DepEd to launch 'Minecraft: Education Edition' on March 16, 2022

The Department of Education (DepEd), in partnership with tech giant Microsoft, has announced that it will launch the Minecraft: Education Edition (M:EE) Mobile Pilot for both public and private school teachers and students on March 16, 2022.

According to DepEd, this launch aims to encourage all the learners and teachers of DepEd to use M:EE for game-based learning and create better classroom experiences. Moreover, the event seeks to formally announce the nationwide availability of the new M:EE for Android.

Minecraft: Education Edition will amplify the access of DepEd teachers and learners to the application, provide basic training on gameplay, and provide resources and materials that will help participants get started in using the game-based learning platform.

The event, scheduled on March 16, 2022, from 11 AM to 12 NN, will be delivered through Microsoft Teams Live Event (aka.ms/MinecraftMobilePH). No registration is required.

Take note that the live event can only accommodate the first 100,000 viewers. See the program flow below:

Minecraft: Education is part of Project Be Techie in School (B.T.S.), a DepEd and Microsoft Philippines collaboration program. Other programs included in Project B.T.S. are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Whiteboard, Microsoft Excel, and Mobile Versions of M365 apps.

The Project B.T.S is a component of the Administration Strand's Public Schools of the Future (PSOF) Framework, which is led by Undersecretary Alain Pascua and Assistant Secretary Salvador Malana III, under the leadership of Secretary Leonor Briones.

For those unaware, Minecraft is a three-dimensional (3D) sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios in which players interact with a completely customizable 3D environment composed of blocks and entities. Its varied gameplay enables users to customize their play, allowing for infinite possibilities. In the 2021 Year in Review for Gaming of the microblogging platform Twitter, Minecraft ranked eight in Most Tweeted About Games (Global). Meanwhile, it placed fifth in Most Tweeted About Games in the Philippines.