Microsoft Leveraging its Minecraft Acquisition with MinecraftEdu for Educators, Parents and Students
Having acquired MinecraftEdu, Microsoft is making plans to launch its own Minecraft Educational Edition. Minecraft, which was developed by Swedish programmer Persson and published by Mojang was bought by Microsoft in 2014. MinecraftEdu, was built for the classroom by TeachGaming LLC.
Microsoft had shelled a whopping $2.5 billion for acquiring a learning game called MinecraftEdu which allows teachers to use Minecraft in any classroom with subjects incorporated in it including STEM, history, language options, and art.
According to Microsoft, they are trying to leverage MinecraftEdu to its fullest capabilities with inventive ways to engage students with their own Minecraft Education Edition. By bringing Minecraft into the classroom, it will be helpful for educators and students to teach and learn in a conducive environment.
Existing customers are expected to continue using MinecraftEdu and one can avail free use of the new product after its availability is made public.
Incorporating Features from its Predecessor
The Minecraft Education Edition initiated by Microsoft is expected to incorporate features of MinecraftEdu with some fundamental changes to the original. The program will be developed in C++ which is expected to redress the issues associated with Java version. The new game will also enable teachers for handling large multi-player sessions with ease. One can even import existing Minecraft worlds although other skins and stuff with Java code cannot be used.
Users of Office 365 in schools and colleges can now connect to Minecraft with Microsoft accounts and even collaborate on a peer-to-peer classroom network.
Benefits of using MinecraftEdu
- Minecraft Education Edition based on MinecraftEdu helps in encouraging kids to learn more about all sorts of game design and concepts of programming too.
- MinecraftEdu was designed with goals of educators wherein teachers could adapt the system to their own curriculum needs, while eliminating the requirement of managing their own hardware.
- If offers range of activities created by multiple teachers with several workshops and courses.
- Students can create virtual worlds in Minecraft with a plethora of skills, including digital citizenship, social empathy, and boost in literacy, while getting feedback and suggestions from their teacher.
- Elementary school students can learn about city planning and basic engineering while middle schoolers can learn about computer science or college students can learn the detailed history of New Zealand and its culture by recreating events in the program.
- A new version of this game will include an expanded feature set for fostering deeper student engagement and collaboration.
Nearly 7,000 classrooms are currently using Minecraft in more than 40 countries worldwide. With the Education Edition, the impact will increase those numbers too. The new version called “Minecraft Education Edition,” will first be available in summer as free trial.
MinecraftEdu, the company had a server subscription plan starting from $25 per month per server instance with capacity to handle 30 simultaneous users. The one-time Server Software license was priced at $41 while an annual fee of $5 for each teacher and child, will be levied too.
A related website for Minecraft Education Edition will be offering starter lessons, and huge discussion forums for educators, along with other resources. Teachers can join mailing lists for updates, MinecraftEdu users are not affected by the trends and sales are expected to go steady until Microsoft launches the new version. Existing customers will be offered the new Minecraft Education Edition absolutely free after its launch in every case.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joined in December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.