Educators have raised concerns about equitable access to eduverse technologies, particularly regarding hardware and internet access. The question of accessibility is especially relevant for students from marginalized backgrounds who may already face barriers in the traditional education system. Another important question to consider is how accessible is the content of eduverse experiences to diverse groups of students?
Non-privileged learners are often under-represented in educational systems. Their experiences often fail to be reflected by the curricula they engage with, and they might be learning material that in fact reinforces systemic injustices. Eduverse technology might be able to address this issue by reimagining the way we approach knowledge production within the classroom. The eduverse—a virtual learning environment within the metaverse designed specifically for educational purposes—offers a chance to rethink how knowledge is created and shared. The metaverse itself is a shared digital space where users interact in real-time through immersive technologies like virtual and augmented reality.
If the eduverse can transform and transcend the physical limitations of classrooms, why not use it to transcend other barriers to fair and robust education? By breaking down geographical and cultural boundaries, eduverse technology enables global interaction on an unprecedented scale. This opens the door for a more inclusive, student-centered approach to learning, aligning with the principles of open and critical pedagogies. These teaching philosophies centre students’s lived experiences, and emphasize students’ abilities to create, rather than simply absorb information. This way of viewing education aligns with the eduverse’s approach, which centres the value of experiential learning.
Eduverse technology offers teachers the opportunity to take seriously students’ historically marginalized real-world experiences as they bring them into life-like virtual experiences. Students will have the chance to connect with students like them whose experiences might contradict the norm, and they will also be more uninhibited than ever in having the chance to learn from students who have had different experiences from them.
The eduverse is a new paradigm for learning. If educators can use it to not only enhance traditional learning methods but in fact critique and better them, its potential for taking education to new places might be more immense than we thought.
