Cheapest way for pupils to have Minecraft?

[klop]

Hi all,

 

We would like to have a small Minecraft club - a max of 6 at a time.

 

I thought the free version was to stay free, but now see it's not.

 

We're a very small SEN school with a very limited budget, I'm just wondering what would be the best way to look into setting Minecraft up.

 

I've never played it - I'm not a gamer.

 

I've seen mentions of inhouse servers, is this the best route?

 

Does anyone know the potential cost of the Education version?

 

Thanks :-)

[moheed30]

Hey Klop,

 

In my opinion you should just wait for the Minecraft Education edition to be release, due this year. Minecraft: Education Edition - Home

 

Mo

[mavhc]

Microsoft screwed this up, they stopped selling MinecraftEDU, which is a classroom licence, classic java version, and only sell per pupil per year licenced Minecraft Education Edition, that only works on Windows 10, via the MS Store, still free for now as it's beta. However you don't get the classic mods with that.

 

You'll need microsoft accounts for everyone, get syncing your AD to MS, and oh look, now you'll be ready to pay per house for Azure AD servers!

[klop]

Cheers, that doesn't look good for us then.

We have O365 for staff, but it's not setup for the pupils - it's not something our school would really need to do - and I think there would be too many complications for its use!

Maybe the was once free version doesn't suit us - shame perhaps?

 

I've had a look at the Minecraft Education site but it doesn't give a lot of info. Timeframe, costs etc. But if it is reliant on O365 it may be ruled out anyway.

Also we're not running Win 10 yet, though I'd be happy to install it onto these 6 desktops.

I was looking at Windows 2 Go but the cost of the certified drives is really expensive and it's far to slow on the USB 3.0 drive I've tried.

 

My brief understanding (which I'm sure is wrong!) is that you pay for a licence for the game?

So if a pupil already has a copy of the game at home, on whatever platform can we download the game and can they play that way - for free? I think I know the answer to that!

If a pupil doesn't have a licence can we purchase some for the school - just for them?

That way would we need a server, or can they just play?

 

Looking on the website it looks to be around £17 to purchase. Is that for a single user? Could we purchase User1 through to User6 say, and use it like that?

 

I really have no idea!! :-D

[mavhc]

Microsoft Account doesn't mean they have email or anything, if you're already syncing it's not too much work.

 

If you just want to play the normal game, basically everyone has their own licence, the servers are free, just a bit tricky to set up. MinecraftEdu wrote a GUI to help.

[quietriot1983]

Microsoft screwed this up, they stopped selling MinecraftEDU, which is a classroom licence, classic java version, and only sell per pupil per year licenced Minecraft Education Edition, that only works on Windows 10, via the MS Store, still free for now as it's beta. However you don't get the classic mods with that.

 

You'll need microsoft accounts for everyone, get syncing your AD to MS, and oh look, now you'll be ready to pay per house for Azure AD servers!

 

Fully agree. MinecraftEDU was (is) great and works a treat for a LAN game of Minecraft, either vanilla or you can lock down what the kids can and can't do.

 

To the OP, if it being locked down isn't an issue, and you have iPads, you could go for Minecraft PE?

[klop]

We've no iPads, and no cash to buy any.

 

I wasn't planning on locking it at all, I assume it's relatively safe to use?

 

Am just happy for half a dozen kids to use it from time to time.

[mavhc]

The java version isn't that well written, so can't easily lock it down, but not too much of an issue for most schools

 

The server just runs on another PC, or the same PC as one of the clients, if they're powerful enough

[mikeprice]

We use Raspberry Pi's - the Pi zero costs very little and can be used for other stuff - including making motors work via SCratch

 

Start Minecraft on one Pi - then any others on the LAN can connect to it and use its world

[Arthur]

I've had a look at the Minecraft Education site but it doesn't give a lot of info. Timeframe, costs etc.

 

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/09/22/minecraft-education-edition-will-launch-november-1

 

The complete version of Minecraft: Education Edition will be available for purchase on 1 November for $5 per user, per year, or through a district-wide licensing model.

[mavhc]

Handily, for poor Microsoft, that's supposed to be per user, not per concurrent user. Can probably just create generic minecraft o365 accounts to fix that though.

 

I will call it the Minecraft: Get Schools to BuyWindows 10 Edition