Minecraft Education Edition Officially Arrives In November

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

According to the MinecraftEdu team, more than 35,000 teachers and students around the globe have been playing around in Minecraft's sandbox since the program went live at the start of the summer. With the official release, the team built out a few new features geared towards education, including the "Classroom Mode" that offers an in-depth view of the Minecraft world through a companion app. Servers Minecraft The app lets teachers manage the world settings and also interact with students in-game, give items, and transfer their children around the map with one interface. The education edition will be updated as the main Minecraft world evolves. Teachers are encouraged to offer feedback and feature suggestions.

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. Minecraft: Education Edition requires OS X El Capitan, Windows 10, and a free Office 365 account.