Microsoft just acknowledged Minecraft's educational possibilities. On Tuesday, the company acquired MinecraftEdu, a version created by teachers for use in classrooms and as teaching aid. As other teachers have already been using Minecraft through homemade lessons, the game owner is encouraging them to use it through this "edu" software version.
This version of the game is more streamlined for teachers to get Minecraft inside the classroom, as more teachers now are sharing student work. Microsoft, however, is cautious on how the game is to be categorized. The company insists on calling it "a game that has an application in education," rather than an educational game.
"Our belief is that it stays true to its origins as a game and we make sure that it can be used broadly in educational settings, rather than trying to change something about the game itself", said Matt Booty, Microsoft vice president and part of the Minecraft Education team, according to USA Today.
The game will cost $5 per student for the whole year. It will be tied to their broader Microsoft accounts, making it available and accessible to students and teachers as they can also download it at home.
Today, this best-selling PC game of all time has more than 100 million players over 238 countries. More than 160 million have watched the more than 5 billion hours of Minecraft video content on Youtube. The educational version on the other hand is now being played in more than 7,000 schools in 40 countries.
"Since I've been working with teachers and districts with games and learning, no other tool has come close to Minecraft's ability to unleash kids' creativity both in and out of the classroom" said Lucas Gillispie, a North Carolina educator and the director of Academic and Digital Learning for Surry County, North Carolina, according to Yahoo News.
