Microsoft opens up licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition

Camps, clubs, and homeschool organizations can now purchase licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition.

What you need to know

• Minecraft: Education Edition can now integrate with Microsoft Teams.
• Educators can embed a Flipgrid topic, Forms quiz, or an assessment tool into a Minecraft world.
• Microsoft also announced Minecraft: Education Edition for Camps and Clubs, which works outside the classroom.

Microsoft announced several new features for education today. The unique circumstances of the last year pushed education to new areas, and many of the new features help extend the education experience outside the walls of a classroom. Among the new features, Microsoft announced Minecraft: Education Edition for Camps and Clubs and the ability to integrate Microsoft Teams with Minecraft: Education Edition.

Minecraft: Education Edition and Microsoft Teams may be vastly different pieces of technology, but they are both powerful tools for education. They're also both owned by Microsoft. Now, educators can integrate the two together, including embedding a Flipgrid Topic, Forms quiz, or an assessment tool using resource links. Within a Minecraft lesson, students can open a Flipgrid Topic, record and share creations, and invite other people to join them.

Minecraft: Education Edition makes it more fun to learn about architecture, math, chemistry, agriculture, and programming. It's an expansive game with a variety of teaching tools, but it has been, at least until this point, limited to educators. Minecraft has an Education toggle that enables some of the features of Minecraft: Education Edition, but the full version of Minecraft: Education Edition has been limited to specific organizations, such as schools, libraries, and certain museums.

Thankfully for those who want to use it outside of the classroom, Microsoft just announced Minecraft: Education Edition for Camps and Clubs. Starting this summer, camps, clubs, homeschool organizations, and nonprofits can purchase licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition.

This greatly expands the availability of Minecraft: Education Edition, and helps people use Minecraft to learn in more environments.