The rise of XR devices and the (3D) metaverse today can compare to and surpass the societal effects of smartphones and the (2D) internet from years ago. Over the ensuing years, we will be in for a treat! A treat made possible by innovative metaverse applications, 5G networks, and a change in consumer behavior. Will education experience the same profound upheaval, though? We believe this is the case, and we have made it our mission to transform society to improve teaching and learning. This blog article examines how a metaverse powered by 5G will create a brand-new world for students and teachers.

What is a metaverse powered by 5G?

In 1992, Neal Stephenson published the acclaimed novel “Snow Crash,” in which he first used the word “metaverse,” then again in 2021, when Facebook changed its name to Meta and declared the metaverse to be the “next big thing” to come out of Silicon Valley.

While Neal came up with the notion that Meta is still a major force in the metaverse today, a wide ecosystem is growing that thinks the time is right for our Internet to transition from 2D displays to 3D encounters (via AR and VR devices).

Does this imply that any AR/VR application is automatically a component of the metaverse? In our opinion, no. The community has decided that the metaverse is first and foremost a social setting where people, who are represented by computerized avatars, can communicate with one another. This engagement will begin simply by gazing into each other’s eyes, but it will gradually develop into more immersive encounters involving haptic devices and other technologies.

The metaverse is also becoming more and more dependent on Web3.0 technologies. These blockchain-based technologies allow for a decentralized internet with a heavy emphasis on individualized value creation. Could this be useful to educators all around the world? We’ll find out!

Another significant trend is the consumer need for lightweight, cost-effective AR/VR gadgets and completely immersive, premium content. Without a 5G network, it is impossible to satisfy these needs. And that’s where Ericsson steps in, offering the robust, high-bandwidth, and ultra-low latency networks that link consumer devices to adjacent edge clouds where content can be created on demand. The device’s energy consumption decreases by magnitude as a byproduct, resulting in smaller form factors and cheaper AR/VR gadgets, among other things.

We went to great length on the various trade-offs that network operators, device makers, and application developers must consider when developing their metaverse in our first blog post in Ericsson’s 5G metaverse series. Our 5G network provides the required rate, range, reliability, and latency. The average downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) data rates provided by 5G today are 200 Mbps/30 Mbps per user, and achievable latencies are in the range of 10 milliseconds for the frequency range 1 (FR1) bands below 6 GHz and 5 milliseconds for the frequency range 2 (FR2) bands above 24 GHz, also known as millimeter wave bands.

For the first metaverse apps that need a real-time connection to adjacent edge clouds so that content may be created and displayed in real time and then fed back to the devices, this 5 G performance KPIs should be sufficient. What does that entail for the learning and teaching ecosystem right now, taking into account the idea that metaverse capabilities will advance over the coming months and years?

Why the metaverse can be a fantastic setting for Education

We have learned through teaching tens of thousands of students over the years that engagement is essential to learning and, in fact, achieving learning goals. Maintaining the interest of a generation of students who have grown up with transient social media content may seem simple, but it’s everything! The metaverse can help with this since it allows us to build social places where individuals may learn and exchange experiences in a far more interesting way. Let’s get into further detail about this:

Education can be far more concentrated and interesting in well-designed immersive environments with an intuitive interface. This, in turn, enables teachers and students to accomplish predetermined learning outcomes more quickly and effectively. In other words, learning artefacts remain true to their nature rather than having to be cast from a 3D environment into a 2D book and then back into the learner’s 3D thinking, effectively in the sense that is learning moves more quickly because the intuitive 3D content is simpler to comprehend and retain.

True experiential learning trumps passive learning (teacher transmits knowledge) and understanding via reading (learner reads a book) thanks to the more powerful and simple-to-remember pictures that may be produced in the metaverse. Among many other chances, students can pick up, move, and explore instructional objects and become fully involved in historical events. This has been demonstrated to dramatically increase learning retention, or the capacity to continuously satisfy learning objectives over time.

The University of Tokyo is scheduled to open a Metaverse School of Engineering in September. @XRSIdotorg’s privacy & safety framework + other resources ought to be factored into the curriculum. https://t.co/c1ijesONyp

— Kristina Podnar (@kpodnar) August 17, 2022

Exoskeletons and haptic gadgets like haptic gloves and suits are available to enhance this AR/VR-powered metaverse. Since humans have developed (and hence learned) over millions of years using our haptic talents, haptics is a tremendously potent learning technique. Haptic interactions develop muscle memory, enabling difficult manual activities to be executed flawlessly. A good example is learning to play the piano. We all start by gradually perfecting each finger in both hands, making it so that even quick improvisations come naturally over time.

Learning through practice is the most effective method, even for the most difficult activities. To further speed learning, we envision a future in which students use haptic/exoskeleton devices immersed in an immersive metaverse. Although many device and standardization issues are still to be resolved, a haptic metaverse future is already feasible.

Making mistakes while learning is another effective method for improving. In the real world, it’s frequently exceedingly expensive or difficult to accomplish this. Take students learning the skill of surgery as an example: even practice equipment is quite expensive for colleges. The real value proposition in this situation is a medical metaverse (“mediverse” anyone?). Overall, the metaverse provides a secure environment where students may simply “be themselves,” meaning they can learn at their own pace and repeatedly make mistakes until the learning aim is perfected.

The metaverse also removes a barrier to space! You can enter immersive worlds for any learning objective, no matter where you are as a student. These frequently feature spatial persistence, allowing students and teachers worldwide to move and explore the same collection of objects. And that stuff is still there when they return the following day. That applies to metaverses with VR and AR capabilities.

Being social creatures by nature, humans can have tremendous social and communal learning experiences in the immersive metaverse. The ability for students to communicate with one another and the teacher no matter where they are is probably the most appealing aspect of the metaverse. From a technical perspective, it’s crucial to ensure that ultra-low latency 5G networks are accessible so that multi-learner haptic encounters continue to be jitter-free.

What’s in it for the educators?

A metaverse learning environment is a fantastic idea for instructors and the teaching profession, as is already evident from the above points. Any technology that can hasten the completion of learning objectives is beneficial. Teachers can now assign more challenging projects because of the improved interaction inside the metaverse’s spatial and social construct. Tasks were frequently only learnable through practical experience rather than carefully thought-out upskilling courses.

It goes further than this. A classroom that is thoughtfully constructed enables completely new teaching methods. To simulate real-world situations, teachers can use role-playing tactics with avatars. These settings, basically a digital twin paired with the metaverse, can be as realistic as one desires while still being different every time. Another potential is to promote group problem-solving, where students develop solutions as a team. Or how about having an equal number of teachers, some enhanced by AI? In the “metaverse” of the future, everything is feasible.

Teachers can now measure and monitor student learning progress in novel ways. Previously a multiple-choice test, it is now enhanced with spatial feedback like eye-gaze or haptic trajectory data. This enables the teacher to measure haptic tasks and change the curriculum through feedback loops more precisely. There is a rare chance to develop superior analytics, including gesture, eye, and behavioral tracking.

Making advantage of these measurements to create a skills database is a skill that is often disregarded. A sizable collection of various haptic abilities could be recorded on a standardized skills database. They can also be downloaded as necessary and utilized to develop muscle memory and other skills. Even while significant obstacles still need to be cleared, it is within the area of what is now conceivable despite sounding futuristic and a little sci-fi, similar to the hit movie Matrix.

Exams in the future may appear considerably differently once that is accomplished. Since the digital twinning environment allows simulating the actual operating conditions and the metaverse allows for precise measurements of your actions in 3D, you will be able to take valid exams in the metaverse rather than having to prove your worth in the real world, whether you are an aspiring dentist or aspiring driver. Anyone passing the exam within a specified mistake margin will need more study time.

An emerging new “economy.”

Teachers are (possibly) the world’s most prolific content creators due to the amount of fresh material they are required to create regularly. However, the cash gains are meager. Thus, a crucial and exciting topic is whether the metaverse could change the tide and allow anyone who creates educational content to make money.

By design, the creator economy is enabled by the metaverse based on Web3.0, as used assets (such as a cool jacket or a medical mockup) will bring in the originator (crypto) tokens. Then, these tokens can be utilized in the real world or exchanged for fiat money and used there. For instance, the metaverse Decentraland rewards its inventors with MANA tokens.

Compared to more conventional Internet business models, Web3.0’s value-stack is slightly inverted, which is an intriguing feature. Notably, the chain continues with the Internet of today:

Applications, infrastructure, and financial value

To put it another way, one would first require the infrastructure, create an application, and then pray that someone would want to pay for it. The chain has been slightly altered by Web3.0, though:

Application, financial value, and infrastructure

In other words, once a metaverse is established, and a transaction, trade, or other activity takes place, it automatically generates value since tokens are traded. Thus, a teacher’s workflow might look like this:

Create original immersive content that can be hosted in an educational metaverse; lock the content onto a blockchain in the form of, for example, NFTs (non-fungible tokens); publish the content in the educational metaverse; assign rights; and profit from users viewing, using, altering, and reselling the content.

Although the actual procedure is undoubtedly far more complicated and highly reliant on the underlying metaverse, the fundamentals are universal.

Even students are allowed to become creators and entrepreneurs through the creator economy paradigm. As an illustration, a student might produce something as part of an assignment that benefits other students. The Web3.0 value construct enables the student to commercialize the product once it is on the blockchain. That educated economy, or “economy,” is alluring.

Returning to the first stage of developing immersive material, though. The tools are not as standard as those used to write books or make 2D films. However, the ecosystem is overgrowing, making it more straightforward, better, and faster to create immersive experiences.

For instance, one can make 360-tours using programs like Thing Link or SharePoint Spaces and host them in Teams! I bet you’ve never tried that. A 360-content creation software for smartphones is another option. It enables the creation of blended learning scenarios with 2D and 3D resources. After that, the content might be further enhanced using programs like Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, etc. And as is the case with Ericsson’s immersive community, said 3D content should be reused.

Also, read – How Will The Metaverse Developers Change Education?

Why is 5G necessary for the educational metaverse?

Wi-Fi will likely be used for the majority of in-home VR-powered metaverse experiences. However, 5G will benefit education in institutions of higher learning or businesses! The answer is that 5G can offer the scale required to accommodate numerous students in the exact physical location. To offload computational operations to a local edge cloud, dozens or even hundreds of XR devices must simultaneously connect to today’s Wi-Fi network. Today’s 5G is, though!

Given those above and numerous other use-cases and locations, 5G will undoubtedly be supported by VR and AR devices over the coming months and years. In other words, 5G-enabled devices won’t likely be seen until Wi-Fi-enabled XR gadgets. The networks are prepared, but the makers of the machines still need some time.

Very low latencies are necessary for some VR and AR educational experiences. For instance, many students are working together on a complex engineering project that necessitates instantaneous synchronization across all students’ metaverse viewpoints. Latencies of under 10 milliseconds are advised, which Wi-Fi cannot support, but 5G can.

Other augmented reality learning opportunities may call for outdoor movement. This calls for frequent handovers and other mobility assistance features, all of which the 5G community has mastered. Without Wi-FiIt is impossible to use such a system over Wi-Fi.

End-to-end security is still another factor! Devices, radio, networks, and clouds must all be secured if one wants to keep the educational metaverse safe. Ultimately, we’ll give our kids the responsibility of using these metaverses in the future. Such end-to-end assurances are possible with 5G since security is pre-integrated.

VR compliance education

Ericsson provides powerful 5G networking capabilities to educational institutions to serve the educational metaverse. Today, efficient 5G Private Networks are employed at colleges and institutions worldwide.

Our Individual 5G, Metaverse, & Learning Experiences

We wanted to offer some first-hand impressions of the 5G metaverse to wrap up this blog post on education in the field. Who are “we” then? We are four enthusiastic educators with extensive backgrounds in teaching, learning, VR, AR, 5G, and more. Our history began long before the term “metaverse” was coined. Additionally, we are eager to share some of our individual experiences.

Anand here. I’ve worked for Ericsson for twelve years. After six years, I joined Ericsson’s Global Learning & Development (L&D) division. I had previously worked as an IT consultant in the people domain, driving IT development projects. I oversaw the technology and innovation work there for the seven years I was employed there, concentrating on tools and cutting-edge technologies for innovative learning environments.

I built the L&D metaverse’s foundation and took it to its current level of maturity in terms of platforms, scale, security, and relationships by collaborating with enthusiastic learning consultants and Group IT.

Katarina here. My 25 years of enablement experience spans the last 15 years in top leadership positions; I formerly worked for IBM and am currently employed by Ericsson Global L&D. According to my observations, enablement is a true differentiator when it is used as a means of transformation that addresses fundamental business problems. I’ve created and applied this kind of strategic enablement over the years with positive outcomes. My guiding principles are also business value and user experience. I employ new technology to promote learning and growth while ensuring that we have a positive business impact in whatever we do.

Our Ericsson Global Tech Talent program illustrates this, where we employ avatars to practice and solicit feedback on personal value propositions. We use our internal metaverse to interact socially, network, hang out at the beach, play some games, display crucial solutions, co-create business ventures, schedule a coach in our House of Growth, and—most importantly—take time to unwind and generate fresh energy in our designated meditation space. This is just the beginning, and I’m excited to explore how haptic and holographic technology might improve people’s daily learning.

Matilda here. I’m currently an intern in business and operations at Ericsson. I recently graduated from Stockholm University with a B.Sc. in Business, Economics, and Global Management. I’m currently enrolled in Uppsala University’s Master of Science in Business and Management program. I am interested in learning about and contributing to the design of all the cutting-edge technology that will shape education in the future.

I am Mischa, too. Only a few months ago, I relocated from London to Silicon Valley. I was a full-time, tenure-track professor at King’s College London in London. I taught, researched cutting-edge technology, built 5G networks, and oversaw numerous interdisciplinary co-creation initiatives. For instance, we developed the first 5G network in the UK with Ericsson and immediately began using it in the educational space.

The desire to teach piano playing to anybody, wherever in the world, using haptic gloves, immersive settings, and virtual teachers connected over a robust low-latency 5G network, stood out among the many use-cases we studied. In the same way, today’s Internet has democratized knowledge and information; it was always my desire to create an internet that would democratize skills. The Internet of Skills is the moniker I gave it. The Internet of Senses and the metaverse are two terms that have changed over time, but they both refer to a vastly enhanced learning immersion that will improve learning outcomes and teaching experiences.

While the internet transitions from 2D to 3D, it is undoubtedly an exciting time to reconsider schooling. The 5G metaverse offers many beautiful chances to change how we learn and teach, even though there is still much work to be done regarding technology, content and applications, teacher upskilling, and user acceptance. It’s also really appropriate! According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 369 million young people lack access to the Internet today, which excludes them, reduces their access to educational resources, and limits their opportunities. UNESCO also reports that 260 million children between the ages of 5 and 16 do not attend school.

By bridging the digital gap and supporting education, Ericsson’s 5G technologies and connections provide possibilities and access to high-quality education for everybody. We enable more people to benefit from digital technologies by expanding coverage and adoption to give fair access to mobile technology. We are collaborating with clients, governments, non-governmental organizations, and UN agencies to close the digital divide because we advocate for universal access to digital connectivity, tools, and skills. We spearhead education programs like Connect To Learn that assist in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals on a global scale (SDGs).