Education Reimagined: How Emerging Technologies Are Transforming the Ways We Learn
Last month, we announced a new educational offering for Quest headsets coming later this year. Today, we’re highlighting five education experts and how emerging technologies like VR, MR, and AI are impacting how they teach and how people learn now and in the future.
From AI to virtual and mixed reality, we’re seeing the positive impact of emerging technologies on learning outcomes—and we’re seeing immersive technology reduce the costs of educational and training experiences that might otherwise require physical materials or travel. Educators are using AI to personalize educational experiences. Students and teachers are coming together in shared virtual spaces. People pursuing a career in the trades have access to enhanced vocational training. And there are new opportunities for lifelong learning among people of all ages and backgrounds.
Using VR & AI for Skills Acquisition & Training in the Trades
Interplay Learning uses VR to train people in essential skilled trades from HVAC and solar to plumbing, electrical, and beyond. They’ve also begun to layer in an AI assistant they call SAM (short for “Skill Advisor and Mentor”).
“AI is really good at taking a big set of data and making it easier to interact with,” explains Interplay Learning CEO Doug Donovan. “In our case, that data is educational material, and so making it conversant with a technician or a student is incredibly powerful.”
On the VR front, they’ve found its ability to mimic in-the-field training incredibly effective, thanks to the medium’s immersive sense of presence—the feeling that you’re right there in the virtual environment.
“If we can mimic a great mentor session where you get job relevant training, procedural instruction, opportunity to practice, corrective instructions, all of those things—that’s what a great mentor does,” notes Donovan. “We try to do that with some of our instructional components, and when you can layer AI in there as well, you get a lot closer to that real-life true mentor experience where you can just ask a question sort of off-script.”
Digital Twins & AI-Enabled Instructional Aides
A renowned HBCU in Georgia, Morehouse College has a digital twin campus—a replica of the existing campus, also known as a metaversity, constructed in fully spatial 3D by VictoryXR.
“We’re across all disciplines,” says Morehouse College Metaversity Director & Senior Assistant Professor Dr. Muhsinah Morris. “And our students have learned, created experiences, done galas, done everything related to not just academic courses, but also related to their student experiences.”
Morehouse has seen a real benefit from VR, with an 11.9% increase in student achievement. And they’re beginning to use AI student models for pre-service instructors and AI patient models for healthcare professionals.
“We have our own language model with specific information,” Morris explains. “So now, when they’re in the interactive environment, they can actually ask questions, have interactions, and get feedback. We’ll start in the fall, actually putting it in the classroom, and we’re really excited about what it’s going to do.”
Through its digital twin, Morehouse uses VR to let students explore the journey to civil rights in the US, the Middle Passage, and the ancestry and history in between. And the powerful nature of the experience extends beyond the humanities and into STEM. “I’m a chemist,” notes Morris. “When you see molecules come to life and you can manipulate them, that visual spatial intelligence that’s increased by being able to see and envision the molecular world, it’s priceless. Our students felt like it was way better to be able to be on Mars manipulating models of different molecules or looking at ligand binding sites vs. being in a classroom doing ball and stick models.”
Storytelling as a Pedagogical Cheat Code
From secondary education to higher education and enterprise, Zoe Immersive helps students and instructors alike create interactive content—no coding experience required.
“We’re using VR to help students create in zero gravity,” says Zoe Immersive Head of Education Programs Kwaku Aning, “and the gravity would be the constraints that you have, the barriers to create. Do I know this code? Do I understand the software? Those obstacles can create space and distance between what your idea is and what you want to create.”
“People always say, ‘Let’s prepare students for the world that’s going to exist,’” Aning adds. “We’re in that world, and it’s moving really, really fast. We need to learn and understand how to protect and integrate our humanity into systems that utilize technology like AI.”
Inspiring Underserved Students & Educators Alike
The mission of educational non-profit Exponential Destiny is to upskill and reskill low-income young people so they can better access emerging technology sector jobs. They do this through research and pioneering immersive learning methods with Title I public schools.
For young people from underserved backgrounds, virtual and mixed reality can have an incredible effect when they’re introduced within an educational framework, says Exponential Destiny Co-Founder Marco Vargas. “You can see students become motivated to come to school every day,” he notes. “This is a generation that grew up with Minecraft, that grew up creating. A young person can pick up a Meta Quest 3, a modern-day computer, and use it for productivity, to express themselves creatively, to work collaboratively, and to not only be a passive learner but to actively engage with an environment that’s immersive and experiential. There’s a lot of magic that comes from that.”
That magic extends beyond students to teachers as well, according to Vargas. “They’re inspired to teach again,” he says, “especially in an age where there are limited amounts of resources, particularly in the public school sector. When you introduce an XR device, suddenly you have digital abundance, and now a teacher can host lessons on Mars because that’s the students’ preferred learning environment, and now you can inspire students to express themselves in new and creative ways.”
AI as a Thought Partner
For Southwest Career and Technical Academy English Teacher & 2024 Nevada State Teacher of the Year Laura Jeanne Penrod, the key to using emerging technology effectively in the classroom is to encourage students to engage with it productively.
“I like to use a sports analogy,” Penrod says. “We can treat it like sneakers, where it enhances our performance just slightly but doesn’t really have an engaging component to it. Or we can actually engage with it like a coach, where we treat it as something that we can use to help us develop our skills.”
“As educators, we are stretched extremely thin,” Penrod adds. “And when I have close to 200 English students, AI can become a thought partner. When I’m not available, AI is, right? It becomes a system where we’re able to actually have our students engage meaningfully. As long as we model that and we teach them how to engage with it, I think it can be a powerful thought partner.”
An Evolving Educational Landscape
From mixed reality to recent AI advances in large language models to smart glasses that give people access to AI in a compelling and convenient form factor, emerging technologies are already changing the ways we access and engage with information. We’re also seeing a shift in how young people use these technologies. They’ve embraced virtual worlds as a primary place to hang out with friends—a fact that educators can use to their advantage by meeting students where they are.
Immersive educational experiences let students engage with a variety of subjects in a uniquely compelling way, and as AI continues to advance, there’s increasing opportunity to tailor curricula to the needs and interests of individual students. AI study tools can give students access to instant, round-the-clock assistance to help them save time and support their learning. And AI has the potential to help teachers be more efficient and impactful, too. An instructor might use AI tools to create engaging new lesson plans, freeing up valuable time for them to mentor their students.
From the typewriter to the internet, we’ve continually seen new technologies effect lasting and positive change on the face of education. Today’s emerging technologies hold a similar promise to give students and educators alike access to new tools, experiences, and creative outlets.
