These days we hear many things about edtech and the metaverse. Many prominent institutions have launched projects for integrating edtech in their schools, colleges, or universities. But what exactly is edtech, and what role does the metaverse play?
What is edtech?
Edtech is any technology that facilitates learning. Edtech can be used in schools, universities, and colleges, in lifelong learning facilities and platforms, and in situations where the student is a lifelong learner. As already said, the central aspect of edtech is indeed improving education. Edtech is believed to enhance many areas of education. This article is about which education fields edtech will change and how. Let’s analyse some examples.
The learning environment.
The first one is undoubtedly the learning environment. Moreover, higher
education institutions could organise these online lessons using a combination
of virtual reality (VR) and other digital and online collaboration tools.
For instance, AI or, in other words, Artificial Intelligence, may automate marking and grading. Edtech may also help us to be more sustainable by replacing paper-based materials with digital libraries. Besides, it helps to lessen the amount of carbon dioxide released yearly since it has good opportunities for online learning and thus will reduce the need for commuting.
From the physical classroom to the digital one: how education began changing.
To understand that, we should analyse the situation just a few years ago. Quite obviously, until a couple of years ago, learning happened in classrooms. The lockdown caused by the coronavirus eruption forced people to begin using online platforms for education delivery.
But even if some schools have returned to the classical classrooms, online learning remains. Now, hybrid or even wholly online learning is practised in many places that deliver education. The shift from the physical to the virtual classroom will continue until learning online and using a virtual headset is customary.
Networks will expand to support online learning platforms. The typical lessons delivered in a classroom and a whiteboard will be replaced by VR and AR-led lessons that offer alternative learning methods. Besides, universities and colleges will provide the course materials via digital libraries and cloud-like platforms.
Metaverse: the ultimate immersive learning experience.
VR and AR-delivered lessons adopt immersive approaches. Moreover, it gives students and educators an exciting learning and teaching experience via metaverse – their virtual avatar. What happens is that the teachers will have access to materials, approaches, and teaching methods they did not have access to in a traditional classroom.
And the same goes for students; besides using the metaverse and their VR headset for a thoroughly subversive experience, the learners will have the chance to experience everything they’re learning in the first person.
The use of metaverse, AR and VR in education makes the learning and teaching experiences extremely engaging compared to the traditional whiteboard and its more innovative “brother”, the so-called interactive board.
As long as AI is regarded, it could help students access the metaverse platforms in which the learning takes place. AI could also bring out each student’s strengths and weaknesses. Besides, it could improve their performance by designing personalised learning paths.
Colleges and universities could also use AI to detect learners’ mistakes and help them correct them. And finally, AI could also help students struggling with the bureaucratic issues and career path-leading options of the institution they’re learning in. That would, in great part, diminish the university or college staff’s workload. In other words, AI could become an excellent tool for students, universities, or college staff.
Course management and administration.
Course management is going to be digitalised to improve education efficiency and effectiveness. Digitalisation means no more paper-based materials. It also democratises education by making it accessible to everyone with nothing more than access to a cloud platform. The education paths and courses could be customised, and the higher education institution staff and learners can collaborate on the course materials. Besides, this significant shift in education digitalisation could facilitate communication between students and teachers who could even communicate in real time. It makes the whole process a lot more efficient.
Higher education institutions could use blockchain to digitalise the certifications and verify their authenticity. The use of virtual certificates on the blockchain means that colleges and universities would not need the hard copy of the academic credentials of their students.
So, storing the certificates on the blockchain would be helpful in two means:
– They are 100% authentical: certificates on the blockchain cannot be falsified, stolen or otherwise changed.
– they are eco-friendly: no paper or other material is needed to release certificates on the blockchain.
If you’re interested in knowing how certificates on blockchain work, we have an article on that on our website! Click here to read the articles on the benefits of blockchain in higher education by ACS College.
The future delivery of education via metaverse.
The future for the edtech market is going to be bright. For example, edtech will concentrate mainly on the Asian-Pacific area, as there are a lot of edtech companies. That means that the APEC region is going to lead the edtech market. Universities and colleges worldwide will deliver education via the metaverse, which connects the world globally.
Edtech and ASOMI College of Sciences.
ACS ASOMI College of Sciences is an Avant-guard college that follows modern technology developments and digitisation. We are highly interested in edtech and its deployment in higher education, as well as the metaverse, augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.
We already have an MBA in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, so click here to learn more!
