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Minecraft: Education Edition for non-teachers (Homeschooling, PTA, Camps)

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39 comments

  • Official comment
    Penny Support
    Bug Zapper Super Star Beacon of Knowledge Support

    We are happy to share that the Minecraft: Education Edition Camps and Clubs Beta is here! Now camps, after-school programs, homeschools, and other organizations can purchase licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition to support creativity, collaboration, and innovation for learners of all ages.

    Learn more:  https://aka.ms/campsandclubs

  • Maria Jose

    Consumer versions of Minecraft are also great if you are not an educator

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  • seth spanger

    im a not a techer 

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  • Scott Deardorff

    Kyle,

       Sorry to Necro this post, but given the recent changes in things, essentially all parents are now home school teachers.  I would be happy to pay full rack rate for a copy of this fine piece of software, or pay additional for downloadable content for either the Bedrock or Java versions.  I think this is an awesome resource, and it's a shame that it's not more widely available.

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  • Adding in conversation from a few years ago -

    Homeschooled Childeren

    FOLLOW
     
    Xan Hicks
     
    im actually not a teacher i had to choose one choice at the login so i chose educator. im 12 and homeschooled. why cant homeschooled kid access this? it just wont work, you have to setup an email a certain way and you have to have the name of the school. why cant i use it?
    • Minecraft Strand
       
       
      Hi,
      Minecraft Education Edition has some special features that help teachers use Minecraft in a classroom environment. You will not have much educational use for this functionality if you are alone or just a few others. There are some cool things, like the camera and editing books. But for the Java edition you will find mods for many of these things. The only thing you would want is the possibility to connect Minecraft to coding editors, like MakeCode.
      I was told that this should work also with the Minecraft windows 10 edition. Maybe someone can confirm if this is correct? Anyway, there are endless possibilities to use the "normal" Minecraft with home schooling.
       
       
    •  
      Yes, you can use Code Connection with Minecraft Windows 10 edition.
    •  
      I believe you need a confirmed active school email address to access MC EDU. My school has Office 365 subscriptions that enable MC EDU use. I'd stick to MC Windows 10 edition.
       
       
    •  
      thanks you
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  • Minecraft for Education for non-school organization (after school program in schools)

    Jannik Wittgen Hi Jannik, just updating your question that we're working on it! We would love to hear more about your needs to make this work!

    we're a organisation that teaches STEM both during and after school. We would love to utilise Minecraft for Education in our classes.

    As far as I understand it a 365 education account is required for access? What are the requirements for getting this account, I can't find anything online.

    Or is there any other way to get access to the educational lessons and content?

    Thanks!


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  • Minecraft EDU Team

    Private tutor interested in getting education editi

     
    Zachary Rex Rodriguez
    • 2 months ago
     

    Hi. I am a programming teacher. I teach private lessons after school and on weekends in Scratch to elementary school students. Formerly I worked for a company, but since this summer I have begun teaching on my own.

    I am interested in purchasing a license or Minecraft Education Edition for my students. Several parents have asked for it specifically, and after checking it out, it looks like an excellent program. However, since I am no longer affiliated with a school or company, I do not know if I am eligible for a license. Does anyone know if there is a way for a private tutor to get an Education Edition license? I do not seem to be able to find any information regarding this situation.

    Any information would be highly appreciated! Thank you very much!

     

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  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    At least here in the USA...

    The Trick is contacting Microsoft about getting a 365 account for education.  They don't "normally" do this for homeschool but if you contact them with your information and are willing to pay for the licenses and get it all set up (it will be an ongoing monthly fee) Then you can get access to not only Minecraft education edition but also 365 as well.

    A few things to keep in mind, education edition works a bit different in some ways from the other Minecraft editions.  It seems that many of the benefits of the edition are meant for using in a computer lab.  Everyone joining the world has to be on the same "school" domain for their e-mail accounts (so it isn't like you can have all your friends join your M:EE world unless you are all in the same "school" group and have 365 accounts that say so.)

    As a teacher with a set group of students it might make sense to get set up with your own 365 education account but keep in mind that they will charge by the "faculty" member and each faculty member can only have so many student licenses but I expect you can probably recycle those licenses once a student moves on and leaves your classes I guess.

    There (at least at the moment) is no dedicated server software for running an education edition Minecraft server so it isn't like you can just set one up to have students join the world and work on their projects whenever they want unless you can dedicate a computer to it and leave it logged in all the time.

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  • Minecraft: Education Edition Available for Personal Use

     

    Is Minecraft: Education Edition available to users that are not associated with an educational institution?  If it isn't available, are there plans for it to be available, even for a small fee, within the next year?

     

    Suzanne Capasso thanks for your question - we have added your thoughts to our existing wishlist item. Like Bryan Sanders (archived) mentioned, we are indeed working on this - we would love if you could read thoughts above. Wondering - what specific features/cost would you need to make this work? Who would you accounts be used for? Thanks for helping us plan!

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  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    In response to above about M:EE for Personal Use.  I know there are plenty of Homeschoolers and Homeschool groups that would like to use M:EE and are willing to pay for it like any other software, I suppose for most of that it would really need to allow for multi player logging in from different tenants.  Or I expect that many of them would be happy if more of the Education Edition features were available in Regular bedrock (like camera, portfolio, exportable book and quill.  As well as the chemistry package and the agent/MakeCode functions.) 

    I've discovered with our small homeschool group that the Younger students are all excited for it but their older siblings are not really interested.

    I've been trying to get access to Education Edition as a Homeschooler for the past year or so and I finally got through to Microsoft and managed to get a Microsoft 365 educational account set up.  So if you are part of a homeschool group and willing to spend a little money on the software, contact Microsoft about the educational subscriptions, They make it seem a lot harder than it really is.  Drawback is you can only do M:EE multiplayer games with other people that you set up student accounts for and it doesn't have server software at this point so it really isn't just for PLAYING.  It is really meant as an educational Tool

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  • Ash Thwaites

    I am not a teacher but take an active role in my children’s education. I spend hours per week with my oldest assisting with after school learning. This would be pivotal in assisting with engagement and gives me further tools to expose him to some areas I have no introduced (ie: coding) if this is being considered I would urge you to make Minecraft: EE available to anyone. I’d happily pay the cost to access it, alternatively you could sell each subject or module individually so parents/homeschoolers could purchase the program à la carte. Thanks.

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  • Dustin Washington

    I am a parent of homeschooled children who enjoy playing MC. I would like to use MCEE to teach them and it is unfortunate that I have to jump through hoops (opening a free trial 360 Education account) and assign several teacher accounts to each child to allow them to play. Perhaps MS could find a way to set up a Homeschool .edu account for those of us n a non-traditional school setting...

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  • Homeschool access

    Beth Davis-Pratt we are adding your conversation here for the latest news!
    Beth Davis-Pratt
     
    Please allow access to education edition for homeschoolers. My kids, especially my son, loved playing education edition through his school account but we’ve decided to homeschool and Minecraft Education Edition is the thing he still talks about missing.
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  • Dustin Washington we are working on this right now - we'd love your thoughts. What else would you need/price point to make this easy for you?

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  • Amanda Bannon

    I am a homeschool mom to 4. The kids love to play Minecraft (I feel like we have it on almost every platform now...). It would be great to use it as an educational tool and have guidance (lesson plans, etc) while doing it. I feel my children would be very receptive to it.

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  • Melissa Irish

    Homeschool mom of 2. We are currently using the regular edition Minecraft in several of our studies (I teach two 4th graders). I understand what above posters mean about some features being unnecessary/awkward for fewer kids, since EE was built with entire classes in mind. However, it isn't really those features of the Education Edition that interest me (and all the other homeschool parents I've talked to). It's the worlds, activities and LESSON PLAN IDEAS that are the coveted bits. Perhaps consider releasing a homeschool version that would allow us access to the parts that would be most beneficial? Or is that basically what the Java version is?

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  • Juliana Materon

    I would love to pay for a homeschool version of Minecraft. Please, consider it

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  • Aleece Landis
    Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    Melissa Irish,

    I believe most of the Lesson Plan Ideas are already available through this web site. 

    I think I've also heard that there is a way to do the code connection coding with Minecraft Bedrock.

    Minecraft Education Edition is based on Minecraft Bedrock.  There are some of the Education Edition things actually available in regular Minecraft Bedrock.  Some of the Key Tools of Minecraft Education Edition are really tools for the teachers or "map creators" for developing lesson worlds and activities.  I have a feeling most homeschool parents may not want/have time to do much map developing of their own, however, there are a bunch of great lesson maps available.  The Chemistry stuff is of great interest to me once my son is a bit older, maybe we can study chemistry together as my high school chemistry class didn't manage to teach me much of anything, I'm hoping a different method might help be "get it" this time around.

    That said, a big part of Minecraft for Education is that they are very security minded about mulitplayer games and access where students are involved.  That means you can't host a muliplayer  game for just anyone, Only students in the same "school" can access it.    I don't know if they might be able to create a different method other than through Microsoft 365 for education for Homeschoolers?  But the way it is now, the "school" or whatever "Group" has to purchase the Microsoft 365 for education subscription for however many faculty and students.  Who ever is the Administrator of that account has to be the school's IT person and set up accounts for the faculty and students.  Only students to have the microsoft 365 for education account on the same tennent can play in the same worlds.  So far there is Education Edition Server software.  The Teacher has to be pretty hands on with the class, even if virtually.

    ALSO, and this is big to keep in mind.  Minecraft Education Edition lags behind the commercial versions of the software.  So while everyone playing regular Bedrock and Java Minecraft are playing with the new Nether Update and looking forward to Caves and Cliffs.  Minecraft Education Edition is still back in the Village and Pillage version I think.

    The Main things my 5-9 year old Homeschool students are into on Education edition right now are using the Camera, portfolio, and book and quill to create books, Using NPC to set up challenge maps, and of course writing code to build or do things in the game.

    I like the classroom Mode for being able to teleport the players and keep an eye on things.

    I do not like that for a survival challenge sort of world, my "Host" account (extra student account) has to be Hosting and in the world (since there is no server software.)  However, since sleeping through the night doesn't seem to work in a multiplayer Education Edition world, survival challenge worlds are a bit problematic anyway.

    So, these are just some of the Pros and Cons I see.  I know last spring there was a whole bunch of the Education Edition type maps that were made available on the Bedrock Marketplace and those worlds can be played by your children and their friends without needing education edition.

    So weigh the pros and cons.  Education Edition isn't really like a Online Education web site where you can just plug your student into a pre-created track of learning.  It is a great resource for teachers to use but it most definitely doesn't replace the teacher.  Perhaps think of Education Edition like a virtual classroom with a suite of tools.  It is not the content or the teacher.  The teacher has to use the resources available to set up the classroom and provide/deliver the content.

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  • Chris Denesha

    Hello,

    I don’t have a windows computer so cannot try the Code Connection, we have iPads. I want to have my daughter learn Python In Minecraft but cannot with Bedrock. Also the NPCs, book and quill, export to PDF, etc. are all learning tools that will never be added to the consumer Bedrock. We need a way to homeschool with Minecraft and engage our children, and not just for students who don’t attend a public school. Having it tied to a single O365 tenant also keeps us from playing with other family’s children. 

    thanks,

    chris

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  • Beard Rob

    Hi there,

    I'm an IT technician at a school and before the pandemic and national lockdown in the UK I was running a Minecraft club using Minecraft Education Edition for interested kids in the school, it was very popular and a great way for some of the more shy and introverted kids to make new friends and feel like a part of something.  We chose Minecraft Education Edition due to the ease of administration, I wasn't sure if the standard Minecraft game (Java or Windows versions) licence agreement would allow multiple students to share the accounts, the idea being we'd purchase 10 licences for Minecraft for the £16 each, give them generic school user accounts and let the kids use them, but be able to re-use the licences when a student left or if they decided they didn't want to continue with the club.  We'd prefer not to ask the parents to pay for the licences as some of them, especially in the current pandemic are struggling financially, and as a school we can afford a few licences at £6 each, but when it goes up to £16 per student for the normal Minecraft it starts to eat into the IT budget and gets refused.

    So in the end we opted for Minecraft Education Edition, purchased a few year subscriptions and allocated them to students on a first come first serve basis.

    However, since then I've been asked by a friend who wants to run a local youth group about setting up a Minecraft club for them.  They're a non-profit organisation and I believe they are eligible for the educational licensing but it seems a little complicated to setup.  Again, I wasn't sure if they could just buy a few of the normal Minecraft licences and allow the kids to use them.  Having some control over the licences from a centralised location (being able to revoke access to them for instance if someone leaves the group) would be handy too.

    I'd also like to echo what Chris said about above being tied to a single Office 365 tenant.  In our school trust we have 9 schools.  I've talked to the other technicians about setting up a club for each school and having the ability for the kids to play together between schools.  It was suggested by one technician that we use the normal Minecraft game but again, I'm not sure about the licencing issues, and there's the problem of setting up a server, it's not something some of us have time for, being able to host a game in Minecraft Education Edition was just simple, the kids or a teacher could do it themselves.

    Rob

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  • Laurel MacIsaac

    Hello

    I have an Office 365 account through my schooling at University. I am homeschooling my two children and would like to have access to the M:EE to use as a part of their curriculum. Further, we are an Indigenous family and are very keen to play in the world just released with the Anishinaabe Tribe in Manitoba. As a part of Truth and Reconciliation this is a great way to teach and inform others. I was able to download the trail, however my university is not going to purchase a license once the trial is up. Can you please inform me how as a homeschooling family we can continue to pay to have access to this at home. Thank you. 

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  • Will Dobbins

    Hello, I downloaded this because it was recommended to us from code.org.  Another pretty awesome little platform.  My kid is so in love with all versions of MC game, that when he heard about this he begged me to hurry up and get it.  I work full time so it did take me a few days to download it and get everything slowed down enough to play with it a little.  He LOVES it.  He is going to bed absolutely vibrating with energy at the thought of finally learning some coding and it has Minecraft in it so WINWIN!  I had to jump through hoops just to discover what was up with not being able to pay for this.  It is very sad.  I would pay way more than 5 bucks a year...I already pay for Codewars, and MBlock about 15 a month.  So, adding this to the table would be invaluable.  In fact, from what I see, the others might be dropped.  That is if I can get full access.  I could jump through the hoops of setting up a domain, and maybe MS would allow me to have Education 365, but that seems like a lot of work for access to something that should be available to everyone...pending payment.  I know there are several add ins that are favorable of Teachers and not necessarily the parent of one or two kids...but I will work around them. 

    We dearly want this, and anything you can do to make that happen without our bending over backwards to buy something from MS would be great.  For the record there are other forums, reddit for instance and homeschool groups on facebook that are all talking about how this is terrible that they cannot get it.  So it is not just a few people in this forum...but potentially hundreds.  AND if you advertised to homeschool sites and groups via social media I am certain that you would easily have more people interested in this stellar platform.

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  • Chris Monk

    I'm a Digital Youth Project Lead Worker at a youth club in Carmarthen Wales. We have a few project ideas that we would like to use Minecraft. We are looking at a collaborative project with a local museum and want to build a Minecraft version of the museum and showcase the young people's favourite/most interesting pieces. We are hoping this would then be available for visitors to explore this version both online and in the museum. I noticed somewhere that museums are able to get Microsoft Education Accounts but how would this work with the youth centre being able to create something and then allow visitors to access it. Education edition would be great to teach the young people python too.

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  • Tamasin Ford

    I own and operate a kids Coding and Minecraft enrichment program (https://powerupta.com). We teach 12 different Minecraft classes and camps, but are unable to use Education Edition. Since different content is available on this platform, we would be able to teach new programs and reach more kids if it were available to us.

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  • Tom Oathoudt

    Having the education edition available to private tutoring programs would be amazing. Providing private tutor programs with the same education material as "qualified" education institutions is needed. 

    Hopefully Microsoft can get over the the idea that this is not about a discount in the education store, it is about standardized education to as many kids as possible.

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  • Tom Oathoudt

    Minecraft EDU Official

    we are working on this right now - we'd love your thoughts. What else would you need/price point to make this easy for you?

    How is this coming along over the past few months? Any new information?

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  • Penny Support
    Bug Zapper Super Star Beacon of Knowledge Support

    I am excited to announce that we just released the Camps and Clubs Update !  This release allows camps, after-school programs, homeschools, nonprofits and other organizations to purchase licenses and trial Minecraft: Education Edition.

     

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  • Tom Oathoudt

    Penny I have been trying to purchase licenses to use the Beta of this feature for a while. I keep getting bounced between MS, XBox and Mojang support and no one seems to really knows what is going on. The MS store verification was giving me hassles with our MS domain being federated by a third party vendor. Migrating that to MS federation is complicated, so it seems we may need to create a new domain just for MC Edu, maybe? So we have to manage multiple microsoft domain names...that is not easy for users at all managing multiple logins. Even when looking at using a new domain, no one knows the details of how the license process actually works. The documentation has no real useful information most of the time.

    I deal with IT things, software licensing and such all the time. Why is it so complicated and mysterious to start educating kids with MC?

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  • Justin Support
    Bug Zapper Support Beacon of Knowledge

    Tom Oathoudt I created a ticket for you so we can gather more info and dive into this deeper. 

    I'll see you over there!

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  • Bug Zapper Beacon of Knowledge Super Star

    How does this Camps and Clubs update affect "schools" who already have a license?

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