Teaching Metaverse. What and how to (not) teach using the medium of virtual reality
Michal Kabát · International Conference on E-learning and Games · 2016
Virtual Reality (VR) in education is a frequently discussed topic in many academic papers. Yet there is strong controversy around the extent to which it is possible to use this new medium in order to meet educational goals. Marshal McLuhan once said that “Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s jobs with yesterday’s tools and yesterday's concepts” (McLuhan, & Fiore, 1967, pp. 8-9). On the contrary - we believe that in the case of virtual reality this anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to achieve old linear goals in a new environment and that we need to re-evaluate the purpose of using the virtual reality platform to get more relevant results. In this paper we will try to shortly introduce the most used VR platform called Second Life and also examine attempts at using it for education purposes by pinpointing some issues that affected its adoption by students and teachers.