One year after its release, Minecraft for Education is seeing some real momentum in the classroom. The collaborative platform for learning based on the massively popular sandbox game now has more than 2 million users across 115 countries, a important milestone for the Microsoft-owned software.
“Educators are teaching a wide variety of subjects with Minecraft: Education Edition, and we’ve seen particularly exciting results when Minecraft is used to teach Computer Science,” explained Deirdre Quarnstrom, General Manager, Minecraft Education. “Though many don’t realize it, coding is in fact one of the most creative activities a student can do, building something with no limitations but his or her own creativity. And research continues to show that creativity, collaboration and coding are all critical skills for students’ long-term success in the modern workplace.”
As of today, more than 250 educators have created lesson plans for Minecraft: Education Edition to develop skills like creativity, problem-solving and computational thinking. Microsoft has also partnered with Code.org to offer educators and students a free Hour of Code tutorial in Minecraft. Starting today, a new tutorial called Minecraft: Hero’s Journey is available for free at Code.org/Minecraft and it’s playable across Windows, iOS and Android. “Upon completing the tutorial, students can import their code into Minecraft: Education Edition for the first time ever, bringing their work to life in the game, or share their work via email, text message or social media,” Quarnstrom explained.
