Today, Meta announced the Meta for Education beta program, a product targeted at colleges and universities that the firm first teased in April. The solution aims to bring education-specific XR services to teachers, trainers, and administrators via the Quest portfolio of VR and MR headsets.
The beta launch sees Meta drop its new educational solution in US and UK colleges and universities, including Arizona State University, Houston Community College, Imperial College London, Miami Dade College, Morehouse College, New Mexico State University, San Diego State University, Savannah College of Art & Design, The University of Glasgow, University of Iowa, University of Leeds, University of Miami, and University of Michigan.
Participating universities will work with Meta, providing feedback on the beta launch to seemingly scale and enhance the Meta for Education product ahead of a broader release ready for topics such as science, medicine, history, and language arts.
Kim Grinfeder, University of Miami Professor and University XR Initiative Lead, remarked:
The first time I put on a headset, it was immediately apparent to me that this is not like a screen or TV. It had a completely different feeling. We were creating experiences. I immediately recognized this as a tool that’s going to change education—change the way we teach. It allows us to bring the world into the classroom.
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Similar to the Meta Quest for Business product model launched last year, the new education solutions aim to empower teachers, trainers, and administrators with XR applications and management features designed explicitly for education.
The updated management features allow teachers to use multiple Quest devices simultaneously in a classroom setting. Additionally, advanced device management tools eliminate the need for teachers to update each device individually and prepare them manually in a bid to make onboarding processes more efficient.
Interestingly, Meta highlighted how the education package includes Metaverse capabilities, perhaps bringing new life to its once majorly hyped technology promise. Meta explained how Metaverse solutions can empower classrooms with digital field trips and training.
Rubén Durán, Houston Community College Reality CoLab Director, said:
Students are engaging with the technology in meaningful ways. With our project Virtual Reality for Empathy, we invite in community organizations that are open to all like the Center for the Healing of Racism, and members of the community and HCC students come to the lab and role play to raise awareness and enhance student achievement and experiences that are unknown to the person participating. And this immersion creates emotions in what we think is the initial step to create empathy. The outcomes of this experience are forming part of important research conducted by our psychology faculty.
Meta calls the early results “promising,” notably Monica Arés, Executive Director of Imperial IDEA Lab, Imperial College London, also stated that “this moment is greater than any one institution or one company-we need to come together in collaboration across the creators, the developers, educational institutions, research organizations, and tech companies to build this new learning ecosystem because it’s going to benefit every individual and industry.”
Arés also added:
We’re finally at a place where we have a way to combine the digital and physical worlds, and it’s unlocking this entirely new set of tools, which is what makes all of this so exciting.
Following its initial launch and first feedback period, Meta looks to scale the solution during the final weeks of 2024, seemingly leading the firm to push for education and training use cases for the Quest portfolio. This also follows the launch of Meat Quest 3S at Connect a few months ago, a device that aims to be an accessible gateway for integrating MR in various sectors.
Andrew Sedillo, New Mexico State University Director of Microcredentials Instructional Design, noted that during the current beta stage of the education solution, the team has tested “the early prototypes of these programs. ” Sedillo explained that “Meta checks in with us—they’re asking us what they can do to improve the products, and they’re actually listening.”
Sedillo also added:
Because of that, we’ve developed a lot of trust with Meta because we understand that they’re putting out a product that’s going to impact educators in a positive way.
In April, Meta first announced the education model. At the time, Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, noted that education and training providers represent a “considerable market” and that Meta is witnessing a growing number of developers who are “building and releasing apps aimed at this sector”—with Clegg noting that there is scope to scale immersive education products at a “much wider scale.”
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