Abstract:

As time and teaching experiences show us, e-learning environments are a tremendously powerful educational tool. But the majority of such environments lack of something vital to humans: direct face to face social relationships.

It is there where Metaverses become the vector on which, with ease, students can humanly interact with each other.

Thus involving emotions into the learning process and trusting it beyond the threshold required to make the recently acquired knowledge acomódate as long term memories.

3D worlds –as a subgroup of MUVEs technology– are playing an important role in the search for knowledge transmission. The capacity of such environments for holding “group-feeling” dynamics build up interactions that favors not only teacher-student relationship, but even highly specialised activities, such as inter-hospital clinical sessions or Civil Engineer Seminars.

Hyperrealism is not needed. If we take into account the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis, as long as we reach a certain level of empathy we will be able to grant human characteristics to whatever object we interact with.

And if along with it, we manage to extend our own proprioceptive system, then the advantages of avatar-to-avatar interaction become clear.

The acquired virtual experience will build up as real as a material one, allowing us to jump over limitations imposed by distance, time, size o material availability.

Translated by: Isleny Martinez Quiñonez

Keywords:

3D worlds, Metaverses, SecondLife, ECTS, Educational innovation, University, Videos, Podcast, Videocast.