MinecraftEdu coming soon!!!

I’m so excited! Just got this back from The Minecraft Teacher (I emailed him about the possibility of virtual classes):

Hello there!  First some apologies…  I apologize that I’m sending you a form letter.  And extra apologies if I have not also sent you a personal note before.  And extra, extra apologies if you’ve been waiting a long time for my response!  Besides all the usual madness at the beginning of the school term, this year I have also been busy setting up a new venture which I’m delighted to share with you.

Over the past several months, I have been collaborating with a small team of educators and programmers in Finland.  We have been given the incredible opportunity to work with Mojang AB (creators of Minecraft).  Our goal is to get Minecraft into as many classrooms as possible, and to give teachers the tools to get the most out of the game!  We’ve started a company called “Teacher Gaming” and our main focus will be on “MinecraftEdu”, the name of our various Minecraft-related offerings.

In the near future we will be officially launching MinecraftEdu.com, but since you contacted me about obtaining the game recently, I wanted to give you an early heads-up!

Here are the basics of what we will be offering:

• Educational discounts on the game – We are able to sell Minecraft at up to 50% off the full price.  (see below!)
• We are working on custom versions of the game designed specifically for teachers and students with many extra features that are useful in a classroom setting.
• We are creating our own serverthat simplifies the task of getting a classroom server up and running and adds the abilities to load and save lesson activities.
• And speaking of lesson activites… we are creating a free library of worlds/levels/activitesthat you can use in your classroom to teach a variety of subjects.
• Onsite workshops and inservice training for you and your colleagues.

In a few weeks, we will have our website up and running to share more details and let you order the game and/or our custom software.  However, if you simply MUST have copies of Minecraft for your school now, I am happy to let you know that we can start selling the game at a discounted rate immediately!  Here are the details:

• For right now, we are technically selling gift codes that can be redeemed at minecraft.net for the full game.
• If you buy 25 licenses, we are allowed to sell them for $315 total.
• Fewer than 25, are $15 each (so $150 for 10, $300 for 20).
• You can install the game on as many computers as you like, so long as each game account is used only once simultaneously.

Please note that these prices might change as we finalize the details.  We can accept purchase orders, bank transfers, checks, or credit cards.  Please let me know if you are interested!

Like Mojang, we want to keep the business small, personal, and not-too-corporate.  We are truly trying to keep this “for teachers, by teachers”.  So we really appreciate your patience while we get the business side of things up and running!

I look forward to hearing from you!

~Joel Levin

a.k.a The Minecraft Teacher