Meta will bring students into the metaverse, but at what cost?

By the end of 2024 Metathe company he controls FacebookInstagram and WhatsApp, will launch a new service dedicated to education through Quest viewers for virtual and augmented reality.

Nick Clegg, president of Global Affairs at Meta, announced that the new service will give teachers and trainers access to a variety of education-specific applications and features. Furthermore, teachers will finally be allowed to manage multiple Quest devices at the same time.

“It will no longer be necessary to individually update and prepare each device in a classroom or training environment – Clegg wrote in a post -. In this way, teachers will save time and students will be able to put on their visors and start working immediately, something that teachers have been asking us for a long time.”

The name and features of Meta’s new service will be announced in the coming months. “At launch we plan to make the product available in markets supported by Quest for Business,” Clegg said. The new functions will be available to the schools they are enrolled in students over the age of 13”.

Meta Quest for Business is currently available in Italy, so it is to be expected that the new service for schools will also immediately concern our country. Precisely in Italy, in recent months, Meta has started a collaboration with the University of Camerinowhich held its first course entirely in the metaverse using Quest headsets.

Nick Clegg, former British Deputy Prime Minister alongside David Cameron from 2010 to 2015, sees in the world of corporate education and training a great business opportunity. More and more students and workers are acquiring new skills by wearing a headset and moving in virtual environments. And Meta produces both.

But it’s not just business that drives Nick Clegg: “My mother was a teacher – she told us a few months ago, during an interview – I’m obsessed with education. And I believe that much of this today is inhumane.”

“Students are often treated like numbers in a factory – Clegg declared on that occasion -. We must abandon the type of teaching that transmits knowledge to rows and rows of pupils with their heads bowed, each busy writing the same thing. In the twenty years I spent in politics I understood that the best education system, which provides equal opportunities for everyone, is the one that is tailored to the individual needs of students. The goal should be to create inspiring classrooms where individuals can thrive.”

Announcing the service which will arrive “in late 2024”, Clegg also highlighted that “there is a growing base of research demonstrating that learning in VR can improve student performance, as well as their levels of engagement, attendance and satisfaction. In 2022, il Morehouse College reported that students who learned in VR achieved an average final score of 85, compared to 78 in person. A survey by the XR Association found that 77% of educators believe that these technologies spark curiosity and improve classroom involvement.”

The data released by Clegg clashes with those of those who maintain, however, that using visors at school is not such a brilliant idea. Headsets, in general, are quite heavy, expensive and complex to repair and are not suitable for those with certain vision problems.

A 2021 research examined 85 studies on the effects of VR technology on children and adolescents and highlighted problems related to “cybersickness” such as obesity and sleep disorders.

Furthermore, the recent launch of the Vision Prothe new Apple viewer with functions similar to those of the Quest 3 the Meta, highlighted significant problems regarding the prolonged use of a device of this type, including – users report – “headaches, nausea and black eyes”.

There are also those who think that visors, for kids, would constitute yet another display to deal with during the day. As if smartphones weren’t already enough.

But Nick Clegg is convinced that the advantages of this technology for schools outweigh the possible cons.

“The purpose of immersive technology is precisely to go well beyond screens and to have the sensation of living in a shared space” Clegg told Axiosunderlining the value of history lessons that in the future, for example, they could be held directly on the streets of ancient Rome: “And kids might giggle and say, ‘Oh, look, there’s Brutus sticking a knife into Julius Caesar’s back,’” Clegg said.

Meta’s President of Global Affairs also highlighted how the Menlo Park company has already had headsets a significant impact on university courses.

“New Mexico State University teaches criminal law by immersing students in virtual crime scenes to learn how to investigate better – said Clegg -. Stanford University uses virtual reality to teach business school students soft skills: for example, how to have a difficult conversation or give an interview. The University of Glasgow, on the other hand, teaches anatomy by placing students in a virtual intestine, to see how the body fights bacteria.”