the Minecraft video game after acquiring the minecraft.edu domain and IP. The classroom version of Minecraft will be offered to schools and educators at a discount, and among other innovations will include the facility to create maps which the students can navigate throughout a lesson while recording their in-game activities. Microsoft has emphasized that it does not intend to change Minecraft into a strictly educational program.

57 comments

  1. They had to buy it by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 3, Funny

    Microsoft is kinda square.

    1. Re:They had to buy it by invictusvoyd · · Score: 0

      The strictly educational program will fundamentally "require" Microsoft base slavery.

    2. Re:They had to buy it by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      Yup, use of their tools, access to student data, and control over outcomes and usage.

      And once again Microsoft injects itself into education and defines how it should be done.

      And we will NEVER see actual evidence learning Minecraft resulted in better educational outcomes of long-term employment.

      This is just more vendor lock-in of schools for what Microsoft has deemed a growth market, and which is being manipulated for their self-serving purposes.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  2. Wow commas in domain names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Microsoft should be applauded for its use of commas in domain names Either that or the editors can be commended for being class A dipshits. I leave it to the readers to decide.

    1. Re:Wow commas in domain names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you should be applauded for your lack of punctuation.

    2. Re:Wow commas in domain names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I was trying to lend the editors a period. Much like the period you must be having right now.

    3. Re:Wow commas in domain names by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      He's not trying to pass himself off as a relevant and respectable news website.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    4. Re:Wow commas in domain names by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      What makes you think this AC is a he? When we're talking about someone who missed their period, it's usually a she.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  3. How did they get a .edu domain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    From Educause site:

    https://net.educause.edu/edudomain/show_faq.asp?code=EDUELIGIBILITY

    1. What are the eligibility requirements for obtaining a name in the .edu domain?
              Eligibility for a .edu domain name is limited to U.S. postsecondary institutions that are institutionally accredited, i.e., the entire institution and not just particular programs, by agencies on the U.S. Department of Education’s list of Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies. These include both "Regional Institutional Accrediting Agencies" and "National Institutional and Specialized Accrediting Bodies" recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

    Note that institutional accreditation is required for .edu eligibility; program accreditation is not sufficient. Not all agencies accredit institutions. Some accredit only institutions, some accredit only programs, and others accredit both institutions and programs.

    It is also important to note that, while every effort is made to keep the EDUCAUSE list up-to-date, the U.S. Department of Education's list of Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies and State Agencies are the only official comprehensive lists of agencies.

    1. Re:How did they get a .edu domain? by gcnaddict · · Score: 1

      Well if they did buy it from Educause, someone didn't tell them because it's still giving an NXDOMAIN.

      --
      Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
    2. Re:How did they get a .edu domain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably because they're a nonprofit. I work for a nonprofit research institute and we have a .edu domain as well.

    3. Re:How did they get a .edu domain? by SJHillman · · Score: 2

      Occam's Razor. I got $10 that says it's a typo on the part of the article writer. No other articles mention them acquiring the domain, just that they're acquiring MincraftEdu (which is at MinecraftEdu.com).

    4. Re:How did they get a .edu domain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WHOIS finds no result for minecraft.edu. I'm guessing that the educational version of minecraft is called Minecraft.Edu, but it isn't a domain name. Submitter read "Mojang, the company that created Minecraft, announced today that Microsoft will acquire Minecraft.Edu [...]" in TFA and made an assumption.

    5. Re:How did they get a .edu domain? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 3, Informative

      They didn't.

      The URL for Minecraft.EDU is https://minecraftedu.com/ which is clearly not a .edu domain name.

      The .EDU is part of the name of the program, much like how Microsoft .NET does not refer to a .net domain name, but rather a software framework.

    6. Re:How did they get a .edu domain? by thoromyr · · Score: 1

      because money

      (assuming it even exists, as other comments indicate someone was just jumping the gun and assuming that a brandname was the same as a domain name.)

    7. Re: How did they get a .edu domain? by SETY · · Score: 1

      http://www.unb.edu/ is not in the us?

    8. Re: How did they get a .edu domain? by SJHillman · · Score: 1

      Some places are grandfathered in if they had a .edu domain before the current rules took effect. These are mostly non-US post-secondary schools, like the one you mentioned. If UNB didn't already have one, they would not be eligible for one now.

  4. Minecraft is Sexist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    But like many video games, Minecraft is inherently sexist and patriarchal, as all Minecraft player characters are by default male. Moreover, cis white males. While it is possible for children to design skins in order to play as a trans* character, ultimately this restriction in body type is prejudiced against women, people of colour, those with physical disabilities, and those with non-standard body types. The consequences of releasing this product in its current form range from schools experiencing increased incidents of fat shaming, anorexia shaming, racism, rape culture, and suicide.

    Microsoft needs to take action on the problematic nature of Minecraft before proceeding any further with this. More consultation with women's rights representatives and minoirity groups is needed before this game can be considered anything other than a reinforcement of the systems of oppression disadvantaged children must endure their entire lives. Our schools must always ensure that their curricula and content supports the fairness and principles of social justice.

    1. Re: Minecraft is Sexist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Go die in a fire, you too long didn't read faggot.

    2. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by Dins · · Score: 2

      But like many video games, Minecraft is inherently sexist and patriarchal, as all Minecraft player characters are by default male.

      I know this is just a troll/SJW joke, but this isn't true. Hadn't played in a while and so therefore hadn't migrated my account to the new format. When I did, and then logged in to play with my son I was a girl. Yes, a white girl, but a girl nonetheless. Previously I had used the default male model (Steve) with no custom skin. The female default model is apparently named Alex.

      Now my character model is Deadpool, but that's another story.

    3. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 3, Funny

      AFAIK there's only one type of body in Minecraft: blocky.

      You're right about default settings though. Players should get a menu when creating a new character. The first choice would be male or female, followed by skin colour, then hair colour, hair style, zero to two arms, zero to two legs, religion, dietary choice, sex orientation and finally pro-tentacles or not.

    4. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 4, Funny

      To the contrary, Minecraft represents a major breakthrough for the previously marginalized (to the point of near-invisibility) Cubic-American population.

      And how DARE you speak of "non-standard" body types? What body type would you oppressively impose as "standard"?

    5. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The official statement from Mojang years ago is that the default character model and NPCs are of unspecified/multiple genders.
      As you might have noticed villagers and farm animals can reproduce even if the models look alike.

      The character model is a square block without distinguishing features. There is no sign of genitalia or properties that are typically associated with one gender only.
      It sounds to me like you think that the lack of "curves" on the player indicates male.

    6. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by Dan+East · · Score: 1

      The difference between male and female in Minecraft is exactly 3 pixels.

      --
      Better known as 318230.
    7. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by ashshy · · Score: 2

      Players should get a menu when creating a new character. The first choice would be male or female, followed by skin colour, then hair colour, hair style, zero to two arms, zero to two legs, religion, dietary choice, sex orientation and finally pro-tentacles or not.

      But what if you're a hoopy frood with two heads and three arms?

      You insensitive clod!

      --
      #o#
      O Moo.
    8. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      zero to two arms

      I self-identify as a Motie. I am triggered.

      My lawyer will be in touch.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    9. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by Drakster · · Score: 1

      MinecraftEdu has had a gender select screen for several years now.

    10. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by Zeromous · · Score: 2

      I believe the appropriate, non-offensive term here is "Voxel-Americans", you insensitive clod!

      --
      ---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
    11. Re:Minecraft is Sexist by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      Maybe for you, but for me it's more like 6 pixels!!!!

      And that's before it gets excited.

  5. I'm pretty sure it's already educational. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What could be a better lesson in life than "Punching things solves your problems" ?

  6. confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "after acquiring the minecraft,edu domain and IP"

    1) NJ on the first comma ever in a FQDN
    2) How you acquire a domain names' IP?
    3) I guess I understand how you could hijack what DNS points to, but if you own the domain, why seek out the IP?

    - GRAMMAR AND EXPRESSION NAZI!

  7. theodp by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Theodp isn't gonna like it. Hopefully they won't offer it to H1Bs too. That would really set him off the deep end.

  8. Who knew? by ole_timer · · Score: 1

    There's an educational version of a game? Wow!

    --
    nothing to see here - move along
  9. Used correctly... by puddingebola · · Score: 2

    The Educational version of Minecraft is called "Minecraft."

  10. Warning, old guy questions... by JargonScott · · Score: 1

    Ok, so I've been all over the minecraftedu site, and I can't figure out what a school would actually "do" with this? I mean, are kids supposed to be begrudgingly unplugged from all their shit at home, ferried to their school with their Beats on, then jacked right the hell back in for additional screen time? What could be in there? "Today in school I dug a hole to bedrock then fell in it to kill myself, so I missed the assignment. That's why I had after school detention."

    So seriously, is it for like virtual classrooms or something? Or will kids be in a physical classroom, at a computer, to just be in a virtual classroom with the people right next to them, to do the same homework they could do physically?

    Anyone that says "hand-eye coordination and map reading skills" has never been kissed.

    --
    Nuke Gay Whales for Jesus.
    1. Re:Warning, old guy questions... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not educational at all. It's just a clever way for Microsoft to push themselves farther into education.

    2. Re:Warning, old guy questions... by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      People have built 8-bit computers from logic blocks

      You can use the logic to build automated systems.

      Watching people build in Minecraft mirrors a lot of what my job looks like working with Simulink.

      It's barely a pretty GUI on top of basic logic.

      I could see a 6-7th grade course on 'building an automated farm' following tutorials and then breaking down what they did into logic diagrams.

      You could easily train 8th & 9th graders in industrial automation tools if they were interested in the subject material.

  11. what for? by Tom · · Score: 1

    I've checked the MinecraftEdu website after reading is has been used for 5 years already. I still don't get what it is that it teaches. Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of edutainment and consider learning through playing a fantastic thing. I just don't understand what Minecraft brings to that. It seems like a massive waste of time where teachers do some half-assed job of putting together something they think will appeal to students who then go through it, rolling their eyes all the time. You know, like most of the "do it yourself" software kits that look fantastic in the trailers where trained experts and the magic of video make it seem easy and great.

    Or maybe I'm completely wrong about it. Care to enlighten me?

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    1. Re:what for? by dmiller1984 · · Score: 2

      I used it in my Computer Science courses to teach kids the basics of loops, variables, if statements, etc. before introducing them to a "real" programming language. The kids loved it and they had a much better understand of those basic programming constructs than they did in years past when I used Alice to introduce concepts. MinecraftEdu comes with "turtles" that the kids can program using a block-like language. Basically simulating the old Logo program.

    2. Re:what for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried to answer this exact question for some retired teachers; I work for a school district where several teachers use the Minecraft game, and I honestly couldn't tell you anything about the things they're teaching with it (the first-person version).
      There is one I saw for Hour of Code or something, that was a top down where you had to write code to move the character around, that reminded me of LOGO programming from thirty years ago, so I could at least see that for programming fundamentals,

    3. Re:what for? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      So why bother paying M$ for two copies of minecraft, one for at home and one in the class, when pretty simple generic FOSS programs can do the same thing. Why waste that money, not once mind you but again and again and again and, well, you know the drill of the upgrade cycle. Why makes spending 200 million (approximate number of students) times say $50 every couple of years (total 10 billion dollars). So where the hell is the 10 billion dollars of educational worth exactly in this program. Reality is to ensure equal access, when it is used in public education it should be carried out by government and the program distributed freely to all who want it (they could in the most sensible manner possible, subsidise public universities in the production of this kind of software ie paying masters and doctoral students to learn and professors to teach - double plus benefit, you get the software and promote educational development). This all just stinks to high heaven of a desperation bid by M$ to generate profit based upon an unsound investment, creating a whole hidden marketing program.

      Why the hell isn't this kind of software produced in a fashion that promotes education (in a public university by teachers and advanced students, a far better place to invest 10 billion dollars every couple of years) instead of just blotivating the profits of a sick privacy invasive corporation, who based upon it's own policies should not be allowed in schools in the first place (the government can not sign off on the right of a corporation to invade the privacy of minors in public schools for marketing purposes, that would be child abuse).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:what for? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      8-bit computers

      & Automated farms

      Teachers don't have to know anything. "Follow these good tutorials" or better yet. "Here's your project for the semester". Building the logic by hand they might accidentally learn basics.

      Teach them to change the colors of anything in the game. Teach them hex and how to count to 16.

      I used to hack around in a hex editor to change how much money I started with in Oregon Trail.

    5. Re:what for? by Tom · · Score: 1

      Teach them to change the colors of anything in the game. Teach them hex and how to count to 16.

      Isn't that a little the wrong way around, like a solution searching for a problem? 99% of the population never need the hexadecimal system in their real life, and the rest will pick it up in much easier ways. A website with a javascript colour picker would serve the same purpose.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    6. Re:what for? by Tom · · Score: 1

      Yes, that's the same shit they use to teach students programming in university these days.

      I admit it teaches about loops and conditions.
      I still think it's a stupid idea because it doesn't teach about error handling, for example, one of the most important things to learn as a programmer.

      But in any case this is for teaching programming. Something that I'll argue is completely unnecessary for 99% of the population. (and yes I know that there's this idea to teach programming to everybody, I just consider it totally insane.)

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    7. Re:what for? by Tom · · Score: 1

      I get that.

      What I don't get is why that requires Minecraft. It seems counter-productive due to complexity. A good fraction of people don't have very good 3d imagination and would finding a top-down 2d world much easier to comprehend.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    8. Re:what for? by dmiller1984 · · Score: 1

      I get that.

      What I don't get is why that requires Minecraft. It seems counter-productive due to complexity. A good fraction of people don't have very good 3d imagination and would finding a top-down 2d world much easier to comprehend.

      Normally I would agree with that statement. In the past I tried 2D systems such as GameMaker and other block-like languages. I tried Alice the past two years which ventured into 3D. The difference with Minecraft is the kids already know it. I took a poll of the kids on the first day of class and only 2 out of 60 had never played Minecraft. That helps quite a bit with the learning curve so we can just focus on the logic. Their final grades were also much better this year and attribute a lot of that to the engagement Minecraft provided.

    9. Re:what for? by Tom · · Score: 1

      True, familiarity provides a benefit here.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    10. Re:what for? by Psykechan · · Score: 1

      Familiarity. It requires Minecraft because everyone under the age of 16 has heard of it and most of them have played it. It is a simple virtual world where children can gather and learn, and possibly even experiment.

      This is precisely why Microsoft bought Mojang. Having a port to the dying Windows Phone was nice but not really the reason. Having a special port for Windows 10 that connects with Pocket Edition players was something that they could have got if they simply asked Mojang and 4J for. Getting every kid to associate your name with their favorite part of school? Yes, that's worth 2.5 billion dollars.

  12. NGOML by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Does it run for five minutes then pop up a message saying "Go read a goddam book"?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  13. Ready Player One? by bored_lurker · · Score: 1

    Interesting. This kind of reminds me of Ready Player One which prominently features a game that is all about virtual worlds where, in part, schools are held. The OASIS becomes the largest game and company in the world. No worries though, Microsoft is no GSS, Minecraft no OASIS and Gates no Halliday.

    --
    --- Tolerance is the axiomatic "virtue" of those without convictions ---
  14. Can I get credits ... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... for blowing up the Minecraft Microsoft Redmond HQ?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  15. MINETEST, People! Minetest! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use this

    http://www.minetest.net/ ...teaching my kids how to code. Lua is the extension language used, and it's relatively easy to figure out.

    It's a nice platform for teaching, you get to talk about basic control structures (branches, looping, etc) but also 3-D coordinates, formulas for spheres, lines, etc.

    And it's free. As in "freedom," as in "beer."

  16. Kill the Raspberry Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps Microsoft noticed that Raspberry Pis were in the schools and were using Minecraft as a learning tool:

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-minecraft-pi/

    Now they want the schools to replace the RPis running Raspbian with 'real' computers running Windows 10 so that they can get a 'free' version (actually the RPi version is free). The way to do this is to buy Minecraft and kill off anything that is not Windows based.

    Maybe they will make a UWP version that will run on RPi under Win10IoT.

  17. Will it teach how to uninstall Minecraft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will it teach how to uninstall Minecraft? And then Windows?
    That could actually work.

  18. Sorry Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Buying Minecraft does not make you cool, and buying profitable companies at their peak is not a sound business strategy

    1. Re:Sorry Microsoft by DuckDodgers · · Score: 1

      "buying profitable companies at their peak is not a sound business strategy" - Microsoft has over ten billion dollars in profit per year. It is a completely valid business strategy for them to just buy and add Microsoft branding to any innovators that might someday eat their lunch. 1.2 billion dollars was a big deal to Notch, but peanuts to Redmond and now Redmond owns a game my kids spent a thousand hours playing in the past three years.

  19. Re:MINETEST, People! Minetest! by DuckDodgers · · Score: 1

    Right. I understand why Minecraft took the world by storm. But Minetest ( http://www.minetest.net/ ) and Terasology ( http://terasology.org/ ) are open source, just as extensible, just as fun. Writing mods for Minecraft is a royal pain because you have to deal with the fact that the core program is proprietary. Minetest and Terasology don't have that.