Minecraft Education Edition Officially Arrives In November

After a long summer of test runs, the full version of Minecraft: Education Edition will officially launch on the 1st of November. The service will require a annual $5 membership per user or a districtwide license. However, the Early Access edition will still be free until November.

According to the MinecraftEdu team, more than 35,000 students and teachers from around the world have played in the sandbox of Minecraft since the game was launched at the beginning of the summer. The team has added a couple of features that are geared towards education to the official version. This includes the "Classroom Mode" which gives an overview of the Minecraft world through a companion application. The app lets teachers manage the settings for the world, talk with students in-game, give items, and transfer their children around the map with one interface. The educational edition will be updated as the main Minecraft world evolves. Teachers are encouraged to offer feedback and feature suggestions.

Finally, for any teachers who haven't stepped into Minecraft's blocky world yet, education.minecraft.net offers some starter worlds, tutorials, free lesson plans in subjects ranging from storytelling to city planning, and a mentoring program to connect them with other educators. Minecraft Servers At launch, Minecraft: Education Edition requires OS X El Capitan or Windows 10, plus a free Office 365 account to use.