Students can also switch from blocks to Javascript, or code without the Agent at any time. Minecraft Education Edition was announced for schools January 2016.

Now, Code.org is offering a Minecraft coding tutorial to mark its third annual Hour of Code campaign, which will run from December 7 -13, during Computer Science Education Week.

Code.org’s tutorial uses Minecraft scenes and challenges inspired from the game. It prompts the slow building-up of Javascript skills via its interactive interface.

Minecraft: Education Edition can now teach kids how to code with the new Code Builder tool and the 'Agent', an in-game robot. Mojang will add Command Blocks in Education Edition later this year.

While Minecraft’s appeal is helping id Tech grow, the company has always worked with games. It also offers courses that utilize popular titles like Portal 2, Trackmania, and Shootmania.

To help lower the barrier to entry in learning how to code, Microsoft has teamed up with Code.org to offer kid friendly coding tutorials using the medium of the popular block-building game, Minecraft.

Code Builder is a tool that shows up in the game as a robot. Users can interact with the game through the robot via learn-to-code platforms such as Tynker, Scratch and MakeCode.

Microsoft knows that Minecraft can get kids into programming, and it's banking on that strategy again this year. It just teamed up with Code.org to introduce the Minecraft Hour of Code Designer, a ...