The prospects of education in the Metaverse

An article by Francesco Berlucchi

The elevator closes and goes up to the fortieth floor of the skyscraper. Suddenly the doors open, you arrive on a wooden beam, cantilevered, suspended in the void. "More than 80 percent of people don't get off that elevator, and they start sweating," says Nicola Ravarini, Founder & CEO of VRZONE. "They do it, even though they know that a second before they put on the headset they had their feet on the ground in our office, and that's where they stayed. As our guests walk in small steps on the wooden plank, we tell them a short story by mentioning colors, names and numbers. When they returned safely inside the elevator, we asked them to tell us what color some of the objects were, or how many they were." At VRZONE, they use this tool to assess your ability to concentrate, stay calm, and memorize. But the goals can be different, in the most diverse contexts. 

"The training opportunities that virtual reality offers are well known," explains Andrea Gaggioli, professor of General Psychology, during the second appointment of "Metaverse Tuesdays" moderated by journalist Alessia Cruciani. After the first event on the new scenarios of work in the Metaverse, the series of meetings promoted by the Humane Technology Lab directed by Giuseppe Riva, in collaboration with Login, the insert of Corriere della Sera, proposes to shift the focus to training. "First of all, we need to consider the sense of presence, which makes it possible to enable learning by doing by simulating a realistic situation that allows learning in a safe context," Gaggioli continues. "Think of the world of medicine: being able to acquire skills in a context that allows you to make mistakes can be decisive. But the advantage is also evident in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics, ed.): virtual reality makes it possible to transform symbolic knowledge into sensory and motor knowledge. You can touch a molecule, or visualize a gravitational head, taking a leap in learning."

There are numerous cases of concrete use of the Metaverse by companies, although many limitations are still evident, starting with the onerous programming and production costs of virtual reality. "We work with the human resources of companies, who come to us for the last mile as part of the selection or redeployment of personnel," says Ravarini. "Making candidates wear headsets makes them more direct, the immersiveness is so strong that the response is genuine and instinctive." "The Metaverse is not just a helmet," comments Gaggioli. "It's a network of connected experiences, with variable virtuality. You can have more or less immersion depending on the technology you use. You can increase the immersive experience or make the virtual space coincide with the real one, in a mixed reality experience in which two advantages are combined: you use your imagination, but you rely on the physicality of the space." 

In this context, considering the needs of businesses, "in the Metaverse, the university has two roles. Because it contributes to training the skills of those who have to build it, but it can also use the Metaverse to improve university education, increasing its educational effectiveness," explains Gaggioli. "Not to mention that virtual reality is emotional par excellence, it allows us to get excited. Our research group studied the impact of wonder on learning: virtual reality stimulates wonder, and therefore learning. But also creativity." After all, as Socrates argued, all authentic knowledge begins with wonder.