The education version of Minecraft will be available for teachers to download for free when it launches in June, Microsoft announced today. The popular pixelated open-world game has served as a testing ground for multiple initiatives recently, including artificial intelligence research and corporate team-building.
The Minecraft: Education Edition beta program will launch in May at more than 100 schools in 30 countries, according to a Microsoft blog post. The beta period is short; an early access program for all educators to download and try out the game will begin in June. It will be available in 11 languages and 41 countries.
So what can teachers do with Minecraft? Building lesson plans, sharing learning activity ideas with colleagues and creating re-usable class projects are just a few of the potential uses, according to Microsoft.
The exploration element of the open-world game could also be useful for storytelling, with students able to launch their own adventures and describe the virtual world they are exploring.
In order to download Minecraft: Education Edition, teachers will need to be running Windows 10 or OS X El Capitan and have an Office 365 account. There's also a website where they'll be able to view sample lesson plans and connect with mentors who are already using Minecraft in their teaching.
Introducing Minecraft to the classroom was one of Microsoft's goals after it acquired the game's Swedish maker, Mojang, in 2014 for $2.5 billion. Since then, it has also used the game as a "digital playpen" for artificial intelligence research, with teams of engineers developing algorithms to teach AI programs how to learn concepts in the virtual world.