After the world of work, education is one of the sectors on which Meta is focusing for the affirmation of the metaverse that combines virtual and augmented reality. The company has announced that during the year it will launch an initiative that aims to make its Quest viewers allies in bringing schools into the future.
This new service "is the result of numerous consultations and collaborations activated with educators, researchers and third-party developers operating in the education sector around the world", explains Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta, in an official post. The goal is to transform a physical classroom into a fully-fledged digital place. The new solution will give the opportunity to speed up virtual lessons, so that students can start the learning phase independently. And it will allow teachers to access tools dedicated to their work, such as the opportunity to manage all the other connected ones from their viewer, sending content enriched by 3D.
"These technologies make impossible things real in the physical world - explains Clegg - instead of telling students what dinosaurs were like, it will be possible to move and walk directly among them. It will be possible to create virtual science laboratories with equipment that most schools could never afford and eliminate the risks associated with potentially dangerous or expensive technical or professional training activities". “Education and training institutions represent a significant market for technology products, and we see more and more developers creating and releasing apps dedicated to this sector,” adds Clegg.
Meta recalled the work of some institutes that already use Quest for teaching. Among others, New Mexico State University teaches criminal law to students in an immersive dimension, making them witness virtual crime scenes, so they can learn the best investigation techniques.