Minecraft: Education Edition has been announced as an improvement to the previous version, which Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) bought. The acquisition was made public by Owen Hill, Director of Creative Communications at Mojang –creators of the original Minecraft– on Tuesday.
The company, referring to Microsoft, is investing in a “new and expanded version of Minecraft” for the classroom called Minecraft: Education Edition, said Anthony Salcito, vice president of Worldwide Education for Microsoft.
The new version will offer an expanded set of features to empower educators to foster deeper student engagement and collaboration, Salcito added.
Microsoft is making improvements in the platform with the objective of keepìng the classrooms fun and creative. The classic version, MinecraftEdu, has already been used in over 40 countries, the alternative education system proved its viability and success among the students.
One of the recent incorporations to the software is that teachers will have influence in the development of the tool. “It is going to be a collaborative thing”, wrote Owen Hill in his blog. The teacher’s community will be have the opportunity to collaborate and critique the Minecraft: Education Edition so they can reach a more efficient program.
Educators will have an online community for them to provide feedback and discuss some ideas. With the involvement of the teachers, the developers could improve in ways they can not detect in the day to day classroom.
The new version is expected to be available for schools this summer, and all existing members will have a year free of charges.
The previous educational tool was created as a way to engage the students to learn by using a well-known game like Minecraft. It allows the classroom to enter the system and “play” with each other with a pre-designed class from the teachers. The educators had special tools for freeze students in the game and supervised individually or in general the behavior of the learners in the game.
Source: Mojang