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minecraft-education

 

“Minecraft,” the popular world-building game, has gotten an educational makeover. Microsoft has announced that “Minecraft: Education Edition” is now available in 50 countries and 11 different languages, exciting both teachers and students.

“We have high hopes for this title to be a game-changer in classrooms around the world,” Deirdre Quarnstrom, director of “Minecraft: Education Edition” at Microsoft, told U.S. News. “Our first priority in the short term is driving awareness of the new title and getting continued educator feedback to finesse the experience as we go.”

For those unfamiliar with “Minecraft,” the video game enables players to build structures in a 3D, computer-generated world. Before the announcement of “Minecraft: Education Edition,” the game was already being used in classrooms because it promotes creativity and gets kids excited about learning to code.

Quarnstrom also sees the game being used to teach things like project management, architecture and design. For example, instead of having students create traditional dioramas, educators could a direct their students to build it in Minecraft. The game also has a team-play mode for up to 30 students that allows them to take pictures of their work and teachers to track their development.

To help teachers develop lessons around the game, Microsoft launched a new website, education.minecraft.net, complete with lesson plans, tutorials and starter worlds.

To learn more about “Minecraft: Education Edition,” visit education.minecraft.net.