Minecraft Education is perfectly suited for this surreal back-to-school moment

When the pandemic hit this spring, many teachers turned it around Minecraft during their crazy shrinkage for tools that could teach tools remotely. Earlier this year, Microsoft added a “training” section to the Minecraft market, and since March, 63 million pieces of content have been downloaded.

While Minecraft: Edition of trainings is not new, the digital nature makes it an almost ideal tool for this early age. It enables multiplayer activities, is available on a wide range of devices, and – perhaps most importantly – is something kids already enjoy doing. “We already had a lot of features in the game, so we were well suited from the start,” said Deirdre Quarnstrom, GM of the Minecraft Atlas Department, which focuses on broader initiatives such as education.

The educational offshoot of Minecraft officially launched in 2016, although the game has been used in schools for years before that, thanks to efforts of grassroots routes by various teachers dating back almost a decade. (Quarnstrom says this was part of the profession when Microsoft acquired it Minecraft studio Mojang in 2014. “We really saw the potential to make that thing much, much bigger.”) With Education edition, Microsoft created a more formal structure, with pre-made lessons covering everything from chemistry and coding to giving students the chance to explore the International Space Station. You can even play that old classroom piece The Oregon Trail.

There are many games explicitly designed for education, as well as popular games adapted for the class. But part of what made it Minecraft so successful is the combination of weekly popularity and a flexible nature. It’s a game where you can do everything from building a library that includes censored journalism to attending a virtual rock concert.

Minecraft is also different from other educational games, which are often stiff and, well, boring. It’s actually entertaining. This is true if you are hanging out with friends in survival mode or if you are coding lessons in class. ‘We started with this premise that Minecraft is a game used in education, and not an educational game, ”says Quarnstrom. ‘And that was something important. We’ve seen educational games that are just not fun, not involved, that come and go. We wanted to make sure we protected something made Minecraft so immersive and so engaged with the learning environment. When we introduced new features, that really helped guide our decisions. ”

All this combined for a perfect storm, as schools this year were forced to switch to distance learning. Minecraft was something many children already understood, it could provide interim interaction between students and faculty, and Microsoft had spent years building a fairly robust library of curricula covering science, writing, history, math, computer science, and the arts. The educational version of Minecraft is functionally identical to the base game; it looks and controls the same, and you can still play in groups and build things. But while Minecraft is typically about freeform creation rather than survival, the educational version is somewhat more focused.

In one lesson, students are asked to explore a beehive, where they learn about beehives by helping worker bees and feeding larvae. In another, they took the time to explore a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean, and then asked them to write a story about how the ship sank there. There are also challenges to build where teams need to work together to repair things like a Mars rover, coral reef, or a human eye. In most cases, there are elements before and after: children will read or watch videos on a particular topic as a primer, spending some time in the Minecraft lesson (individually or in groups), and then follow it up with a discussion or written assignment.

Despite the influx of new users, Quarnstrom says that Microsoft did not make many changes to the game itself. Instead, the company puts more focus on the way it interacts with the community. “The shift we made was in how we pack things, and place educators and communicate with them,” Quarnstrom says. That means new distance learning kits for teachers together, and additional resources for parents to help set up children at their home. The game’s website also gives interested educators the opportunity to connect with each other to share ideas and tips.

Some of these initiatives were already in the works, but were quickly detected due to the pandemic. Perhaps most important is the recent announcement that Minecraft: Edition of trainings supports Chromebooks. The game is already available on PC, Mac, and iPad, but Chromebooks are widely used in schools and, essentially, relatively inexpensive. The shift to distance learning has also raised concerns about equality, as not every student has access to the same tools as parental guidance when he or she is at home. Minecraft is still not perfect in this regard – you still need a laptop or tablet, and a decent internet connection – but it’s getting better. “Expanding on what devices we have available will help address some of those stocks,” says Quarnstrom.

Minecraft is used differently, depending on the age of the students involved. There are plans for lessons for children as young as six, while high school courses are generally focused on STEM topics. Meanwhile, college students seem to be more focused on the social aspect of Minecraft, using the base game to recreate their campuses. But both sides offer it something unique. If educators struggle with holding and carrying students while learning at a distance, here is an opportunity to meet children where they already are.

“There are a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainty,” Quarnstrom says. “My hope is that it looks like a tool Minecraft that can be adjusted will provide some stability. ”