Microsoft has announced its plan of launching “Minecraft: Education Edition” in June.

Before the official launch in June, “Minecraft: Education Edition” beta program will commence in May at over 100 schools in 30 countries, which will be able to test to the software in their classrooms. Its beta period is really short. An early access program is available for educators to download and try out the game will begin in June. It will be available in 11 languages and 41 countries. The program will continue throughout the summer, while Microsoft will work with early adopters to build out lesson plans, share learning activity ideas, and create re-usable projects.

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After the early access program wraps up, “Minecraft: Education Edition” user licenses will be available for purchase through direct and volume licensing channels. Schools or districts with an existing Microsoft agreement will be able to add “Minecraft: Education Edition” to their current license agreements later this year. Meanwhile, educators can also buy the licenses online and volume licenses for large-scale institutions will also be available.

In addition, the company said that the first release of “Minecraft: Education Editio”n will run on the latest versions of Windows 10 and Mac OS X El Capitan. Also, teachers and students will need to sign up for a free Office 365 Education account using their school or district emails. Microsoft’s plan to invest in the expansion of “Minecraft” into the classroom comes at a time when many schools are already using the game as part of their curriculum.

This is not the first time that Microsoft has integrated “Minecraft” into the learning environment. It has joined with Code.org in 2015 to unveil a “Minecraft” tutorial that teaches kids how to code. This was to mark the annual Hour of Code campaign.

TagsMicrosoft, Minecraft: Education Edition, Minecraft, Minecraft for school