This blog post is aimed at therapists and other health and social care practitioners who might be using Minecraft Education in a therapeutic context.
Minecraft Education released a new update this week called the ‘Cloud Update’.
There are some exciting new features in the update to discover and there's also a feature, Cloud Storage, that we need to give some thought to as practitioners with regard to our clients' privacy and data.
With the new 'Cloud Update', if OneDrive is connected to a Minecraft Education user account, the worlds will automatically be uploaded to OneDrive on world close and downloaded on world open.
Cloud Storage has been a long-awaited feature of Minecraft Education as it means worlds can be backed up and transferred between devices easily. However, from a therapist’s perspective, you need to make sure that, if using OneDrive, your client/your client’s parents or guardians have given informed consent* for you to store their Minecraft Education worlds on OneDrive.
In addition, if you use the Cloud Storage feature, keep in mind that, as per Minecraft’s Terms of Use, it is important that each of your clients has a separate user account (i.e. a separate login) otherwise they will be able to access other client’s worlds even if they are on a different device**.
The good news is it is simple to disable the Cloud Storage feature:
From the homepage, got to ‘Settings’, then ‘Cloud Storage’ and toggle off ‘Enable World Backups to OneDrive’. You can tell a feature is toggled off when you see an ‘o’ instead of an ‘I’ (like in the screenshot below).
Alternatively, you can disable or enable cloud storage for each individual world by toggling off 'Enable World Backup to OneDrive under 'Cloud Storage' in the settings for each world.
Please note, the Cloud Storage feature will only work if OneDrive is connected to the user account. You can check if there is OneDrive connected to the account by logging in as that user here: https://onedrive.live.com/login/
Once logged in, select 'Office apps & devices' to confirm if OneDrive is enabled/disabled.
So, if you want to completely avoid worlds being stored to the ‘cloud’ (i.e. OneDrive) then make sure OneDrive is disabled for each of your users using the steps above.
Cloud storage is currently available for Windows, Chromebook, and Android devices. Mac and iOS cloud storage is coming very soon.
You can find out more about the update here: https://edusupport.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/23323615654164-What-s-New-in-the-Cloud-Update-v1-21-03
*For your client and/or their parent/guardian to provide informed consent they need to understand where and how their data is stored and the limitations of this in terms of data protection.
**Please note Minecraft terms state each user needs a separate account. However, Minecraft Education licenses can be switched between different accounts by the administrator. This means that once you have finished working with a client, their Minecraft Education license can be transferred to another user.
Disclaimer:
This blog post is based on the best knowledge that I have to hand at the time of writing. I may not have covered everything you need to know, and there’s a chance I may have got some things wrong. This blog is not a substitute for, nor should be taken as professional legal, technical or medical advice.
About the author
Ellie Finch is a child, parent and family counsellor (MBACP Accred. and ACTO Professional Member) and a social worker (registered with Social Work England).
She provides training and consultation to professionals and organisations on the therapeutic use of videogames and other digital tools.
Do get in touch via the contact page if you have any questions or comments about this blog post.
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