Travel with 'Avatar' in National Garden and Yeongnam Alps... Ulsan Office of Education, Middle School Students' 'Metaverse? Field-Linked' Experience

Enhancing Social Skills and Restoring Friendships by Navigating Between Virtual and Real Worlds

Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education is launching a ‘Metaverse’ program as a measure to overcome COVID-19.

Ulsan Office of Education announced that, to overcome difficulties in forming friendships and to restore social skills due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, it will operate a ‘Metaverse-Field Linked Experience Program’ for middle school students for five weeks from the 25th of this month to the 30th of next month.

This program involves visiting and experiencing five locations of Ulsan’s natural ecological environment and cultural sites (Taehwagang National Garden, Yeongnam Alps Complex Welcome Center, Bangudae Petroglyphs, Cheoyongam Park, Daewangam Park).

The ‘Metaverse’ will be activated to allow virtual world experiences using avatars on the web for the five off-campus experience sites.

Students will embark on a virtual world journey with avatar friends through the metaverse experience.

They will listen to professional instructors’ explanations about the history and natural ecological value of Ulsan’s nature, ecology, and culture.

Through completing missions together with friends, the program plans to promote a new form of non-face-to-face learning experience and improve friendships.

About 250 students from 10 middle schools will participate in this program, and approximately 3,300 students from 110 classes are expected to take part in the metaverse virtual experience program.

Taking advantage of the metaverse experience, opportunities for career experience education in metaverse software development will also be provided for students interested in software development.

Hwang Jae-yoon, Director of Secondary Education, said, “Through operating the Metaverse-Field Linked Experience Program, we hope Ulsan students will develop interest in Ulsan’s natural, cultural, and ecological environment, and that the metaverse experience will help restore social skills affected by lack of outings and activities.”

In the future, Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education stated that based on virtual experience through the metaverse, it plans to explore and apply more diverse educational utilization methods.