Education unbound

Abstract

Purpose

The rapid rise of Multi‐User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) or Metaverses, presents opportunities and challenges for the societies in the physical world and a particular challenge for education. This work aims to identify the key issues confronting education as it moves from its cohort model, K‐16, to an evolving life long experience, P‐to‐Gray, decoupling certification from knowledge acquisition.

Design/methodology/approach

Experimentation with MUVEs in education are combined with a review of the critical literature to yield an analysis of the current situation.

Findings

Education is evolving, and the MUVE's are also evolving both technically and culturally. Thus we will see significant changes in both current, brick space, education as well as e‐learning.

Practical implications

Education will be life‐long learning, often ungraded, and blended between brick spaced learning and participation in virtual cultural experiences.

Originality/value

Mirror worlds, or simulations, will be important, not just in the current “brick‐space”, but also in the virtual worlds which will be accepted as one accepts “travel abroad”.

Citation

Abeles, T.P. (2007), "Education unbound", On the Horizon, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 199-203. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120710836219