Education and Metaverse

The metaverse of the future — combining augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence into an immersive, imagined world — has huge implications for the development of educational technology.

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Statistics have emerged: better technology can increase student engagement and connection with material. The National Training Library found that the retention rate for learning was only 5% for lectures and 10% for reading, but the retention rate for VR training was as high as 75%. This heralds the metaverse as a breakthrough educational technology.

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Before the pandemic, virtual classrooms on platforms like Virbela and Mozilla Hubs were already gaining traction and becoming a necessary place for students and teachers to gather online during the lockdown.

 

The virtual learning environment will allow students to log in from anywhere and enable teachers to tailor their online classrooms to their lesson plans. For example, Roblox now offers Robolox Classrooms, a virtual learning experience in millions of user-generated worlds.

 

AR technology in the Metaverse allows us to create digital overlays on top of real-world objects in the classroom, turning moments into opportunities for students to connect and interact on a deeper level with the material they are learning. For example, Froggipedia is a tool that is already used in the classroom today. The hands-on AR experience allows students to study the frog's internal organs without doing dissection.

 

CERN's (CERN) Big Bang AR app is helping students study the origins of our universe and the secrets of physics in a fun and kid-friendly way.

 

The VR Art Museum on Steam allows students to view world-class art at home or in the classroom without the constraints of travel, crowds, or glass barriers. XR specialist Ximmerse has also created XR technology that allows teachers to turn their classrooms into interactive museum experiences like Jurassic Jungle and underwater seascapes.

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School field trips in the Metaverse are equally breathtaking. The sky will be the limit for students and teachers as they can travel the world (even across time and space) simply by donning a VR headset.

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In theory, any skill we "learn by doing" could be improved through immersive training, so the educational opportunities for virtual reality in a virtual world are enormous.