Minecrafts Educational Edition: Entertainment and Education as well

Minecraft EDU allows teachers to modify game content

Technology company Microsoft will release an 'educational edition' of the video game Minecraft.

Through this project, teachers will be able to teach different subjects in new ways with the help of video games Minecrafts Educational Edition.

Minecrafts Educational Edition

Positive effects of video games on children Minecrafts Educational Edition.

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In 2014, Microsoft paid 2.5 billion to Swedish video game maker Mojang for the job. Late last year, he bought a four-year-old version of the game, Minecraft EDU, from Finnish developer TeacherGaming.

Now it has been suggested to add additional features but schools will have to pay extra for this.

Microsoft says more than 7,000 classrooms worldwide are already using Minecraft in the same format.
Microsoft says more than 7,000 word rooms worldwide are already using Minecraft in the same format.

Anthony Salcito, Microsoft's vice president of global education, told the BBC: "Teachers are using Minecraft for many things, including math, science, religion and poetry."

"Once the easy tools reach schools and they get to work, I think you'll see that number (of classrooms) increase."

Minecraft EDU allows teachers to modify game content and use the respective shared library for educational materials.

Microsoft now promises further improvements, including the following changes:

Character features created by children will be maintained between sessions.

With the 'In-Game' camera, students will be able to create 'pictures' of their work, and then save those pictures in the online book along with other notes. They can also be used as tutorials for other children or teachers can see them to test students' abilities.

Children will be allowed to download a software that will allow them to use the educational version of Minecraft after school without having to get a copy of their game.

To get this service, children and teachers need to get an Office 365 ID.

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Microsoft says it will reduce the number of its online accounts under the supervision of teachers.

This will help the company to advertise its word processing, email and other file sharing services applications in comparison to other competitors like Google.

Microsoft plans to set an annual fee of 5 per child and teacher for this facility.

Leah Woolmerns, head teacher at Lings Primary School in Northampton, England, welcomes these new features.

He uses Minecraft EDU to teach Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream to students at his school, in which he asks children to create Shakespeare's play in a performance game.

Lings Primary School students use video games to read Shakespeare

However, he says other teachers should be aware that the software has its limitations.

"Technology can be extraordinarily learned, but it must be used in conjunction with other tools."

He says that if you rely only on Minecraft to read Shakespeare then you are wrong.

"Dance, art, drama and music will be great for teaching children, but technology can be added as an additional tool."

Microsoft says it may allow teachers to use the "beta version" of the educational edition of Minecraft over the summer without charge.

Minecrafts Educational Edition: Entertainment and Education as well