Education Edition is an educational tool that facilitates cooperation and teamwork among players, young and old. It is similar to Bedrock Edition, but with some new features.
Educational benefits[]
Minecraft can have huge educational benefits for children; it can help teach numerous subjects both with and without adult involvement. Learning in Minecraft can be faster than traditional methods of education, as children are often far more motivated, get more and more practice, and feel that what they are learning is useful. There are some new sign blocks, such as boards, slates, and posters. The allow and deny blocks are used for building. The border block prevents players from jumping on top, like a fence. There is also an agent that can be coded.
Subject | Benefit |
---|---|
Reading |
The names of items in the inventory are a great place to start teaching children to read, since each item has a tooltip and image which go together. For older children, reading the wiki and online guides can extend their skills. |
Writing |
Players can use the Book and Quill within the game to keep a log, or to communicate information to other players. By contributing to the Minecraft Wiki, older children learn to write informational texts in a collaborative, multimedia environment!. |
Math 17 + 44 |
The crafting system can help in teaching basic math (e.g. "I need 3 sugar cane for paper), which transitions to multiplication (I need 3 Paper and 1 leather for a book, and 3 books for a bookshelf, so I need 9 paper and 3 leather altogether") and division ("When I create paper I get 3 at once, so 9/3 = 3 times per bookshelf I'll have to create paper"). If players want to create a fully powered beacon, they will need to mathematically calculate amounts of materials (iron, diamond, emerald, gold) they need to create the pyramid, which is 9 times {∑i=1~i=4 (2i+1)2}. This means(9+25+49+81)×9 = 1476 = 23×64+4= 23 stacks and 4 pieces of materials. This shows not only you need math very much in Minecraft, but you also practice and possibly learn some mathematics skills. |
Geometry |
While the Minecraft world is only made up of cubes, the creations a child makes may resemble other shapes. Parental involvement can help teach children to recognize these shapes (cube, cuboid, square based pyramid.) Structures made with blocks to resemble shapes and figures can also help children with dimensions - x, length, y, height, z, width, and possibly also w, time. Also, counting the number of blocks that were dug out when making a 6x6x3 cave can help multiplication skills and understanding the concepts of volume and area. Also, Minecraft is all about three-dimensional graphing. A Minecraft world is based on x, y, and z coordinates, and uses both taxicab geometry (e.g. for lighting) and Euclidean geometry (for determining where monsters spawn and despawn). This very useful method of gaming can be used to learn high-leveled math such as the Pythagorean theorem (e.g.: x2+y2=c2) therefore not only is Minecraft used to learn "child-level geometry", it can also be used to learn fairly difficult geometric concepts very easily. |
Music |
With the preparation of some Redstone circuitry, experimenting with Note Blocks can teach children about notes, octaves and chords. |
Social skills |
By setting up a private server, parents can provide a safe environment for children to interact with friends and make playing Minecraft a cooperative event. Using a Local Area Network (LAN, or "home network") will allow children to play in the same room or same WI-FI network with their friends. By using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP, or "voice chat"), a phone call, or the in-game text chat, they can play together wherever they are. It is also possible to set up a Minecraft Realm. A minecraft realm is a server run by Mojang. Minecraft Realms costs $13/Month. You can easily setup a server and invite your child's minecraft friends. You can also set up various minigames for your child to play on or just a default minecraft world. For more info on Minecraft Realms, go to this page. These methods allows children to work together to build, explore, and learn as they develop their social skills, especially teamwork. For older children, contributing to the Minecraft Wiki can be a chance to learn about Internet etiquette and collaboration. |
Basic Technological Science |
Redstone circuitry provides an interactive environment to build basic logic circuits and combine them for more sophisticated purposes. Feedback is immediate, and the mistakes don't destroy expensive electrical components. Large, complex calculation devices can be created that can run algorithms. Advanced binary arithmetic and logic can be learned. Even basic and intermediate microprocessors that run programs can be made with user interfaces and screens that display complex results. The importance of concepts such as circuit compactness, speed, and simplicity are emphasized when circuits are relatively large and slow. Online communities can teach these concepts, and even real-world circuits, programs, algorithms, and concepts can often be transferred to circuits in Minecraft. Advanced arithmetic systems can be made using comparators and analog logic. |
Linguistics Hello! - ¡Hola! - Hallo! Salut! - Γεια σου! - 你好 |
Via the options menu, children can select various languages to use while playing Minecraft. If a child can name an item by sight, there is a higher chance that the child will be able to at comprehend at least a few words of a new language very quickly. Some children who do not speak English take courage to watch videos about it and also take interest to read about it. |
Mojang has recognized the educational potential Minecraft offers, and has partnered with minecraftedu.com to provide a 50% discount on Minecraft for educational institutions.
Content suitability[]
While the mobs (enemies) may be scary or overly frustrating for younger children, singleplayer contains no coarse language unless manually typed, no sexual (breeding simply involves mobs "kissing") or drug references, no gore, and dead mobs simply turn red, fall over, and turn to dust. There is combat in the context of Survival, however it is not gratuitous killing and not at all graphic (certain server mods or command block contraptions may make players emit particles like broken redstone or lava to represent blood - these, however, are not common on most servers). There is also a Peaceful difficulty, so younger players do not have to encounter enemies apart from wolves (which only attack if provoked) and, to a lesser extent, villager-made iron golems. But some things come after you and your child has an option to flee or fight, the mobs can be turned off also.
In multiplayer, others on the server may use coarse or inappropriate language when using the in-game text chat. This can be prevented by running a private server or setting up Minecraft realms, where access can be restricted to specific players using the customizable whitelist. You can invite up to 20 players (including the owner, so actually 19) on the customizable whitelist.
You can also turn off chat by going to settings menu and from there to Multiplayer Settings. There you have an option to turn off your chat, you will see no member talk, and you cannot talk. However, it is recommended that you instead set it to Commands only, as completely switching off chat will prevent the usage of useful commands such as /home.
Technical ability[]
Minecraft can be easily set up by a parent for their child to play. The launcher can be downloaded from minecraft.net. The file can be saved to the desktop for easy access, or to any location on the computer. To play the game, open the file, log in, create a profile (optional), and press Play. The launcher saves passwords, so you must manually log out every time you play the game if you do not want your child to play freely.
Setting up a server is much more involved, and will likely require parental assistance through the age of 13.
News Articles[]
- Ideas for Using Minecraft in the Classroom by Andrew Miller, Edutopia.com