Morehouse College Pioneers Education in the Metaverse

• Morehouse College becomes the first university to use metaverse for education.
• “The metaverse is what I call the world’s greatest playground,” says the Program Manager.
• 54% of technology experts believe the metaverse will be a regular part of daily life, says research.

Morehouse College, Atlanta’s historically Black college, becomes the first college to use metaverse for education purposes. Moreover, according to a news report published on WSB TV, “The metaverse is not just for video games but education.”

Muhsinah Morris, Ph.D., virtual reality program manager for Morehouse College, calls the metaverse “the world’s greatest playground.

He states:

The metaverse is what I call the world’s greatest playground. But besides that, what it really is, is the next iteration of the web

Furthermore, while explaining more about the versatility of the metaverse, Morris says that once you are inside the metaverse, there is no limit to what you can see and experience. Additionally, he supplements his aforementioned statement by adding that if you wanted to climb a mountain, you could do that.

Morris compared the differences between getting knowledge from reading a book against experiencing everything happening in real-time in the metaverse.

We can give that to our students. And it’s such a gift because we had to read encyclopedias, right? And that information was stagnant. This is happening in real-time in three dimensions

Reflecting on the advantages of learning in the metaverse Morris iterates “Instead of reading about what it was like on a slave ship heading to America, the metaverse can put you on board.”

Subsequently, students, Tahj Henry Jackson, and Sid King said learning in the metaverse was a whole new different experience. Jackson, in particular, says it is a whole new experience meeting and experiencing things first-hand, such as the Underground Railroad.

Finally, Morris points out that as many businesses are venturing out into the metaverse, the more knowledge that the students gain, the better it will be for them in the future.

Interestingly the states predicted by Pew Research Center seem to be reflecting Morris’s view. Pew Research Center reports that by 2040, 54% of technology experts believe the metaverse will be a regular part of daily life for half a billion people.