There has been a lot of traction of late with the implementation of virtual and augmented reality in schools, with higher education institutions like the
University of Michigan using AR/VR for technical skill-building courses and workforce development officials in
Arkansas using the tools to prep individuals for careers in technical fields. As many are
pondering the technology's potential in the K-12 space, the U.K.-based ed tech company Avantis Education last week announced a new online platform giving access to a metaverse for K-12 students and teachers.
The company said in its
news release that the web-based platform,
Eduverse, which can be accessed on laptops, tablets, phones and VR headsets, is free to teachers through existing accounts such as Microsoft and Google, and provides a range of content including virtual field trips and exporable curricula, allowing students to meet each other and collaborate with teachers while learning. For security, teachers have control of who joins the virtual world and guide the students through it, the company said in its release.
So as not to require every student to have a personal device or VR headset, teachers can utilize interactive whiteboards or flat-panel displays to teach an entire class, whether in-class, remote or hybrid, the release said.
“We wanted to make the K-12 metaverse accessible to teachers and their students,” Avantis Education’s Global Sales and Marketing Director Huw Williams said in a public statement. “[Eduverse] provides them with [the ability] to bring subject matter to life.”
Teachers are able to instruct students either on an individual basis with a personalized experience or as a group, in a more guided-learning approach, the release said. Among the VR content on Eduverse, the Avantis World feature has hundreds of virtual curriculum options and is available through a subscription, according to the release. Other content through Avantis, a company that has created its own VR headset, ClassVR, can be purchased by individual schools or entire school districts, it said.
