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Microsoft encourages classroom crafting with 'Minecraft in Education' portal

Getting teachers up to speed

Microsoft encourages classroom crafting with 'Minecraft in Education' portal

It's by no means a new phenomenon for Minecraft to be used in the classroom.

But with the near-ubiquitous creative sandbox already extremely popular among children, this is one area in which it's the teachers who are more in need of education.

Aiming to address this, Microsoft - who last September acquired Minecraft developer Mojang in a $2.5 billion deal - is opening a portal that assists teachers in integrating the game into lessons.

Laying the foundations

The debut blog post of the Minecraft in Education portal briefly explains the wide variety of skills and lessons that can be taught in a more effective and engaging manner using Minecraft - including some that wouldn't immediately spring to mind:

"Often inspired by the passion of their students, [teachers have] started using Minecraft to design history lessons, teach language classes, explore mathematics, physics, computer science, writing, and more."

The Minecraft in Education portal is live right now, and while it's fairly bare at the moment there are already a couple of posts discussing its mission statement and the potential of Minecraft as a learning tool.

 


Features Editor

Matt is really bad at playing games, but hopefully a little better at writing about them. He's Features Editor for PocketGamer.biz, and has also written for lesser publications such as IGN, VICE, and Paste Magazine.