Minecraft Education

Minecraft: Education Edition is an upcoming educational version of Minecraft specifically designed for classroom use. It is being developed by Mojang AB and Microsoft Studios and will contain features that will make Minecraft easy to use in a classroom setting. The full game is planned to be released in June 2016, following a beta test in May.

Features
The Education Edition is based off the Pocket Edition and contains features that make Minecraft more accessible and effective in a classroom setting, including:
 * Enhanced maps with coordinates for students and teachers to find their way around the Minecraft world together.
 * Student Portfolio feature, where students can take photos and selfies to show their work and learning.
 * Enhanced multiplayer, where a classroom of up to 40 students can work together toward a greater world in Minecraft.
 * Login and personalization, where students have personalized avatars and feel more engaged in the game and teachers can know who each player is.
 * World import and export, where teachers and students can create and save their worlds in the game.

Lesson plans through the Education Edition are available to download, covering various subjects such an engineering, history, and visual arts. Modifications are currently not supported in Education Edition, but a hosting service is planned for the future.

Pricing
The full game will cost $5 per year to use, with a free trial expected to be available as well. Schools and districts who already have MinecraftEdu will be able to get the Education Edition for free.

Eligibility
In order to be eligible to purchase the Education Edition, you must meet the following requirements (as seen on the FAQ):


 * An eligible educator must be a full-time or part-time faculty or staff member at an academic institution and have a school-specific email address provided by the school that can receive external email.
 * An eligible district or school must be a qualified education user, defined as an accredited institution organized and operated exclusively for the purpose of teaching its enrolled students.
 * An eligible public library must provide general library services without charge to all residents of a given community, district, or region.
 * An eligible public museum must be an agency or institution organized on a permanent basis for essentially education or aesthetic purposes, and utilize a professional staff to exhibit tangible objects to the public on a regular basis.
 * Finally, an eligible home-school program must provide K-12 education to a student or students with written proof that it either belongs to a nationally-recognized home-schooling organization or is expressly recognized by a local school district as an acceptable alternative to an accredited or state-recognized/approved educational institution.

System requirements
Minimum system requirements (according to the FAQ):


 * 1 GHz or faster 32-bit or 64-bit processor
 * 1 GB RAM or 2 GB RAM
 * 16 GB available hard disk space or 20 GB
 * DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver