Minecraft: Education Edition is introducing a whole new generation to The Oregon Trail. The Minecraft team announced today that an updated, blockier version of the classic education title is now available for educators to use in the classroom as part of a partnership with The Oregon Trail creator Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
As students embark on the journey from Independence, Missouri to Oregon, teachers will be able to take advantage of lessons intended to help kids understand everything from geography to math and language arts — all within the context of The Oregon Trail.
This is one of several new partnerships that are bringing new content to Minecraft in the classroom. As the Minecraft team explains, a recent writing competition put together with Roald Dahl Estate produced a winning story known as Fluffletopolis, which is now available as a Minecraft build. Smithsonian is also working to create lessons within Minecraft intended to "stimulate STEM activities."
As far as the future is concerned, the team says Minecraft: Education Edition is due to pick up several new features in the coming months. Some of those include block features that exist in other versions of Minecraft, but Microsoft is also working to allow students to export Minecraft creations in 3D to be viewed and manipulated in Remix 3D and Paint 3D.
