The Minecraft: Education Edition early access program has opened its doors to teachers around the globe, Mojang confirmed on Thursday, giving educators a chance to start building and testing Minecraft based lesson plans for the 2016-2017 school year.
Few games manage to capture the imagination the way Minecraft has over the last few years, particularly among younger generations, which is why it didn’t exactly come as shock when Microsoft and Mojang announced plans to build Minecraft: Education Edition . After all, there was already a variety of semi-educational mods for the popular sandbox game, not to mention sites like MinecraftEDU, and there’s almost no precedent for the number of school-aged children who are at least familiar with (if not ardent fans of) Minecraft . Video games have been around for decades but not many can claim to have sold more than 100 million copies in less than 10 years.
This week, Minecraft: Education Edition opened its doors to the general public via an early access program that is expected to last most of the summer. The current program comes shortly after the end of a closed beta than ran last month and gives anyone, who can prove they’re an educator, the opportunity to start experimenting with Mojang’s official Minecraft teaching tools. The current build of Minecraft: Education Edition introduces a new camera feature, complete with in-game portfolios, and a set of programmable NPCs that can be used to teach students. Mojang says it’s also working on a Classroom Mode that should debut at some point in the future.
For more information on the early access program and/or to download the current build (if you're a teacher), head over the Minecraft: Education Edition website.
Minecraft: Education Edition is in development for Windows and OS X. There's currently no word on when MEE will ditch its early access label.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Minecraft news throughout 2016 and for however long Mojang supports Minecraft in the years to come.
