After a summer of test runs, the full version of Minecraft: Education Edition will officially launch on November 1st. The service will require a $5 annual membership per user, or a districtwide license. However, the Early Access edition will still be available for free until November.
Plussoc
According to the MinecraftEdu team, over 35,000 teachers and students have played in the Minecraft sandbox since the game was first launched at the beginning of the summer. With the official release, the team has added a number of new features geared towards education, including the "Classroom Mode" that offers an overview of the Minecraft world via an app companion to the game. In the app, teachers can manage world settings and chat with their students in game and distribute items to students or help their kids navigate the map with an interface that is a single one. The educational edition will be updated as the main Minecraft world evolves. Teachers are encouraged to provide feedback and feature suggestions.
Finally, for any teachers who haven't stepped into Minecraft's blocky world yet, education.minecraft.net offers some starter worlds, tutorials, free lesson plans in subjects ranging from storytelling to city planning, and a mentoring program to connect them with other educators. Minecraft: Education Edition requires OS X El Capitan, Windows 10, and a free Office 365 account.