Microsoft has announced it will officially launch Minecraft: Education Edition for the PC on November 1. This is a special version of the popular sandbox game that's designed to be used by schools.
Microsoft previously released a free beta of Minecraft: Education Edition for schools to try out before its official launch. The final version will include some new features, including a "Classroom Mode":
A companion app for Minecraft: Education Edition that enables educators to manage world settings, communicate with students, give items and teleport students in the Minecraft world. It displays a map view of the Minecraft world, a list of all the students in the world, a set of world management settings and a chat window. There is even a Minecraft clock to show time of day in the world. Classroom Mode offers educators the ability to interact with students and manage settings from a central user interface.
The game will continue to be updated with features that are already available in the regular versions of Minecraft:
All the latest updates to Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition beta will be included, such as leads and horses, additional player skins, pistons and the remainder of Redstone functionality and an updated user interface.
Microsoft will charge $5 per year for each user of Minecraft: Education Edition. It will also be available to purchase via a school district licensing deal, but detail have yet to be announced.
