Minecraft: Education Edition will be rolled out in May in schools for a closed beta program, followed by the launch of its "early access" program for teachers in June, Microsoft announced on April 14.
The popular pixelated game, already known for its uses in the form of corporate team-building and artificial intelligence research, has now forayed into the classroom with its customized education-focused edition. Microsoft plans to monetize the edition once the early-access program eventually wraps up.
Back in January, the company already started teasing Minecraft: Education Edition. Microsoft acquired Mojang in 2014 for $2.5 billion - a company known for its work on the game, and even bought out MinecraftEdu - a company that had already performed some education-focused modifications on the game.
This is Microsoft's second attempt at selling Minecraft as a teaching-and-learning tool, but on a much larger scale. In 2015, the company partnered with Code.org to develop a Minecraft tutorial that taught kids how to code. The tutorial was launched as a part of "Annual Hour of Code" campaign.
Minecraft: Education Edition is tailor-made to teach kids about navigation, collaboration and social skills, as well as how to create re-usable class projects. These represent just some of the potential uses of the edition, which also lays out a library of lesson plans to aid the teaching community.
The education edition is scheduled to roll out in May as a closed beta, to more than 100 schools in 30 countries across the globe.
The software will run on the latest versions of Windows 10 and Mac OS X El Capitan, and each teacher and student will need to create a free Office 365 Education account using a school/district email. The schools will then test the software and provide detailed feedback to Microsoft to help iron out the kinks discovered during the beta program, before it's ready to hit the next stage.
The following rollout happens in June as an "early access" program, this time in 11 languages in 41 countries. The teachers need to download the Minecraft: Education Edition software, for free, one more time, and send their feedback to the company.
While this program runs through the summer, its exact end date is not known yet. However, when it does come to an end, Microsoft will make the software available for purchase through direct and volume-licensing channels.
These testing programs are also a great way for both teachers and students to familiarize themselves with Minecraft if they haven't used it before. Microsoft has very strategically timed the launch of the Education version of this software, especially when nearly 7,000 schools in more than 40 countries already use this game as part of their curriculum.
