How to make a Slate in Minecraft (Education Edition): Step by Step Guide

Let’s talk shop! Minecraft: Education Edition is a special version of Minecraft that is crafted to suit the needs of students and educators alike. With this edition comes dozens of special features that cannot be accessed in any other version of Minecraft. This Education Edition does not come bundled with Minecraft: Java Edition or Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

In order to play the Education Edition, players must sign-in to the game using a school email. Most colleges, as well as some high schools, offer these free licenses to all students.Once players are signed into the Education Edition, they are free to take on most challenges at their own pace.

This version of Minecraft has lots of tutorials that can help you learn the basics of Minecraft. Several blocks in Minecraft: Education Edition are centered around assisting teachers broadcast messages to students. One of these blocks is the Slate block, a useful signpost for teachers to customize.

Players cannot simply purchase an Education Edition license through the Microsoft Store.

In any world with the Creative inventory enabled, players can make use of Education Edition Blocks. In the World/Game settings, players can change the game mode at any time.

Personal Game Mode is the one that affects the player.

Once in Creative Mode, players can access all the Education Edition blocks from the Creative Inventory. This functions similarly to the Survival Inventory, but with unlimited access! Press the E key to open up the Creative Inventory.

After typing in your search term, select it from the list and place it in your inventory.

Alternatively, players can type “/give @s board” for the same effect.

Much like a Sign, Slates are blocks that are used to write messages through text! After placing the sign on the ground, players can edit the Slate’s message by right-clicking on it. Compared to the Sign, players will notice that this block is lockable - which means that you can prevent others from editing or destroying your messages accidentally. The Slate editing UI is shown below:

Notice the ability to re-edit Slates, unlike Signs in the main version of Minecraft.

Q. But I want to buy the Education Edition! Is there really no way to get it?

There is a way to purchase individual licenses for Education Edition, but it requires an “Microsoft 365 Admin Account” which is different from the regular Microsoft sign-in. The cost for this version is $12 a year, and is only available as a subscription.

With the Slate at your side, your ability to create tutorials, classes or any other education system is greatly enhanced. These signs are important because they are a direct analogue to vanilla Minecraft’s Signs. These are the same dimensions as Signs, as they are a simple block that only takes up 1 block (1x1) of space. Slates should be great for introductions, quick reminders, or other small bits of text.