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How can the Metaverse be used for Teaching?

We are now living in an ever-changing world. Every single aspect in our lives has  been improving slightly day by day, and our mode of education, of course, is also  transforming.  

Just think of a decade ago, teaching was still deeply relying on students sitting in a  classroom listening to lectures given by teachers with the aid of a large blackboard and a few  piece of white chalks and everyone agreed that teacher-based education was the best way of  education. No one could imagine that 10 years later, now, education has transformed to a  more student-based and flexible mode. Students can receive education in everywhere and  anywhere. Development of educational apps has greatly changed education to a more  interactive style. However, our urge for better education never stops and entering the ‘Digital  Age’, we encounter a new word, ‘Metaverse’, that can be a potential teaching method. 

So, what is ‘Metaverse’? The exact definition is still unclear as the whole ‘metaverse’ building process is still under development, but broadly speaking, it is a place parallel to the  physical world, where a person can spend their digital life. Metaverse is a place where  everyone has their digital avatar and can interact with other avatars. More specifically, we  can imagine ‘metaverse’ as something similar to online games like ‘Minecraft’ or ‘Roblox’. 

And now, here’s the question: how can ‘metaverse’ help with teaching? One of the  biggest advantages of metaverse would be it can help students to visualize what they are  learning. For example, when the students are learning about Ancient Roman civilization,  previously they can only learn from textbooks or at most from films or documentaries.  However, with ‘metaverse’, a virtual ancient Roman Empire can be ‘built’ and the students,  making use of their avatar, can experience the actual life in Ancient Roman from their own  first-hand experience. They can really feel the carts buzzing by them, traders in the markets  selling their own ancient products and just right next to them, people bathing in the thermae.  Students may even have the chance to ‘meet’ all the influential and famous Roman Emperors  and fully ‘soak’ into the Ancient Roman world while learning the history of the Empire. 

And ‘metaverse’ can absolutely apply to both humanity and science subjects. For  example in Math, teachers can make use of ‘metaverse’ to bring students back to the Ancient  Greek time when Pythagoras discovered the famous ‘Pythagoras Theorem’. This can  certainly make Math lesson more intriguing, or at least less daunting. 

In my opinion, the transition from the current ‘traditional’ teaching style to heavily  relying on ‘metaverse’ is an inevitable process and I also cannot see any reason why we have  to stop this transformation. Using ‘metaverse’ in teaching is surely beneficial to the students  as they can enjoy a more immersive learning experience. At the same time, this can help teachers to improve their teachings as well. The use of ‘metaverse’ can definitely make  lessons more interesting and engaging. This also provides a more thought-provoking learning  environment as students have to ‘travel’ to a brand-new ‘world’ and experience lives  different from their original ones. This can undoubtedly stimulate their creativity and  innovative mindset, which is vastly important when nurturing our future leaders.

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