

There are plenty of games designed explicitly for education, as well as popular games adapted for the classroom. You can even play that old classroom staple The Oregon Trail.

“We really saw the potential to make that something 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 opportunity to explore the International Space Station. (Quarnstrom says that this was part of the appeal when Microsoft acquired Minecraft studio Mojang in 2014. The educational offshoot of Minecraft officially launched in 2016, though the game was used in schools for years prior to that, thanks to grassroots efforts from various teachers dating back nearly a decade. “We already had a lot of the features in the game, so we were well-suited from the beginning,” says Deirdre Quarnstrom, GM of the Minecraft Atlas division, which focuses on broader initiatives like education. It allows for multiplayer activities, is available on a large range of devices, and - perhaps most importantly - is something kids already enjoy doing.

While Minecraft: Education Edition isn’t new, its digital nature makes it an almost ideal tool for this strange time. Earlier this year, Microsoft added an “education” section to the Minecraft marketplace, and since March, 63 million pieces of content have been downloaded. When the pandemic hit this spring, a lot of teachers turned to Minecraft during their mad scramble for tools that could make remote learning work.
