Microsoft Unveil Further Details of Minecraft: Education Edition

by Callum Fauser

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One of the big pieces of product news this week was Microsoft’s announcement of Minecraft: Education Edition – a new edition of the hugely popular construction game for PCs and consoles that’s become widely used as a teaching tool over the past few years.

Minecraft: Education Edition currently exists as a pre-release build, ahead of an official release this summer. At Bett 2016, a series of demo presentations attracted large crowds, some of whom were able to get hands-on with the new version at a bank of nearby machines soon afterwards.

As the name suggests, M:EE is a new version of the game specifically for schools that introduces several notable features. The first big change is the need for pupils and teachers to have an Office 365 account before being able to access the game, simplifying the log in process for those schools with existing accounts, but also serving as a reminder that Minecraft is very much part of the Microsoft family.

Other classroom-friendly features include the addition of an in-game photography function, with which pupils can take instant screenshots or ‘selfies’ by placing their virtual cameras on the ground as if it were mounted on a tripod. Also new are teacher-placed ‘build deny’ blocks, which will prevent pupils from deliberately sabotaging the creations of others, and the addition of three fixed inventory slots that teachers can use to set particular activities or tasks.

Accompanying those will be a new online community service facility hosted at the dedicated M:EE website, where schools and teachers will be able upload and share their pupils’ creations and countless others from across the world.