At its education event earlier in May, Microsoft unveiled its latest effort to help kids learn how to code: Code Builder for Minecraft Education Edition. Initially available in Beta, Microsoft is now launching Code Builder for everyone with the latest update to Minecraft Education Edition.
Code Builder essentially makes it easy for teachers and students to dive into coding within the world of Minecraft with visual code blocks that can be dragged and dropped in place with immediate results. From Microsoft:
Code Builder for Minecraft: Education Edition is a brand-new extension that allows educators and students to explore, create, and play in an immersive Minecraft world – all by writing code. Connecting to learn-to-code packages like ScratchX, Tynker, and a new open source platform called Microsoft MakeCode, players start with familiar tools, templates and tutorials. And, Code.org will bring Code Studio to Code Builder later this year to support even more learning opportunities.
A couple of other tweaks in this Minecraft Education Edition update apply to Classroom Mode and Command Blocks. Teachers can now control the weather, destructive items, mobs, and more via classroom mode. Meanwhile, Command Blocks will let players bring Minecraft commands to in-game blocks to perform specialized tasks.