Dive Brief:

• Microsoft has launched education.minecraft.net, a new space for educators and players to talk about Minecraft, experiment, and develop lessons intended to help student learning.
• When Microsoft acquired the game's developer, the company's CEO pointed to the game's educational potential as one of the reasons for its acquisition.
• The hugely popular game has already found its way into classrooms across the country and is being used to help teach everything from world religion to geometry.

Dive Insight:

Forbes columnist Jordan Shapiro has lauded the new education-oriented program for building off students' play habits and for tapping into students' desire for connection and creativity.

In a column on the launch, Shapiro said, "They’re establishing their own identities in an atmosphere where digital information networks are taken for granted. Thus, they always want to connect. They like learning through Minecraft because it contextualizes academic skills within THEIR connected world. It shows them that reading, writing, and arithmetic are not for personal gain. Instead, they are shared languages with which to work, cooperate, communicate, and play with others. That's how this generation sees the world."