'Minecraft Education Edition' arrives in schools in May announce MicrosoftApr 15(AZINS) After announcing its investment earlier this year in Minecraft Education Edition -- an educational version of the popular computer game Minecraft, Microsoft has now announced that the new format will become available in schools in May reports TechCrunch.

The new version of "Minecraft Education Edition," which has been developed with extra features to help support teachers in the classroom and encourage further engagement from students, will become available in beta format in over 100 schools from 30 countries across the world.

The launch next month will give educators the chance to test the software and provide feedback to Microsoft so improvements can be made before the program is rolled out further. June will see the program rolled out in 11 languages and 41 different countries, and will allow teachers to download the program for free, again in exchange for feedback. More than 7000 classrooms in 40 countries around the world are already using Minecraft to help children educate children on social skills, problem solving skills, empathy, and even to help improve their literacy.

To find out more about the project you can head to Microsoft's Minecraft Education Edition website, and view Microsoft's video.