Minecraft: Education Edition

The game “Minecraft” by programmer Markus Persson was developed in 2009 and became a huge success for the crafting-freedom it offers its players. After six years of permanent development by Persson, Microsoft bought the game in 2014 and is now planning to create a bigger, better and more advanced version of it in collaboration with TeacherGaming LLC, the creator of MinecraftEdu, a modified version. The new Microsoft version will add and expand features to make it more classroom friendly. Improved multi-player capabilities are supposed to allow the teachers and students to build electrical circuits, to learn and teach maths, to explore ancient temples for a history class or to look at the insides of an eyeball. There will be a mentorship program for the exchange between Minecraft-experienced teachers and those who are new to it. The new game will be released this summer.

Picture: flickr.com / Kenming Wang