Education: A deeper look

APPENDIX 8

USE CASES: ENABLING TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

Goldman Sachs has identified Education as one of four major investment opportunities that could surge as a result of the Metaverse and Web 3.0. The field of education is so diverse covering people of all ages, abilities, and educational goals, and the investment opportunities are similarly diverse. Much has already been done in the digital learning space, and learning in the Metaverse is one step further into merging digital and real-world learning: “… Virtual learning environment allows for anyone to log in from anywhere — an advantage shared by current metaverse learning environments. The difference, however, between Roblox and Metaverse environments is that the latter can be much more immersive” (Cointelegraph). Education opportunities are supplemental to in-person teaching and are designed to make learning more immersive and accessible. Educators will have to consider challenges to equitable access for people such as the disabled, as well as those who may not have the financial means to access necessary technology for entering the Metaverse (Cointelegraph).

USE CASES

Here are some current ways education is proposed in the Metaverse, in both formal and informal learning (Cointelegraph)(Varshney)(Rockhealth)(JP Morgan):

  • Virtual field trips: Immersion opportunities to visit new places
  • Virtual labs: Conduct real-world simulations in safe virtual environments, like for physics or healthcare
  • Technical training: for example for surgeons
  • Foreign language learning through immersion
  • Role-playing simulations of historical events
  • Student lead opportunities: organizing study groups
  • Teacher facilitation: conducting faculty meetings, connecting with students, holding office hours, sharing files and resources, networking, and even playing games
  • Virtual classrooms
  • Virtual clubs
  • Gamification and educational games

ENABLING TECHNOLOGY

  • VR in Edtech: As per Future Market Insights’ report on gamification in the education market, by transforming the learning environment in the classroom, the market will reach the valuation of $2Bn by 2031. (Kaitwade)
  • AR in Edtech: Through the use of augmented reality, learners can scan pages of their textbooks to understand the topic better, schools can design interesting magazines that can highlight school activities, and students who are deaf and mute can leverage the use of augmented reality by displaying tech-driven flashcards. (Kaitwade)
  • AI in Edtech: The Metaverse is integrated with artificial intelligence and machine learning. This helps students to ask questions and to gather information at any given time. Furthermore, it understands queries and provides answers for multiple questions at the same time. (Kaitwade)

RISKS AND MITIGANTS

With the plethora of digital learning options already available outside of the Metaverse, criticism has been leveled that educational tools were designed around the technology, rather than vice versa: “When education lags the digital leaps, the technology rather than educators defines what counts as educational opportunity” (Brookings). The development of new technologies should take into consideration the principles of adult and child learning (Brookings). It will be key to avoid distractions as games in VR environments are chock full of interruptions and distractions — more design is often misinterpreted as providing a better educational experience, but that is not necessarily so (Brookings).

Even at two years of age, a virtual agent does not substitute for a real person even if the virtual agent responds in a contingent manner that mirrors the human. Social interaction could be preserved if the virtual environment served as a prompt for interactions between real people in either the real or virtual setting rather than as a substitute for interaction. (Brookings). “Virtual interaction is nowhere near sufficient for emotional development, compared to face-to-face experience” (Got Questions).

Finally, the issue of internet addiction is worth noting:

…Metaverse addiction is a real possibility for children and adults. If a student utilizes their virtual reality headset both for education and entertainment, they’ll be clocking dozens of hours a week in the digital world and might be neglecting their life in the real world. More time in a virtual world requires a balance with the real one — a balance that might not be easily achieved. (Cointelegraph)

Long term, in the frenzy to develop commercial markets and technologies, there is the need to interact with professionals who are aware of the principles of adult and child learning, who are willing to build educational solutions around these principles, rather than building education around technology. Those platforms with the longest staying power will consider the human needs in education, such as socialization and collaboration, rather than simply building fancier technology that is distracting.

OUTLOOK AND MARKET POTENTIAL AND GUIDING QUOTES

  • The edtech market is one of the fastest-growing of its kind. According to Future Market Insights’ recent study, revenues of the edtech market are expected to surpass $288.4Bn by the end of 2031 at a staggering 14.5% CAGR (compound annual growth rate). Top tech companies are investing in the edtech market to gain early mover advantage and promote learning through the metaverse. (Kaitwade)
  • Facebook Reality labs will be investing $150m for educational programs to improvise training and tech development. The company is partnering with Coursera and EdX for leveraging learning by offering the Spark AR curriculum of META that will use virtual reality and augmentation. (Kaitwade)
  • Similarly, Microsoft launched Microsoft Mesh in 2021, and the company is promoting the adoption of Metaverse by offering it to educational institutions and edtech sectors. (Kaitwade)
  • Within five to seven years, every college, university in the world will have at one level or another a Metaversity. (Shaping Tomorrow)
  • Education opportunities are going to expand with VR being the low-cost and effective way to access training. Roblox has an education platform focused on students and educators in STEM curricula. Roblox has 240+ organizations teaching in Roblox studio in 74 countries. Roblox created “Learn and Explore” which allows developers to build their own game featuring experiences. As of Sept 2021, Roblox had 7M+ monthly users in education experiences. (Varshney)
  • By 2015… the market was already flooded with more than 80,000 so-called educational apps; the vast majority of these apps had no research behind their design or implementation that was linked to the science of how children learn…. Even now, designers use the term “educational” quite freely for products that many scientists think have only a passing connection to anything educational.” (Brookings)
  • It is imperative at this moment, while the metaverse is being developed, that scientists, educators, and developers co-construct engaging, immersive, and collaborative opportunities that are good for children and families. Understanding how to support learning goals through harnessing the power of active, engaging, meaningful, socially interactive, iterative, and joyful contexts will transform flashy and fun digital experiences into truly educational ones with true social interaction at their core. The experience with remote learning only underscored how important the social-emotional interaction is for children and how it needs to be built into the metaverse from the start. (Brookings)

FURTHER READING AND SOURCES ON MARKET AND CURRENT INVESTORS

PREPARED BY

DR. JEFF SUDERMAN

SUDERMAN SOLUTIONS