‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ launched, MinecraftEdu dedicated to learning; BASIC runs on Minecraft with new mod

Hot on the heels of new and major updates from developer Mojang, “Minecraft” players are getting another bit of good news. There is now a more education-inclined edition of “Minecraft,” dubbed as the “Minecraft: Education Edition.”

Mojang announced over its official blog of the acquisition of the version of “Minecraft” that is built specifically for the classroom setting. Currently, the company is offering it as a free trial for the entire summer. As a bonus for those who already have “MinecraftEdu” will have a free year’s worth of “Minecraft: Education Edition.”

“Over the past few years, educators around the world have been using Minecraft to explore subjects that might not spring to mind when you think of our block-based game,” said Mojang via the official blog. “Microsoft has acquired MinecraftEdu and is building upon its proven success to create a new version of Minecraft that’s dedicated to learning.”

So far, the point of “Minecraft: Education Edition” is to follow in the collaborative efforts that “Minecraft” has pushed so far with the community. According to Mojang, the title will be opened to educators, where they can post their lesson plans and provide a venue for users to discuss feedback and ideas for the edition.

In line with the educational thrust that “Minecraft” is now going with, there is a new mod that has also done a breakthrough using the building title. Kotaku found a new mod that has enabled a BASIC interpreter into “Minecraft.”

According to the source, the creator SethBling was able to execute this by using a couple of handwritten command blocks. As seen in the YouTube video below, players can type the program, in what appears to be a whiteboard of blocks. After completing a script, players just need to hit “Run Script” for it to execute the command.

While this is not the most logistically useful mod for BASIC, it does show the extent to which “Minecraft” can be used. Several fan projects have proven the flexibility of the building game, which has made it one of the top titles despite being released back in 2009.