‘Minecraft 1.10’ update and ‘Minecraft Education Edition’ released, features for school edition detailed

Following quick pre-releases and updates, Mojang has now released the “Minecraft 1.10 update,” dubbed as the Frostburn update.

The new update will have some changes for the coldest and hottest areas in “Minecraft, while also bringing in some additions for creative mode. As detailed over the official blog, polar bears will now be introduced in the snow-riddled areas. Players will also have to be wary about encountering stronger zombies while in the deserts.

There will also be a new technical block that will be available only for player-admins in creative mode. This technical block, named Structure Block, is the second following Command Blocks.

“This block allows map makers to store templates of structures and place them dynamically with the help of Redstone trickery,” said Mojang over the blog.

The full list of patch notes has been released. Some more additions include the Husk and Stray, the Magma Block, the Nether Wart Block and Red Nether Bricks, and an auto-jump option. The Frostburn update also introduces underground fossils made from bone blocks, larger mushrooms, abandoned mineshafts filled with gold in the mesa biomes and more variations of villages. There are also a lot of bug fixes that were no longer specified.

Also up on early access is “Minecraft Education Edition.” This is the version that’s designed to give access to educators to try the product for free. “Minecraft Education Edition” has a number of features tailored for a classroom experience. Up to 30 students can play in a world together without needing another separate server for better collaboration.

Since it is supposed to be used for learning, “Minecraft Education Edition” also has a way of collecting evidence of learning and student progression in the game. According to the official site, this is done using the camera and portfolio features, which lets students take screenshots for documentation.

For a more teacher-student experience in-game, “Minecraft Education Edition” also features NPC characters, which can take the form of teacher or guide. The NPC can give instructions or information and even allow teachers to insert an active web link for references.

These are just some of the features, as the developer has vowed to keep working on features that the community deems important. One big feature that the developer is working on is the Classroom Mode interface, which features a map and list view of students, teleport capabilities and communication chat window.

Mojang will release the full version of “Minecraft Education Edition” sometime in September. The cost will be anywhere between US$1 (approx. AU$1.35) and US$5 (approx. AU$7) per user per year. This will be dependent on the size of the school and qualification for volume licensing offers.