Metaverse For Education

Metaverse For Education

The invention of Covid-19 confined the world into the four walls of their homes. Within a year, we saw a complete digital transformation in the education sector from conducting exams online to live interactive classes. A unique style of learning and teaching was adapted across the world which no one could have fathomed earlier. It helped us realise that change is the only constant and is necessary to embrace these changes to keep moving forward. Metaverse has been the talk of the town since the recent rebranding of the tech giant, formerly known as Facebook. While Elaborating on the reason behind this change the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg reaffirmed that Facebook’s rebranding and its metaverse-focused mission statement sealed the deal towards their focus on developing the same. A significant application of such a technology can be made in the education sector to aid in a better learning experience.   A metaverse classroom will help connect teachers and students from across the world in a simulation. It will enable insightful discussions, debates, and interactive yet fun learning sessions. The unique advantage of a metaverse classroom would be the unmatched audio-visual learning experience. Along with this, metaverse will have a 3D classroom environment with compelling graphics to keep the students engaged. This will aid in a hands-on learning experience that will stay etched in the learner’s brain. Students can engage more extensively with the topic and learn with the teacher using the study aids available. It takes away the boredom of sitting in a sterile conventional classroom while learning practical subjects from textbooks. The simulations can aid in better teaching tools, so practical subjects like physics can be taught more hands-on, stimulating the imagination power of students. The historical events can be played in front of their eyes rather than narrated out of a paper textbook, to intrigue the learners. This ensures a world-class learning experience at figure tips by logging in from any part of the world. Undoubtedly, the Metaverse classroom offers world-class features and immersive learning. There is nothing that can inhibit a curious mind. To explore a world full of possibilities in the domain of their choice. The innovation of metaverse isn’t confined to just unique graphics. It is specifically designed to replicate real-world scenarios and make students feel as if they are sitting in their classrooms. Depending on the subject and topic, educators will be equipped to modify the classroom in a way that is conducive to growth and learning. The VR headsets and gears are designed to give real-life classroom feels by replicating the body and hand movement of students in the metaverse. This will make students feel like they are playing their favourite games instead of feeling the boredom of consuming textbook knowledge. This will also promote healthy classroom culture as bullying, ragging, and abuse cannot take place. Along with this, metaverse will help make education more pocket friendly. With ever-increasing tuition across the world, metaverse will be a cost-effective learning platform. They can learn extensively without the burden of heavy education loans for parents and students. Various smartboard tools such as polling to understand student feedback, and time annotations. Can be used on the platform to make the classroom more interactive. In addition to in-classroom benefits, it saves travelling time for students living far off. In the case of natural calamities like floods or thunders, there will be no disruption of classes.   While the metaverse makes up for most of the shortcomings of the conventional school. It presents some drawbacks that need to be addressed. Children with disabilities such as the ones with hearing and vision problems would need special accommodations. Which they might not be able to receive. The excessive use of virtual screens like computers is accompanied by adverse effects on health. Attending a physical classroom ensures sufficient physical movement for a child to remain healthy. Along with this, it can strain their eyes from staring at the screen for long hours without enough breaks in between. Switching education as well as entertainment online will lead to less presence in real life and may even lead to addiction.   Hence, we can conclude that instilling metaverse classrooms will stimulate learning. They also need to be balanced out with physical interaction to ensure, students aren’t addicted. The metaverse will be playing a crucial role in defining the next decade of education services. To ensure VR sets and stable internet to educational institutes for its effective use. We still have a long way to go for establishing a complete metaverse universe. However, the small step compound extraordinary results, which is the aim.