Exploring the Metaverse
Exploring the Metaverse
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So, what is the Metaverse, really?
So, what is the Metaverse, really?
Briefly ---->
The term Metaverse describes the space where virtual and physical meet. It is the realm where a real object has a virtual twin made up of data, or where a real human can wander virtual worlds by projecting an avatar.
While people often think of virtual reality as "the metaverse" what the term really describes all the different ways digital data is becoming part of reality.
In 1992, author William Gibson coined the word metaverse in his science fiction novel Snow Crash. The term mashes together meta (an abstract, high-level analysis or commentary) and universe (the totality of known or supposed objects and phenomena throughout space ). Despite Meta's attempt to redefine the term as a corporate platform, today's metaverse remains an amorphous word that is used to describe overlapping real and digital worlds.
In 1995, the Acceleration Studies Foundation published the first Metaverse Roadmap. The definition they provide has stood the test of time:
The Metaverse is the convergence of 1) virtually-enhanced physical reality and 2) physically persistent virtual space. It is a fusion of both, while allowing users to experience it as either.
Human being's metaversal existence grows as the clear separation between digital and non-digital life erodes. This has already begun to happen as digital access moves further outside a single access point (say a desktop computer) into a more ever-present force in our lives through portable or immersive computing. Implants are seen by some people as one way people will more fully inhabit the metaverse.
One of the key concepts embodied by the metaverse are 3D virtual spaces, but the metaverse also includes a variety of technologies that blur the line between the virtual and the real. The thinkers behind the Metaverse Roadmap conceived of these technologies as falling within quadrants along two axis: internal (personal) v. external (public) and simulation v. augmentation:
Metaverse Roadmap: Pathways to the 3D Web. https://www.metaverseroadmap.org/index.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2023.
While today's metaverse blends these aspects together much more seamlessly than this model allows, these quadrants provide a useful framework for educators seeking to use the metaverse as an educational platform or tool. By positioning a metaversal technology's dominant use in one of the quadrants we can make more explicit tool choices and be more concrete about how we help students conceptualize their own experience of the metaverse and navigate their relationship with it.
We're already living & learning in the metaverse...
We're already living & learning in the metaverse...
When most schools went remote in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we all stepped abruptly into one aspect of the metaverse: a virtual meeting room where digital technology is used to transcend physical distance. But there is a lot more to the metaverse than virtual meetings, and there are many excellent opportunities for educators to more thoughtfully use the metaverse for teaching and learning.
A simple VR cell model.
An astronomy simulation
Virtual world building as education experience in Minecraft
The metaverse is already being used in education to:
The metaverse is already being used in education to:
Solve problems of time & space
Virtual museum visits
Walk through a cell model
Video meetings
Clarify conceptual, computational and scientific thinking
Enhance the collection, use and interconnection of data by increasing visibility (fit bit, simulations, virtual lab experiments, student learning dashboards)
Engineer an arch from scratch, reconstruct a building or otherwise engage with practical applications at a scale not possible in the real world.
AR 3D models can be manipulated by students so they can have a more concrete and compelling experience.
Extend imaginative and personal expression
The creation of 3D environments
Modeling of characters
Experimenting and investigating different identities
...but students aren't learning enough.
...but students aren't learning enough.
Reading and writing are part of school's curriculum because the written word has long been the dominant technology for transmitting information across time and space. Now, however, digital transmission of information is increasingly augmenting-- and in some ways replacing-- the written word. Our students must be digitally literate if they are to be empowered to thrive in the future. They will need to understand what the metaverse is, understand how metaversal technologies intersect with their offline life, and be able to conceptualize how they can those technologies as a tool.
Diving deeper into the four quadrants of the Metaverse
Diving deeper into the four quadrants of the Metaverse
Blooming digitally
Blooming digitally
For students to become digitally literate they must master concepts and skills that require low-order to higher-order thinking skills. The infographic to the left is based off a 2016 revision to the work of Andrew Churches that aligns Bloom's original taxonomy with the digital tools of today's classroom.
For students to become competent citizens of the metaverse, they will have to remember key definitions and be able to retrieve a conceptual understanding of the various technologies and information structures that underpin it. They will need to understand how specific technologies or structures relate to each other. They will need to be able to apply that understanding to learn and re-learn evolving technologies. They'll have to analyze the information that the metaverse provides and evaluate that information for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. Finally, they will need to leverage all of those skills to create new metaversal content that extends what we know and can do.
Ok, so what's up with these four quadrants?
Ok, so what's up with these four quadrants?
Students and teachers can benefit from explicitly describing and investigating the specific ways technologies facilitate interaction with the metaverse. We also befefit by explicitly describing and investigating how those technologies reflect or impact the individual self. Digital literacy curriculums already address students understanding of their digital footprint, how they develop an online identity, and issues of online privacy, but few students are considering the implications of technologies beyond social media. By teaching students about the axis of external v. intimate and augmentation v. simulation we help build the foundation for higher-order thinking about the metaverse. All students will need to understand the concepts of interface and networks, sensors and everyware, identity and interaction, and models and immersion if they are to be empowered citizens. We are already living in the metaverse. The future is now.
The metaverse is so complex and technologies do so many different things that breaking it down into the four quadrants of Augmented Reality, Lifelogging, Mirror World and Virtual Reality is an excellent way to chunk the learning and ensure that students are learning about all aspects of the metaverse.
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