Minecraft Education Edition The Game will be Available In Early Access

A new version of Minecraft designed for classroom use is now available in early access. Minecraft Education Edition was released in January with Microsoft's acquisition MinecraftEdu, which is a team which has been developing the game for teachers. The replacement will be available free of charge in the summer months, and will be available before a per student pricing model is launched for the academic year. As a small thank you, Microsoft has promised existing MinecraftEdu customers a year of free access to Education Edition -- presumably it will begin once the early access trial wraps up.

The Education Edition of Minecraft has some advantages over the original version. Up to 30 students can play together in a single world. This eliminates the need for a private server via a service such as Minecraft Realms. Teachers can create non-player characters (NPCs) to create a more guided experience, and provide them with web links so that students can access additional resources. There's also a chalkboard item for displaying instructions and an camera that students can use to take snapshots of their work, creating an in-game portfolio in the process.

Microsoft states that it is still working on many other features requested by the community. The new interface offers teachers a map with markers for each student, the possibility of teleporting users (should anyone wander off or get lost) and a chat window that can be used to manage private and class-wide conversations. Xrplay XR PLAY Minecraft has already proven to be a very effective tool for education. It can be used to teach the arts, geology, and coding. There is an official version for schools.