"Minecraft: Education Edition" free trial version has been released by Microsoft on June 9, and it's currently available in early access.
The tech giant aims to bring "Minecraft" to educators as a teaching tool to be used within the classroom. The company released the early access version of the game to help the teachers get acquainted with the learning tool, according to the Minecraft website.
The "Minecraft: Education Edition" early access version already includes updated classroom content and curriculum, as well as new features. "Minecraft" has been well-known to be a handy tool for children to explore curiosity and promote creativity.
Since its acquisition in 2014, Microsoft has been developing the game to cater to educators to be used in the classroom. The learning game is now known to be MinecraftEdu. The program includes a handful of lesson plans to give educators a helping hand to fit the game within their own curriculum, the TechCrunch reported.
The "Education Edition" promotes development of skills in a number of ways, which ranges from areas in science, history, and arithmetic. Some lessons are "City Planning for Population Growth," "Exploring factors and multiples," as well as lessons about the effects of deforestation.
Part of its release of the early access version, Microsoft is keen to collect feedback, especially from the educators themselves, to help the developers tweak the game into an effective learning tool.
Since the beta test in May, the developers already included improved features coming from the teachers, such as better classroom integration, non-player characters and boards to relay instructions, as well as easier snapshot and documentation of their current work, according to Engadget.
The learning game also features better collaboration among teachers and students, as the game supports up to 30 students to play in the same map.
Microsoft has stated that it has yet to include a feature that the majority of educators have requested, which is an interface that features a map with markers for every student, but it is already in the works.
