This collaboration is brought to you by Metaverse and is based on my unbiased experience using their platform.
Metaverse is one of the most versatile platforms teachers and students can use to create interactive learning experiences. What kind of interactive experiences?
- Augmented Reality
- Virtual Reality
- Choose Your Own Adventure
- Digital Breakouts
- Games
- Polls
- Multiple Choice and Free Response Questions
- Text Response Walls
- Photo Walls
- Geocaching
- Puzzles
- Scavenger Hunts
- and a lot more!
Metaverse in Education
Metaverse is one of those platforms where your biggest limitation is your own imagination. Did I mention that it’s completely free to use? Students join Experiences simply by scanning a QR code with the Metaverse app. Check out this short video or download the Metaverse app and scan one of the QR Codes below with your mobile device to see examples of the awesome things being done with Metaverse in education.
Scan a QR Code in the below with the Metaverse app or click to view in Metaverse Studio.
Create Interactive Learning Experiences – Metaverse Studio
Creating Experiences in Metaverse Studio is surprisingly easy. Metaverse Studio is laid out like a storyboard; this visual editor makes it much easier to create and edit Experiences. Experiences are made up of scenes and blocks. Scenes are what users see and interact within an Experience. Blocks do the nerdy behind-the-scenes stuff that makes it all work (incorporate probability, keep score, determine what to do with user input, set Experience times and more). Don’t worry: Metaverse has a comprehensive guide, a series of video
The most basic scenes consist of a character (2-D or 3-D image), dialogue text, and some type of user input. Characters can be selected from thousands of images in the Metaverse library, or you can upload your own. Scenes display characters on a solid background or through your camera in augmented reality. The easiest way to collect information from a user is by using buttons or asking for text input. Camera scenes are one of my favorite ways to allow users to submit answers with photo or video.
Creating My First Experience
Character Scenes
I created a very simple geometric shapes scavenger hunt Experience. I started by adding 3 new character scenes to give students directions. After finding a character that I wanted to use and entering text in a speech bubble, I added a simple button to transition to the next scene. So far, it’s
Text Input Scene
Next, I created a Text Input Scene so that students can enter their names. Adding a block to “set user property from input” saves user names so they can be posted with the pictures they take later. This is still not any more difficult than creating a Google Form.
Camera Scene
Now it’s time to add another character scene asking students to find their first shape. This time the transition button says, “I found one!” and will bring users to a camera scene so they can take a picture of the shape.
A “Save to wall” block saves all photos for that scene to one photo wall. I repeat the process of adding character scenes to ask for a shape, camera scenes, and new save to wall blocks. I decided to add a second button leading to another character scene once we got to a more difficult shape so that students could ask for help or a hint if needed.
With very little work I was able to create an augmented reality, camera-based scavenger hunt.
So Many Ideas…
I had so much fun making
I’m currently working with kindergarten classes to create a Selfie Safari. The kindergarten students are drawing the augmented reality photo frames of animals that I will layer over the camera scene. They’ll enjoy taking funny selfies as animals when they identify the correct habitat.
Have Students Create Interactive Experiences
I’m always looking for ways to push students towards creating content rather than simply consuming content. With Metaverse, the possibilities are endless. Now, the folks at Metaverse have responded to the growing popularity of their platform among educators by creating Collections. This premium feature makes it easy to manage Experiences created by multiple students. I love the idea of allowing teachers to create Experiences that students can clone and edit. I created a basic template that students could modify to create a rock cycle Experience, a water cycle Experience, a carbon cycle Experience, etc. Being able to manage multiple student-created Experiences in one place takes a great platform and turns it into a truly teacher-friendly platform.
What ideas do you have for using Metaverse in the classroom?
Share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter.
Don't Miss a Pick - Follow Us
