Learn to play Minecraft Education

This tutorial is meant for educators and students who are new to Minecraft, or those who need a refresher on controls, crafting, and basics of the game. This article is designed to get you going right away playing Minecraft and using Minecraft Education.

This article will cover:

• First Steps
• Tutorial worlds
• A guide to useful controls in Minecraft
• Additional resources

To get ready for the tutorial experience, simply open up your version of Minecraft Education and get started. To get your copy of Minecraft Education, visit our get started link or download page.

First Steps

Select "Play" from the main menu after logging in. Once you do, you'll see the below options:

• "My Worlds" will show you all of your existing worlds you can load up. 
  • If you do not have any worlds yet, this area will be empty.
• "Library" will bring you to the categories How to Play, Start Worlds, Build Challenges, Computer Science, Mathematics, Science, Language, Art & Design, Social Studies, Career Education, and E-Sports.
  • The "How to Play" section is a great place to start if you are new to Minecraft controls!
• "Create New" will allow you to choose either "New" or "Templates". The new world is the standard Minecraft generation. "Templates" shows our featured lessons and a few starter worlds.
  • The Blocks of Grass world under Templates is a great controlled, simple environment to experiment for both new and experienced users! 
• "Join World" will allow you to enter the Join Code or IP of another user who is hosting a multiplayer session. 
• "Import" allows you to open worlds you've downloaded. 

Learn How to Play Tutorials

We have several tutorials for both Keyboard and Touch controls. You can find more info on Tutorials here. 

A guide to useful controls in Minecraft

Get familiar with the controls here. This article explains how to move around with one of the most common interfaces for Minecraft Education, a keyboard and mouse. We encourage you to bookmark or print out this page while you are learning how to play, you’ll likely refer to it often.

Additional resources

Once you get started with Minecraft, we invite you to explore the following resources to help you continue your journey at whatever level you are comfortable with:

• Get started with the Tutorial worlds
• Begin Minecraft Teacher Academy
• Get familiar with the controls 
• Connect with other educators directly via our Teacher's Lounge
• Follow us on Twitter
• Explore the full Knowledge Base

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