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Microsoft Makes Minecraft Education Edition Available To Schools (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the learning-games dept.

Mickeycaskill quotes a report from TechWeekEurope UK: Microsoft has bolstered its push into the education sector with the release of Minecraft: Education Edition for teachers around the world. The beta is an "early access" release, meaning it is free for testing purposes for schools. It comes after Microsoft last year launched a Minecraft site for educators to seek ideas on how the video game could be used as part of lessons. With the early access version of Minecraft: Education Edition now available, teachers have the chance to install and try an early version of the experience for free throughout the summer with classes of up to 30 students (without the need for a separate server). The complete version of Minecraft: Education Edition will be available in September. It will cost between $1 and $5 per user, per year depending on school size and volume licensing offers. Minecraft shows no sign of slowing down. It recently passed 100 million sales across all platforms and Microsoft, which acquired Mojang roughly two years ago, even has plans to bring Minecraft to China.

32 comments

  1. Bad idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There are far better educational games. Minecraft is not educational. This actually distracts students from doing important things like learning to read, write, doing math problems, understanding scientific reasoning, and learning the scientific method. Maybe that's what passes for education in the US, but here in Europe, we're more concerned with the fundamentals.

    1. Re:Bad idea by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Nonsense. One of my best friends uses Minecraft to teach kids. He has the kids involved with:

      * Teamwork
      * Problem Solving
      * Cooperation
      * Communication

      He builds his own levels and has a zero tolerance policy on griefing. His classes are filled due to demand.

      Do kids get distracted with trying to craft Diamond Swords? Yes, but he helps redirect them to keep them focused on the lesson at hand.

      Are there better games? I haven't seen any dynamic voxel games that have the basic functionality of Minecraft. The only other game I would recommend is L4D as it teaches all the above as well -- except in a more violent setting.

    2. Re:Bad idea by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Are there better games? I haven't seen any dynamic voxel games that have the basic functionality of Minecraft.

      There are two. One is a clone, it is called minetest. The other is space engineers.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Bad idea by JediJorgie · · Score: 1

      That's pretty funny since multiple European countries use it for some form and learning. Do a search. Everything from letting people design parts to using it help people learn geography on a HUGE scale.

    4. Re:Bad idea by aliquis · · Score: 0

      There are far better educational games. Minecraft is not educational. This actually distracts students from doing important things like learning to read, write, doing math problems, understanding scientific reasoning, and learning the scientific method. Maybe that's what passes for education in the US, but here in Europe, we're more concerned with the fundamentals.

      Here in Sweden we mostly care about political correctness and socialist brain-washing.

    5. Re:Bad idea by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      > One is a clone, it is called minetest. The other is space engineers.

      Minetest is crap. I've been subscribed to the mailing list for Minetest's issues for the past 2 years; the dev's don't have a fucking clue most of the time. I've mentioend it before to my friend it doesn't meet his needs at all compared to Minecraft + Python + mods.

      I haven't played Space Engineers enough to know if it was decent for teaching but I'll definitely check it out again.

    6. Re:Bad idea by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Minetest is crap. I've been subscribed to the mailing list for Minetest's issues for the past 2 years; the dev's don't have a fucking clue most of the time.

      So, feature parity with Minecraft!

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Bad idea by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      LOL! Nice one!

    8. Re:Bad idea by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Here in Sweden we mostly care about political correctness and socialist brain-washing.

      has been moderated Flamebait (-1).

      Turned out socialist brain-washing and political-correctness censorship had also reached Slashdot.

  2. Microsoft is out of innvovation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What have Microsoft given us recently? The bazillionth rehash of Windows - which is old Windows + spyware, that fucking Ribbon, and Minecraft which it had to buy from someone else and is now shilling furiously in a futile effort to buy credibility and appear "cool" to kids. Is this the best you've got, Microsoft? More pathetically: It's not even yours.

  3. Maybe my education wasn't that great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But I fail to see how minecraft can be utilised as an effective teaching aid.

    1. Re: Maybe my education wasn't that great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm a few days late to the party but for anyone interested there are loads of resources for classroom teachers interested on Minecraft on the Raspberry Pi site. Minecraft Pi Edition has been gratis for years and the Pi education community have developed a lot of teaching resources to go with it. For example, here's one involving using Minecraft to display data from the Sense HAT peripheral that's currently on the ISS: https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/exploring-space-with-minecraft/

      I've personally worked with children with severe behavioral and social difficulties who found Minecraft to be a much more effective context for developing collaboration and tolerance of each other than "real world" situations. They often couldn't go more than 15 minutes in the classroom without someone attempting violence but 90 minute split screen Minecraft sessions in the lounge were fantastic with the kids able to create common goals and work together to achieve them without resorting to physical violence when frustrated. I was working there as an outdoor learning specialist but was very happy to see another way for the kids to learn to cope with life.

  4. Minecraft Windows 10 upgrade scheme by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    And they'll be conveniently upgraded to Windows 10!

  5. Big Tech Wants a Microsoft 'Minecraft Generation' by theodp · · Score: 1

    This Computer Science Education Coalition 'sharegraphic' calls for raising a Microsoft 'Minecraft Generation' ("our kids #gaming today could help them lead the US economy into the future").

  6. "Per year" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Subscribe to an app? Never.

  7. Windows only? by Teckla · · Score: 1

    <cynical> Have they made it Windows only yet? </cynical>

    1. Re:Windows only? by JediJorgie · · Score: 1

      No, but it looks like the MCPE code base is getting the most attention from MS. Oh wait, MCPE currently works on iOS, Android, and Windows 10, And Mojang just released the second stable update this year, 1.10. So, it is not Windows only yet and nothing so far makes it look like it ever will be. MS wants customers, not just Windows customers.

    2. Re:Windows only? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you stopped sucking dicks behind the 7/11?

    3. Re:Windows only? by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Not yet.

      They have released a Windows 10 version though, which is incompatible with all other versions including funnily enough home Linux servers.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  8. Denial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Those skills are best learned in real life. Try getting one.

    1. Re:Denial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rude, but I agree...
      To me it seems lazy and to a degree irresponsible to use a video game that is definitely not meant to be used as an educational tool, to "teach" children basic life skills that would work just as well with more appropriate material. People are too reliant on computers and technology, and this is just fueling the issue.

  9. Remember kids by Pop69 · · Score: 1

    The first hit is free....

    1. Re:Remember kids by hughbar · · Score: 1

      Give me a child until seven: https://answers.yahoo.com/ques... 'Interesting' thing about Minecraft, it captures the attention of small children. Then, they're ready to spend the rest of their lives in the loving arms of Microsoft.

      --
      On y va, qui mal y pense!
    2. Re:Remember kids by chispito · · Score: 1

      The first hit is free....

      I'd be surprised if most kids don't already have Minecraft in some form at home. PC, XBox, their parents' phones... What's different about this version is that they get to play it at and for school.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  10. Wish they would rewrite the code to C/C++. by BlueCoder · · Score: 1

    The Java version is too slow.

    1. Re:Wish they would rewrite the code to C/C++. by Vrekais · · Score: 1

      This is based on the Mobile/Pocket version of Minecraft which is written in C++.

    2. Re: Wish they would rewrite the code to C/C++. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reasson behind Minecrafts success is java, because mods have been relatively easy to make

    3. Re: Wish they would rewrite the code to C/C++. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and server plugins

  11. MinecraftEdu was better, probably by Vrekais · · Score: 2

    We used MinecraftEdu in a previous workplace to teach a variety of things in Maths and Computing but we relied heavily on mods and this new one doesn't offer anything close to what we had. I was about to look into using in my new job but this version is Windows 10 only and has no mod support, this makes it pretty much useless for me.