As the name implies, Minecraft: Education Edition is a version of Minecraft aimed at helping educate students. For example teachers could use it to create worlds or areas and teach kids about geography, or history, or science, and so on. However it seems that it can now also be used to help teach kids to code.
In an update to the game, Microsoft has recently announced that they will be adding a new code builder tool to the game. What this means is that students can try their hand at coding and pick up some of the fundamentals and concepts through the game. They’ll be able to use learn-to-code tools such as MakeCode, Scratch, and Tynker to interact with the game.
There will also be a built-in assistant that will do what the students tell it to do. For example during the demo, using string commands in Tynker, users will be able to get the robot to dig a pit to find water, but it won’t be limited to just that as what the coding assistant can do will also depend on your skill level.
This means that as students improve over time, they’ll be able to pull off more complex tasks, which we can imagine will be more rewarding when executed through a game like Minecraft as opposed to staring at a compilation screen and praying for it to work.
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