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Minecraft Education has been a cornerstone of the franchise and an extensive part of the title's massive popularity. Primarily aimed at teaching children core educational values engagingly, it seamlessly blends STEM education with the fun of gaming. One of the most successful decade-long partnerships has been Hour of Code, with Minecraft interactively promoting this.
With 300 million sessions of Minecraft Hour of Code since its inception, this initiative by Code.org has been instrumental in educating children. Hadi Partovi, CEO and co-founder of Code.org describes its goal, stating:
"This year's Hour of Code is about empowering every student to realize that technology isn't just something they consume; it's something they can create."
On that note, I recently had the opportunity to talk with Laylah Bulman, Executive Producer and Senior Business Program Manager at Minecraft Education regarding the role and impact of the game as well as the partnership with Hour of Code.
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Laylah Bulman on Minecraft Education, Hour of Code, and more
Q: Minecraft has an active base of millions of players, some of whom, including me, have been playing for over a decade. What do you think is the role of the game in shaping education and growth?
Laylah: That's a great question. We've been around for a long time now. It was formed during Microsoft's purchase of Minecraft around 2017. Our purpose was to utilize game-based learning and bring it to the classroom. It includes not only just the game itself but also creating features that would make Minecraft more accessible and effective in a classroom setting.
It focuses on how you can capture the passion of players in a learning setting as well as create features and tools for teachers to open a new world of learning in any subject — be it coding, computer science, computational thinking, and more. Not just that, we also have subjects like history, mathematics, and of course, chemistry.
The vision which started eight years ago has culminated in millions of students learning and playing every day. We currently support 29 languages in over 180 countries. The entire concept grew from the idea that educators already know that purposeful play or playing with intent is where we learn the most.
There's a real passion that students have for gaming and that passion comes from a couple of different places — collaborative effort coming from multiplayer experiences since most often, players want to play in teams. It's a social feature where there are opportunities to innovate and since it's a sandbox game, there are tons of ways to create your narrative and express yourself as you wish.
In a classroom environment, you can rebuild your classroom in the game. With Minecraft Education, you can create the classroom of the future or the world of the future for up to 40 students in a game. You don't need to have a separate server to do it so we make it easy to deploy. You can join each other's world or work in pairs.
Q: I went through the offerings and saw a dedicated section for Chemistry, including features such as elements and compounds. Can you tell me more about it?
Laylah: Oh definitely. The chemistry update is extremely popular and is another step towards access and equity. Many students don't have access to a chemistry lab right now and if you had chemistry in school, lab day was one of the most popular days that everyone looks forward to.
I was a teacher for sixteen years in the classroom. I did science and it was a day that kids loved the most. But it was also a lot of hard work since you had to set up the lab, calibrate the equipment, and manage the lab environment apart from ensuring safety and other things.
But the lab is where the magic happens and that's where kids are going to learn and see the things in theory becoming real. The students are in charge and they are the ones doing the experiments. So, in Minecraft Education, we created this update and added lessons so that they could learn scientific methods and ways to explore elements, compounds, and more.
Q: It has been a decade-long partnership with Code.org creating Hour of Code. How did the entire concept and the vision for coding and education begin?
Laylah: Well, from the very beginning we knew that Minecraft Education was going to be a critical piece in Microsoft's overall commitment to building digital skilling with students. Minecraft was a very powerful tool that attracted students to work and build together. So, bringing coding into the game was really part of the vision from the very beginning.
Our relationship with Code.org is to create and empower students with computer science skills and is a part of the company's mission, starting from the early web-only version to interactive in-game experiences like the latest Hour of Code. If you look at the very early instances of Hour of Code, they were web-based.
But we slowly built the features to integrate that into the game, using popular characters like Steve and Alex to inspire them and introduce them to early coding concepts. It is also part of Microsoft's mission to bring computer science to all students through a partnership with Code.org.
Q: Minecraft Education edition offers many exclusive features that allow young players to enjoy and learn. Can we expect those features to make their way to the main game someday?
Laylah: We work very closely with Vanilla to ensure we have parity with Bedrock, allowing players and students to feel like they are part of the same ecosystem and the skills of their learning in Minecraft Education can be transferred to Vanilla easily.
We want them to be players and makers and part of our extensive creator ecosystem. We bring in the same entities and mobs from Minecraft as well as additional features such as the camera, the portfolio, and the book and quill so that you can collect evidence of learning.
Our friends in Vanilla are looking at what we're doing and we're constantly collaborating so you never know. Could be coming pretty soon.
Q: Hour of Code is one of the biggest collaborations in terms of education and development. In the last ten years, how do you think it has helped shape young minds?
Laylah: So much. Kudos to Code.org for how they've transformed this grassroots movement with individual teachers into a global movement and to be able to introduce students to coding. It's a true privilege to be collaborating with them and I will not shy away from saying that it is one of the most popular games out there.
Moreover, I'm honored to be able to introduce students to these features. We go into classrooms all the time and last week, I was there for Computer Science Education Week. We were playing this year's Hour of Code in the classroom with hundreds of students. The excitement and happiness that students had when they solved the puzzle and were able to make something in-game is truly incomparable.
The joy and satisfaction on the faces of the students is what gets me up in the morning. Millions of times a day, students say "I can do this". They get the realization and say "I see myself in Computer Science" or "I see myself in STEM". I think that's the moment we all live for — students can change the trajectory of their lives because of something that they have done with us.
Q: A lot of our young readers would love to know what Minecraft Education has planned for them in the future. Anything major to look forward to in 2025?
Laylah: Inside Minecraft Education, we have a lot of new experiences planned for 2025. We're gonna be doing more with Esports and AI and introduce new features as well. Like every year, we will also be having the Safer Internet Day in February, where we will teach children safe ways to access the Internet in a fun and engaging way.
One of the biggest things to look forward to will be the evolution of the Lesson Crafter, where educators can craft custom lesson plans for students. We also plan to do more with coding and computer science and to add new experiences that bring the magic of Minecraft into the classroom.
Q: How can new educators sign up for Minecraft Education?
Laylah: They can do it right away. Just head over to aka.ms/download. Go there and download Minecraft Education for free. You can now explore the demos, Hour of Code — including the latest installment, The Show Must Go On. You can make a song or a dance and even try some of the host of experiences available.
You can also reach out to your school administrators to integrate Minecraft Education into your learning. Our team is always happy to help out. We encourage teachers to join our forum and learn from each other — it's a strong community of educators who come together and build together.
Q: Can you tell us about the Ambassador program and the features of esports?
Laylah: We have our ambassador program where you can go represent Minecraft Education in schools and various events. They also provide us with feedback and suggestions for improvement. Educators can head over to the Teacher's Lounge on Facebook and apply to be an Ambassador.
Esports has been a vital part of the educational method. We invite you to try out the host of build challenges and even run your own Esports challenge. You can also reach out for support to run these events by heading over to aka.ms/minecraftesports. We have many such tournament and challenge kits that can be used for these events.
Additionally, our Minecraft Teacher Academy, or the MTA provides an all-access solution where educators can learn on-demand and complete courses to learn about the comprehensive features and ideas that they can implement in Minecraft Education.
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