Iran Press/ Iran News: Mahdad Khatami, pointing out that the role of Metaverse in the tourism industry is increasing day by day, said: "The idea of Metaverse appeared in the 1990s, the role of Metaverse in the tourism industry had already begun. But with the COVID outbreak, when tourism programs were closed, the orientation of tourism towards travel in the metaverse world was accelerated, because the idea of traveling in the virtual world can help how tourists encounter other places."
He stated that the idea of traveling in the virtual world is even possible to replace a number of physical trips, in which case the tourism industry will not suffer.
He noted that companies are developing infrastructure to provide tourism facilities in existing and new metaverses.
Stating that the Metaverse is the link between the physical world and the digital life, the world of avatars and the next generation of the Internet, he said: "Perhaps the best and most useful approach of the Metaverse can be interpreted in relation to education."
Currently, to acquire expertise in a specific field, several thousand hours of professional training must be completed. These pieces of training are scattered.
"Online classes, face-to-face classes, books, pamphlets, tests, and all of them are presented on separate platforms. Now imagine that we want to learn for a specific field in the metaverse world; for example, in a more specific field, there are many entertainments that we do not have access to at certain times or in certain locations. For example, people who live in the tropics cannot have winter sports or recreation at their place of residence unless they travel to a cold country." Khatami said.
"In Metaverse, everything is possible at any time and place, or we can refer to the exhibition examples of GITEX in the UAE, which we saw holding a conference, so conferences can be held in person or online, just like concerts. But there are also limitations of physical presence and online presence in video conferences; hence, one can think of a superior experience in relation to holding such events in the Metaverse so that people's avatars appear in the meetings and create a tangible experience." he added.
This economic activist said that many of the digital solutions available today have come with concerns about privacy and security; therefore, Metaverse may also present privacy issues and security risks. As an active online space, the Metaverse can lead to new issues in the security and privacy of individuals as well as institutions.
He said that to introduce comprehensive experiences to users, Metaverse eliminates the gap between the real and virtual worlds. Even if you can see this as an advantage, virtual-world addiction can cause people to withdraw from real-world experiences.
He continued, after the COVID outbreak and as a result of the restrictions, the negative features of the current education systems became visible to everyone. The decline in the quality of education and the decrease in students' motivation to learn are among the biggest damages of the current virtual education system.
The technologies of artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality that has been used in Metaverse have made it a suitable platform for the development and updating of current educational systems; thus, by participating in 3D environments powered by metaverse technology, students can gain an experience very close to educational environments in the real world, while they are no longer limited by space, time and economics, Khatami added.
One of the most important applications of Metaverse in the education industry is to reduce the cost of teaching classes. The construction and maintenance of educational environments impose high prices on the educational organization. At the same time, it is possible to develop a virtual university like the Blocktopia project in Metaverse, which will develop all the best quality educational units at a much lower cost than the construction in the real world, he concluded.
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