The education potential of the game Minecraft is immediately apparent when you first start dividing wood and constructing a crafting table in the game. MinecraftEDU.com has a mission to help educators bring the game into the classroom and to engage learners in what the game has to offer:

The game is being used to teach more than just computer skills. It easily lends itself to science, technology, engineering and math explorations (STEM). But beyond that, language teachers are strengthening communication skills, civics teachers are exploring how societies function, and history teachers are having their students recreate ancient civilizations. It is not an exaggeration to say that the only limit is imagination!

They are creating a custom mod with features specifically designed for the education community and are making the game available at a discounted rate for schools. LINK: MinecraftEDU.com