An initial group within Information Services met to look at the logistics of using Minecraft Education Edition at the university. Initial findings were disappointing:
- Minecraft EDU Edition requires Windows 10 or OSX (El Capitan), neither of which are currently available on university computers
- Staff and students are on different O365 addresses (@brighton.ac.uk and @uni.brighton.ac.uk) and Education Edition does not allow shared games to cross these domains
- The Education Edition does not support servers, plugins or ownership controls meaning all users are equal a teacher cannot control the environment in any way (all work could be destroyed)
That said, the email asking interested parties to get in touch had a great response and some interesting case studies of existing practice emerged such as the Biosphere project in conjunction with BlockBuilders (Arts and Humanities). These staff and researchers will be followed up with over the coming weeks.
The team are also looking at possibilities of using a Minecraft PE server along with the app versions of Minecraft as a possible route to allow students and staff to collaborate on projects.
Follow this blog for updates.
It looks like Minecraft Education Edition has had a few updates – there’s no mention of El Capitan now and there seems to be additional downloads at https://education.minecraft.net/get-started/download which may be more suitable for different types of projects. I’m not sure if that addresses the first and third issue?
I’ve noticed I have been able to sign up to a student Sharepoint site with my staff address. When I send an email to nameofgroup@unibrightonac.onmicrosoft.com I receive it in both my staff and student email address. Would that resolve the second issue?