Minecraft is a well-known, family-friendly game that's available for Mac and PC. It's essentially this generation's LEGO.
Players of all ages can create, destroy, mine, and craft anything they wish in the game using 3D cubes they find while playing.
Some really impressive things have been built in this game. Take a look.
Recently released, Minecraft has over 4 million active players and now has partnered with MinecraftEdu to get kids involved through schools and teaching programs. Kids love Minecraft and it's a great way to let them express themselves creatively.
If you're a teacher and you've heard rumblings of Minecraft and are looking to learn more, I suggest you take a look at MinecraftEdu.
I often browse the web on the Wii in between watching shows on Netflix. The experience isn't as bad as you'd think if you stick strictly to news sites. While I was reading Wii news this evening, I came across an article in "The Octagon" (which I thought was just a shape, but boy was I wrong) that covered the story of a high school in Sacremento, California that is giving support to students who play Minecraft at the school and are even going so far as to integrate it into some of the school's assignments.
Maybe it's because Silicon Valley is in California that the faculty was even willing to entertain the idea and actually do research into the game. I'm not sure why. But, I do know that many schools/parents/teachers have a sort of knee-jerk reaction when it comes to scary things on computers / the Internet and videogames.
It's great to see such forward-thinking people in education and I'd like to see it spread to other areas as well. Kudos!