My Take
It does take some time to setup a sever (If you plan on allowing students to access their work from home). If not setup happens in less than 5 minutes. The students will be the teachers! My students were experts in Minecraft long before I began to use it. So they have taught me a over the past few weeks.
How I Use It
Right now I am using it in one small EFL group. The 3rd grade students are reading The Sisters Grimm series, we are on book 5 now. We plan on reading the entire 9 book series by the end of September.
The story takes place in a fictional town called Ferry Port Landing. My students have been recreating the town in Minecraft. We spend about 10-15 minutes of class time planning and building the town. In addition, my students are creating a timeline of the major events of each book. In the end the students will use a screen cast to give a tour of the town as well as the major events of the story.