After acquiring "Minecraft" for 2.4 billion and TeacherGaming LLC, Microsoft decided to combine the two hence "Minecraft Education Edition". Microsoft's "Minecraft Education Edition" caters to the play-to-learn teaching approach.
Microsoft's "Minecraft Education Edition" is a learning tool that both teachers and students can use for learning about subjects like Geometry, Fractions, Deforestation, Civilization, Geography, Government and Science. The program also hopes to foster creativity and imagination and collaboration among students and teachers. The educational platform also aims to cultivate a sense of community among the school administrators, the teachers, parents and students.
Microsoft's "Minecraft Education Edition" is basically the video game "Minecraft" imbibed in a classroom setting. The teacher can act as a non-playing character for the students during their world building and exploration in "Minecraft". It also has a Classroom Mode Companion app that teachers can use to monitor the students' progress in the game. The app can also let the teachers communicate with the students and manage and set the worlds according to the lesson plan.
The "Minecraft Education Edition" also retains "Minecraft" features like customization of players, an updated user interface and the Redstone functionality. For five dollars per student per year or a special rate for large educational institutions, "Minecraft Education Edition" is made available to your child or your child's school. It supports eleven languages and is available in fifty countries.
Around 50,000 students and teachers beta-tested and fine-tuned Microsoft's "Minecraft Education Edition". Most of the students and teachers gave positive reviews about Microsoft's learning tool. Even parents were open to the concept of using the video game "Minecraft" in the classrooms.
Integrating Microsoft's "Minecraft Education Edition" to a school is fairly simple. Microsoft offers a wide selection of lesson plans and training guides for teachers and parents. It also has available "Minecraft" worlds that can be readily used in the classroom.
Microsoft's launch of the "Minecraft Education Edition" reflects the ever-growing popularity of play-to-learn approach in education. The play-to-learn approach or gamification is the concept of using games to teach students a subject. It can also be about using game features like rewards or quests to inject a sense of fun in learning. Studies show that students that are exposed to the play-to-learn approach remember and retain more of the subject taught.
How about you? Are you willing to let your child use Microsoft's "Minecraft Education Edition"?
