How can the Metaverse help in education?

The Metaverse is a digital world that participants can use to create their own virtual environments. It's also a space for people around the globe to connect and interact, offering excellent ways to interact with people worldwide. Anyone can wear a VR headset or use a web browser to log into the virtual space and communicate face-to-face. It's like recreating our real world in a virtual form, where users and developers can customize things to suit their core content, creating anything from a metaverse school to a virtual sports arena on a space they own.

In the metaverse, educational opportunities allow students and teachers to connect through VR, regardless of their real-world location. This functionality can be applied to advanced education for those who wish to utilize it. Imagine a classroom filled with students eager to learn history, all living around the world, and their teacher, who can travel and explore unfamiliar places, expanding their own historical knowledge. This allows teachers and students to connect regardless of their physical location, and teachers can share their experiences with students, not only discussing their encounters but also demonstrating them in a realistic 3D environment. While access to the metaverse is beneficial, the atmosphere and sensory experience will differ from the real world.

The advantages of learning through the metaverse: Learning how to use VR in schools offers more benefits than traditional simulations. Children can safely “visit” places from the past or conduct dangerous experiments in a virtual environment. The metaverse environment can be designed to look realistic. Educators have the capability to design stunning and engaging environments for both children and adults, depending on the metaverse they choose. Beyond visual immersion, the metaverse also allows for greater physical interaction among students. VR suits and controllers are designed to feel natural and simulate hand and finger movements while students wear the equipment.

Disadvantages of Metaverse Learning: While virtual classrooms sound fantastic in theory, they also have some drawbacks. For example, children with disabilities, such as hearing and vision problems, require special assistance, which can pose a challenge in terms of accommodating them. Furthermore, spending hours immersed in these devices may cause them to neglect real-world life, making a balance between the real and virtual worlds crucial and potentially difficult to achieve. Ultimately, for access to metaverse education to grow and become widespread, all families will need access to the necessary equipment. Otherwise, this form of education will be limited to a select few, leaving the majority of the population without access.

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The world is rapidly entering the Metaverse, where virtual reality technology will influence a wide range of business sectors, including media, entertainment, work, education, commerce, investment, and even tourism. Let's explore the Metaverse from various perspectives, understanding its importance, possibilities, and the opportunities that come with this virtual world.

Compiled by: Pavinee Upathana

Illustrations by: Pavinee Upathana

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The origin of the term "Metaverse".

The word “Metaverse” is formed by combining the words Meta and Verse, meaning “a created universe” according to the Royal Institute of Thailand [1]. It first appeared in the science fiction novel Snow Crash, written by Neil Stephenson in 1992. In Neil’s book, the Metaverse is a 3D virtual world where people can interact with each other in the form of avatars.

   What is the Metaverse?

Metaverse is a fusion of virtual and digital technologies that creates a real-world environment where technology and the virtual world intertwine, allowing people to interact and participate in activities together. These avatars, in 3D graphic form, represent users in various activities, making it feel more like real life than current social media platforms.

What technologies are involved in the Metaverse?

Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Extended Reality (XR) are key technologies that help integrate the real world with activities in a 360-degree virtual world. The essential device is VR glasses. Through our senses of sight, sound, and touch, we can experience life in a virtual world, such as buying land in a virtual world, playing games, attending concerts, and purchasing goods using digital currency.

Source of information: https://www.nectec.or.th/news/news-article/9about-metaverse.html