Minecraft Education Edition Officially Arrives In November

After a summer of testing runs, the full version of Minecraft: Education Edition will officially launch on the 1st of November. When it is launched the service will require a yearly $5 membership per user or a district-wide license, but the Early Access edition is still free until November.

According to the MinecraftEdu team, more than 35,000 teachers and students have played in Minecraft's sandbox since the game was launched at the beginning of the summer. With the official release, the team built out a few new education-focused features like the "Classroom Mode" that offers an in-depth view of the Minecraft world through an accompanying app. Teachers can control the settings of the world and interact with students in-game, give out items or teleport their kids around the map using a single interface. As the main Minecraft world evolves and gains new features, so does the educational edition, and educators are encouraged to submit feature suggestions and provide feedback.

Finally, for any teachers who haven't stepped into Minecraft's blocky world yet, education.minecraft.net offers some starter worlds, tutorials, free lesson plans in subjects ranging from storytelling to city planning, and a mentoring program to connect them with other educators. At launch, Minecraft: Education Edition requires OS X El Capitan or Windows 10, plus a free Office 365 account to use. Club