Yeah, those features are very new. IIRC, they were introduced in the snapshots for 1.8, so they haven't even reached the stable version yet. (Minecraft 1.8 is nearing completion, after ~8 months of development).

Once 1.8 is officially released, someone could create educational adventure maps. I have played some 1.8 maps, and the new features can essentially make Minecraft into a game engine for voxel-based adventure games.

Here's an example from earlier in the 1.8 dev cycle -- there are even more features now. http://www.minecraftmaps.com/adventure-maps/mystery-of-the-t...