Metaverse for education – Virtual or real?

Abstract

Metaverse is considered an extension of the Internet that is expected to revolutionize our social and economic lives by offering seamless interactions in the virtual worlds. Some believe that the Metaverse is one of those technologies that are destined to fail while others envisage Metaverse as part and parcel of future life, same as the Internet in today’s world. While the jury is still out on whether the Metaverse would eventually be materialized to its full potential, billions have been invested into to the development of the Metaverse and its related technologies by the technology giants such as Meta, Microsoft, and Apple. The Metaverse promises to bring a step change in every walk of life and Education sector is no exception. A true realization of the Metaverse will make the geographical boundaries disappear making the education accessible to the least privileged communities. At the same time, the virtual worlds with immersive experiences of usually less accessible resources would provide at-scale resource sharing throughout the world. The Metaverse would enable seamless access of Stanford labs, for instance, to someone in Africa to do collaborative experiments in the virtual worlds. This Perspective presents the status of the Metaverse in Education. It describes the future of Education sector with the integration of the Metaverse. In the end it presents the author’s perspective on the practicalities and challenges of the Metaverse in Education. The author believes that despite all the hype created around Metaverse, it will take a pandemic-like disruption for the academic world to truly embrace and integrate the Metaverse in Education sector.