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It's a good day for educators everywhere, as Mojang Studios' popular and capable educational tool based off Minecraft is enjoying a ton of major improvements and new features today. The Minecraft: Education Edition Mobile Update expands the education-focused version of the popular creative survival game to Android and iOS platforms, on top of a host of other improvements. Minecraft: Education Edition is used by hundreds of institutions and educators all over the world to help teach children in all manner of topics through the medium of Minecraft. On Wednesday, Mojang Studios began releasing the Mobile Update to all users, and it's a major release that should excite educators and children alike. Some of the headlining features of Minecraft: Education Edition Mobile Update include:
Minecraft: Education Edition is built on the same creative freedom as Minecraft, but it's not just a video game. It aims to teach children about collaboration, creative problem solving, and open-minded critical thinking while providing informative information on a variety of subjects like science, math, history, coding, and more. With the Mobile Update, it's now available across more platforms with improved features across the board. Is the Education Edition going to usurp its Bedrock sibling as one of the best Xbox games? No, it's an educational tool first and foremost, and isn't as accessible as other versions of Minecraft (if you're a non-educator seeking to explore Education Edition content, several features, worlds, and lessons from it are available in Bedrock Edition). The Education Edition of Minecraft is important to plenty of educators and children, though, and it's a whole lot better with today's update.
To most of the world, there are three different versions of Minecraft. The Java Edition is the original version, and it's available on MacOS and Windows PC's. It's known for being big, heavy, and very powerful. It supports mods, third-party tools and software, and has a huge number of hardcore players. The Bedrock Edition is the modern version, built to span across devices, platforms, and generations with a flexible and lightweight foundation. It supports multiplayer across different platforms, private servers known as Realms, and is available on way more devices. Then there are the "legacy" versions that no longer exist, like the old Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 editions. There's actually one more version of Minecraft and that's the Education Edition. This version is built off the Bedrock Edition, building in powerful features useful for teachers and educators. This is Minecraft build for schools, libraries, museums, and more. It's not for fun, but it does make learning things like math, science, and programming fun. Here's what you need to know. Related: Here's how to use the Education Edition for children at home due to the coronavirus What is Minecraft: Education Edition?(Image credit: Source: Windows Central)Back in 2016, Mojang announced a new project to help educators teach their students by using Minecraft as a fun and interactive tool. A little while later, Minecraft: Education Edition was born to the world, and it featured a ton of unique features and plans across a variety of curriculum subjects like architecture, math, chemistry, agriculture, and computer programming. Across all of it, Minecraft: Education Edition is focused on teaching children important critical skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity. Because the Education Edition is actually just an expanded version of the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft available on Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10, Android and iOS, it also comes with all the same features present there. However, the Education Edition isn't quite as prolific as its base version, since as of now it's only available on Windows 10, MacOS and iPad devices. The full Minecraft: Education Edition is specifically tailored to schools, and is currently being used in over 115 countries around the globe. It is a monthly subscription service that requires a Microsoft 365 Education account and a Mojang Account, so access is limited and everyday people won't be able to take advantage unless their school allows it. There's also a toggle present in the base Bedrock Edition of Minecraft simply labeled "Education Edition" that appears in the Create a New World menu. This toggle is available on more devices like Android phones, and anyone who owns the Bedrock Edition can use it, but isn't as powerful or complicated as the full Education Edition is. More on that toggle down below. What can you do in Minecraft: Education Edition?(Image credit: Source: Windows Central)Minecraft: Education Edition includes a surprising number of additional mechanics, administrative features and controls, tools for students to use, and exclusive items and resources that really drive home the focus of the game. The point of the Education Edition is to not only provide a platform in which students can learn, but also give teachers the tools they need to manage their classroom, keep everyone productive, and set the parameters for their lessons. We'll divide the features of the Education Edition of Minecraft into three categories: items and resources, student tools, and educator tools. Items and resources in Minecraft: Education Edition(Image credit: Source: Windows Central)There are a few exclusive blocks or items in Minecraft: Education Edition that aren't available in the Bedrock Edition. Some of these are tailored for use by educators, but the majority of the exclusive items revolve around the Education Edition's extensive chemistry toolset. The items and resources in Minecraft: Education Edition are:
There are also a load of chemistry-focused items and resources, which are:
Students can do more than just chemistry in Minecraft: Education Edition, and there are also ways for students to track their progress through lessons and challenges. Most importantly, though, is how easy it is for students to work together in Minecraft: Education Edition. The items available for students to use are:
The functions and features available for students to use are:
A bunch of children hanging out in Minecraft without educators and teachers being able to moderate them is bound to turn into giggle-filled chaos, so of course there are a ton of tools available to help define boundaries and keep students on task. This also helps educators scale lessons and challenges as needed to fit the classroom or objective. The items available for educators and teachers to use are:
The functions available for educators and teachers to use are:
How is the Education Edition toggle different than Minecraft: Education Edition?(Image credit: Source: Windows Central)Something that isn't immediately obvious to anyone, myself included, is how Minecraft: Education Edition is actually a fully separated experience from the Bedrock Edition, and how that "Education Edition" toggle you might've noticed when creating a new world in Minecraft doesn't actually enable the full Education Edtion. The reason behind this is simple: unless you're an educator or a student being taught by an educator with access to Minecraft: Education Edition, it might as well not exist for you. The toggle in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is completely free, but it doesn't unlock all of the features. Instead, this toggle turns on the chemistry features for the Bedrock Edition. This means the elements, isotopes, compounds, and all the tables associated with them. The tutorial maps, admin controls, exclusive blocks and items, and some of the lesson plans and challenges can only be used if you have access to the full Education Edition. That's not to say the toggle is useless. If you have a child you want to stay productive at home, or if they're staying home for some reason, the toggle still gives you and your child all the chemistry-focused features. If you're child isn't into chemistry (or like mine, is just too young), you can still combine the Bedrock Edition with the many, many lesson plans and challenges available on Mojang's Education Edition website. They'll just be a little more hands-on then if you had access to those admin controls and features. How do you get Minecraft: Education Edition on your devices?(Image credit: Source: Windows Central)So it's clear that Minecraft: Education Edition has been designed from the ground up to be very good at what it does. Their Twitter account is full of stories from students and teachers who have used the game for learning. How do you gain the same benefits from Minecraft: Education Edition? There are two different ways, depending on who are you or where you're coming from. Let's go over both. If you're an educator or student and want Minecraft: Education Edition(Image credit: Source: Windows Central)The full Minecraft: Education Edition is strictly education, so it has similar requirements that, say, an enterprise-only service would have. There's not a how-to on getting Minecraft: Education Edition, because it depends a lot on who you are. If you're an educator, talk to your admin about using the game for your classroom. If you're a student, talk to your educator. The requirements for Minecraft: Eduation Edition are:
As you can see, these requirements are pretty set in stone, and don't give a lot of leeway for everyday people to gain access. That's why the "Education Edition" toggle exists in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, which is available to everyone. If you don't have access to the full game but still want some of the benefits(Image credit: Source: Windows Central)If none of the above requirements describe you, you're probably like me or many other people: an average person with no official educational capacity, but either wants to learn, or has someone else (like a child,) to teach. That's okay, Mojang included a toggle in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition that enables the Education Edition's chemistry features, and they made all the lesson plans and challenges on their website accessible to anyone. To enable these features for yourself, do the following:
Now you can use all the lesson plans and challenges available on Mojang's website to help you out. Unforunately there will be a learning curve, since you won't have any of the tutorial worlds, and not all the lesson plans or challenges will work (like any of the coding plans). Otherwise, you basically have free reign over whatever you want to do! This is a great tool if you want to be more hands-on with your child's learning, and still try to keep it fun. A fun way to learnThe Education Edition turns Minecraft from an expansive creative sandbox to an interactive learning environment. Teachers can monitor progress and assign lessons while students can work together as a classroom, in groups, or individually to accomplish goals while learning more about various subjects. While most people probably won't ever come in contact with it, it's awesome that Mojang and Microsoft are working to have a more engaging presence in classrooms. That's not to say the Education Edition has nothing to offer to normal people. Using the Education Edition toggle in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition gives you access to a whole host of chemistry-focused features, and the lesson plans and activities for Minecraft: Education Edition are free to access for everyone. Using this, it's not hard to make sure your children can have fun and stay productive wherever they are. Have you used Minecraft: Education Edition before? Do you think this is a good tool to help children learn? Let us know in the comments below! Xbox (opens in new tab)Main |