Executive summary:
Education can’t just stay the same forever. To ensure that our young learners are truly prepared for the world of tomorrow, we must reverse the troubling trend of disengagement by integrating new and innovative technologies like AI and extended reality. At the same time, we can’t just let ourselves be content with teaching basic digital literacy. In an increasingly tech-driven society, new skills will need to be fostered to ensure our children thrive.
- A 2024 survey by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found up to 54% of Gen Z learners did not have eight engaging experiences in school.
- While 98% of US schools use computers in the classroom, only 53.9% of their Indian counterparts have basic internet access.
- The VR in Education segment is expected to balloon from US$17.18 billion in 2024 to $65.55 billion by 2032.
- Arizona State University boosted engagement and results by embarking its students on a unique immersive VR experience based in a giant interstellar wildlife sanctuary.
- Elsewhere in Arizona, an upcoming charter school will put AI in charge of teaching core academics, with teachers instead serving as ‘guides’ and teaching life lessons.
- The University of Florida is leading the charge to build a framework for teaching K-12 students about AI.
- “We need to move with the times – what happens when a young person becomes an adult; they have to go out into the world to work, and technology is a fundamental part of that,” says Cardiff and Vale College’s Jamie Evans.
There are no shortage of examples about how the world of education plans to step forwards, but truly embracing technologies like AI and VR at scale will require massive investments and hands-on participation across the entire sector. At the same time, we need to make sure these benefits are felt around the world – not just at prestigious schools in rich countries. If we truly want to prepare our children for tomorrow’s job market, we need to make sure they have all the information and tools they need, no matter their background.
“Education is the basic tool for the development of consciousness and the reconstitution of society” – a timeless quote, wouldn’t you agree? However, the man behind the quote, Mahatma Gandhi, surely could barely imagine its prescience in our modern era. More than ever, we must depend on the education system to prepare our children to live in a world constantly reckoning with new societal and technological disruptions. However, there are signs it is struggling to meet the challenge. Consider, for example, the recent study conducted by AI safety firm Anthropic, which found that schools are failing basic AI literacy. For the study, researchers trained an AI system to manipulate human oversight rather than provide useful or truthful responses. By and large educators fell for it, leaving their students exposed to misinformation and manipulation by the system.
Of course, it’s easy to sympathise – navigating the education landscape amid relentless technological advances and disruptions is undeniably a massive challenge. Rapid developments in AI, automation, and digital connectivity have redefined the skills necessary to thrive in a tech-driven world. With today’s curriculum, the gap between what children learn and what they need to succeed is widening. At the same time, the constant influx of new tools requires educators to adapt quickly, which can lead to inconsistencies in teaching methods. Meanwhile, students face unique challenges, such as information overload and balancing screen time with meaningful offline learning experiences.
Ensuring educational advancement during these transformative times calls for a collaborative effort: harnessing innovative technologies responsibly, empowering educators with professional development, and fostering critical thinking and adaptability in students. It’s not just about keeping up: it’s about preparing young minds for a future that is simultaneously unpredictable and full of potential. In this blog, we’ll do a deep dive into the rapidly-changing educational landscape, examining key technologies ranging from virtual reality (VR) to AI. We won’t just assess how these technologies can help – we’ll scrutinise their shortcomings and shed light on how they can be deployed safely and to the benefit of students.
How advanced are today’s schools, really?
While many schools are successfully teaching basic digital literacy skills, progress varies by region – and few are going as far as they need to.
Before we go any further, let’s stop and do a temperature check on the state of technological integration in schools today. Of course, progress levels will fluctuate from region to region depending on the state of economic development, but there are signs of solid progress implementing the basics. A recent survey by the National Center for Education Statistics found that 98% of US schools use computers in the classroom, with a further 75% reporting they use iPads and Chromebooks. Additionally, 57% of students use digital learning tools every day and spend at least half of their time in class interacting with devices. Beyond the basics, there are some noteworthy developments: a 2024 study by UK education nonprofit Internet Matters found that roughly a quarter of children aged 4-17 are already using AI to assist with their schoolwork. Between the ages 13-14, this number rose to around half.
In developing countries, the level of technology integration in schools is decidedly more uneven. In Mexico, for example, schools rarely use the internet – even though students use it all the time for recreational purposes. Meanwhile, in India, government data for the years 2023-2024 reveals that only 57.2% of schools have functioning computers and 53.9% had internet access. That’s not for a lack of enthusiasm, though: a separate survey of 3,000 parents from various educational boards found 87% in favour of technology integration both as a tool for learning and a subject. Unsurprisingly, China performs well in terms of the basics. By the end of 2020, all K-12 schools in the country were connected to the internet thanks to a national initiative. Efforts to educate children on cutting-edge technologies are also picking up momentum. In March 2025, it became mandatory for all schools in Beijing to provide an education in AI.
For schools to truly prepare their students for tomorrow’s job market, however, a more radical approach to technology integration in the classroom may be required. Tools like AI, virtual reality, and digital collaboration platforms all have the potential to reshape education, offering personalised learning and expanding access to resources. However, challenges such as equitable access, teacher training, and sustainable funding remain. To get ahead, schools must focus on aligning technology with educational goals, fostering adaptability, and preparing students for a tech-driven future. But for their students to truly thrive, they can’t just use these technologies as a learning device – they need to teach students how to excel with the technology itself. So, let’s take a closer look at those technologies.
Take a seat in the virtual classroom
Extended reality solutions like AR and VR can reverse the trend of declining student engagement and inspire them about the world of technology.
Of the numerous technologies that are a must for the modern classroom, VR and augmented reality (AR) are likely to be the most viscerally exciting for the students themselves. These technologies don’t just serve as an additional tool in the teacher’s belt, they have the potential to reverse the trend of declining student engagement. While smart devices have plagued classrooms for decades, things have taken a marked turn for the worst in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdowns. A 2024 survey of students aged 12-27 – in other words, Gen Z – by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found up to 54% did not have eight engaging experiences in school (i.e. feeling that what they are learning is interesting) per semester. This isn’t just a problem for K-12 teachers, either. A March 2025 study by the University of California which collected over 800,000 student survey responses from 22 public research universities found that student engagement across all areas had declined, including a 17% drop in students assisting faculty with research.
Admittedly, none of this data is terribly encouraging. Fortunately, VR and AR technologies have the potential to swing this troubling trend in the opposite direction. The fully-immersive virtual environments of VR, for example, allow students to explore and interact with their learning materials in new and vivid ways. History students could witness the cataclysmic eruption in Pompeii up close, then fast forward to the modern day to embark on a virtual tour of the ruins. K-12 science students could tangibly experience the scale of interstellar travel by placing themselves in the middle of a digital replica of the solar system. It is little wonder, then, that the VR in Education segment is expected to balloon from $17.18 billion in 2024 to $65.55 billion by 2032.
“Young learners often struggle to understand conceptual ideas. By projecting 3D models in AR it enables students to observe and interact with models differently compared to just viewing them on a screen.”
Rocco Avantis, education specialist at Avantis Education
While VR excels in sheer immersion, AR works best as a tool for contextualising abstract concepts by overlaying digital elements into the real-world environment – either through specialised glasses or the user’s smartphone. For example, a biology class could use AR to study the anatomy of animals with 3D holograms overlaid over a real-life model. As you move around the model, the hologram does too, allowing students to grasp the complexity of animal biology without continuously referring to dryly-written paragraphs in a textbook. In the case of language classes, students could use AR apps that translate text in real-time – say, in a supermarket or a novel written in a foreign language – rapidly accelerating the process of active learning.
It should be noted that there are several fairly appreciable hurdles around implementing AR and VR in education at scale. Firstly, the cost of hardware and software is significant, making it difficult for schools and institutions with limited budgets to afford, maintain and update such technologies. Uneven distribution of the technology could therefore also deepen existing inequalities in education. There is also a steep learning curve for both educators and students. Teachers may require specialised training to integrate AR and VR effectively into their curricula, and this can be both difficult and costly to lock in. At the same time, many teachers may be resistant to adopting unfamiliar technologies. Finally, prolonged use of these technologies raises health and safety concerns, such as eye strain, motion sickness, or overexposure to screens, especially for younger students. Addressing these challenges will prove crucial to unlocking AR and VR’s transformative potential in education.
Trailblazers in extended reality education
Having acknowledged some of the challenges around implementing AI and VR, we should address the fact that a growing number of educational institutions have leveraged the technology to yield positive results. At Arizona State University, for example, students are learning biology in a unique virtual environment, interacting with creatures in an intergalactic wildlife sanctuary the size of a small city. The goal? For students to crack the mystery of why the creatures are dying. The university describes the course, titled ‘Dreamscape Learn’, as being “straight out of Hollywood”. According to its findings, students that participated had “dramatically higher” lab grades and better engagement than their peers who took the conventional lab course. “We were amazed by the results, which far exceeded our expectations and proved our initial assumptions that the interactivity and compelling storytelling of Dreamscape Learn would indeed lead to better student outcomes,” said Lisa Flesher, chief of Realm 4 Project Acceleration at Arizona State University.
Of course, kids love anything resembling a video game, so it is only natural that VR proves useful in K-12 education. For years, pupils at Reddam House School in Berkshire, England, have been using VR headsets to experience a variety of interactive lessons. These range from getting up close and personal with a woolly mammoth to manipulating the planets of the solar system. The success of the project at Reddam House drove the project’s orchestrator, the Inspired Education Group, to create an entire ‘Metaverse School’ – in other words, a digital replica of Reddam House itself, a 19th Century Victorian mansion. This ‘digital twin’ of the school was stitched together from thousands of images taken on-site, and allows students from around the world to participate in the school’s VR-based learning tools. Indeed, many of the VR lessons take place in front of the computer-generated mansion.
When it comes to AR, numerous case studies have already shed light on the technology’s efficacy. At Bader Intermediate School, located in Māngere, Auckland, it is used in sync with 3D printing and other technologies to allow students to turn their media design class ideas into real physical objects. This approach allowed students’ creativity and technological skills to flourish. When AR is coupled with 3D printing, students are empowered to create virtual objects that they can handle and examine, then 3D print their designs to create a tactile counterpart in the real world. This process is intrinsically engaging, as it puts students in control of the creative process and gives them tangible outcomes for their digital efforts.
Dubai British School Jumeirah Park has used AR in a similar way. At the school, students create objects in 3D design app Tinkercad, then use AR to check their models and evaluate them before printing them using a 3D printer. “Young learners often struggle to understand conceptual ideas. By projecting 3D models in AR it enables students to observe and interact with models differently compared to just viewing them on a screen,” explains Rocco Avantis, education specialist at Avantis Education. “AR allows scaled models such as atoms, cells, molecules, planets, and much more to be held in the palm of your hand. Things that are either too small or too large otherwise. AR promotes engagement and participation of students, which is a vital process in learning.”
Generating a better education with AI
AI can create uniquely tailored learning experiences for students and help teachers balance their workload – but we also need to teach it as a subject matter.
With AI tools transforming virtually every industry imaginable, it is only natural that we integrate them into our education too. AI can instantly tailor learning materials to meet the individual needs of students, addressing knowledge gaps through advanced analytics. AI tools also boost accessibility to education through functions like text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and real-time language translation. AI is a boon for teachers’ workloads too, with numerous tools and apps available that can instantly grade papers, detect plagiarism, and assemble schedules. Generative AI can also be deployed to quickly create learning materials and lesson plans, potentially saving massive amounts of time. But as is the case with many new technologies, AI also presents several appreciable challenges. Beyond uneven access to AI tools worldwide, many educators simply lack the technical skills and training needed to effectively use AI tools. More troubling still, the overuse of AI can actually have a counterproductive effect, teaching students to become dependent on technology to do all their hard work and thinking for them. For these reasons, the integration of AI must be thoughtful, deliberate, and use-case oriented – it is not an excuse for students not to do their homework themselves.
Trailblazers in AI-enhanced education
Fortunately, there are no shortage of examples that show us how to deploy AI the right way. Digital learning platform, Innova Academy, was grappling with the challenge of providing personalised instruction to its students, and turned to MagicSchool AI for the solution. MagicSchoolAI is a generative AI assistant designed to simplify teaching tasks, including creating customised learning materials. Through analysis of student data, the assistant was able to help teachers address the challenges of students that were struggling with fractions. Crucially, it generated math problems and visual aids that were directly relevant to students’ interests – for example, basketball – to improve engagement and accelerate the learning process.
Meanwhile, at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, professors Joshua Gans and Kevin Bryan are using AI to streamline support in their sprawling class of over 300 students. Together, they introduced the ‘All Day TA’ (or, teaching assistant) tool to provide answers for students’ general subject matter queries. Over a 12-week semester, the AI fielded over 12,000 queries – far more than was expected. Not only was it capable of providing instant answers, it gave students an opportunity to privately ask questions they may have otherwise been nervous to raise their hand and ask directly. While only intended as a limited pilot, the All Day TA has gone on to be adopted by around 100 universities and business schools. “By providing immediate, accurate responses based exclusively on professor-approved content, we’re not just creating a convenience; we’re fundamentally improving the learning experience,” said Bryan.
“By providing immediate, accurate responses based exclusively on professor-approved content, we’re not just creating a convenience; we’re fundamentally improving the learning experience.”
Professor Kevin Bryan, Founder of All Day TA
In Arizona, plans to take a decidedly more radical approach to AI integration are taking shape with the impending launch of their online charter school, Unbound Academy. Set to open in Autumn 2025, the school places AI at the core of its delivery of core academics, with teachers being rebranded as “guides” instead of subject matter experts. The school’s extensive AI systems will adapt continuously to address what students are excelling in – for example, increasing the difficulty to match the student’s knowledge and skills, but softening its approach if a student isn’t grasping material. The goal is fine-tuned personalisation: a 5th grade student could be reading at an 8th grade level, while starting math at a 3rd grade level.
AI will handle academics for the first two hours of the day with the guides’ assistance, after which the humans will take back the reins to lead “life skills workshops where students learn “practical, real-world experiences” like public speaking and financial literacy. MacKenzie Price, one of the school’s co-founders, explains that more granular subject matters are simply better handled by algorithms. At the same time, they cannot – and probably never will – manage everything. “You cannot get rid of the human in the classroom. That is the whole connection,” she explained. “But what we can do is provide a better model. Instead of a teacher having to try to meet 20-plus different students who are all at totally varied levels of understanding where they’re at academically – that is such an impossible hill, in traditional models, to climb – we’re allowing them to really do what they’re able to do really well: connecting with students.”
AI as both teacher and subject
While these examples may prove illuminating, it’s important to remember that AI is more than just a learning tool: it is a subject matter in and of itself. Preparing our children for a world dominated by AI is increasingly proving to be an absolute necessity. The rapid pace of technological development means that the traditional curriculum – while important – is insufficient. No matter what your child wants to be when they grow up, be it a doctor, a detective, or an athlete, their future job will require new AI-oriented skills. “Educators hold the key to ensuring that today’s students are well-equipped to succeed in a world where A.I. plays a pivotal role in nearly every aspect of daily life and professional endeavor,” emphasises Richard Calutta, Chief Executive of the International Society for Technology in Education.
The good news is that educational institutions are quickly catching up. Some of the world’s most prestigious universities, including MIT, Cambridge and Berkeley, all offer generative AI courses ranging in length from eight to 12 weeks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, major tech companies are also putting their foot in the door. In 2024, Google launched its own Google AI Essentials, a self-paced course designed to help people learn basic to intermediate AI skills that can boost their productivity. Available to the general public for US$49, the course is taught by Google in-house AI experts and assumes no prior programming expertise. Among the course’s offerings are teaching people how to use generative AI as a brainstorming tool – with the goal of making a presentation at the course’s end – and speeding up daily work tasks.
Slightly less attention, however, has been paid to K-12 students. Indeed, few schools currently offer younger students a meaningful education on AI, either in terms of how to use it, how it works, or why it matters for their future. Some effort is, fortunately, being made to correct this: several US states have already adopted K-12 AI programmes to prepare their youth for the growing demand of an AI-enabled workforce – including Florida. While the Sunshine State has yet to see proper implementation of this programme, faculty staff at the University of Florida’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and College of Education are hard at work articulating the framework. They are modelling the framework after the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) national guidelines for teaching AI in elementary and secondary schools. Separately, the NSF is also backing a separate initiative, AI4K12, which aims to establish a federal framework for education about AI.
“You cannot get rid of the human in the classroom – that is the whole connection. But what we can do is provide a better model.”
MacKenzie Price, co-founder of Unbound Academy
Transforming the digital learning platform
To prepare their students for a future driven by advanced technologies, digital learning platforms must work to integrate tools like AI and extended reality.
At the core of the technological revolution we see in the education world today is the digital learning platform. Of course, such platforms are nothing new – they have seen widespread use for well over a decade now. They provide a space where learners can access courses, resources, and interact with instructors or peers. Various solutions exist that cater to learning audiences of all kinds; be it schools, universities, businesses, or individual learners. Relative to the traditional pen and paper methods that preceded them, they triggered a revolution in education by making learning accessible anytime and anywhere.
Now, the world of digital learning platforms faces a revolution of its own through the integration of the technologies we mentioned previously – VR, AR, and AI, respectively. That these platforms will take centre stage more than ever should be of no surprise: according to a report by the Educause Review, 72% of students prefer to learn online, underscoring the shift towards digital resources. So, let’s take a closer look at how these technologies are shaking up the digital learning platform – and which players are out there already, showing us the path forwards.
AI-enhanced digital learning platforms
When it comes to AI integration into the modern digital learning platform, the benefits are relatively obvious. You take the benefits we already know AI brings to the learning experience – personalisation, adaptability, and being available on-demand – and apply them across every facet of the platform to maximise impact. One of the most widely-used learning platforms to offer deep AI integration is Century, currently used by over 60% of colleges in England. Century consolidates a number of the key benefits of AI into a single unified resource. For teachers, it automates marking and offers data analysis and gap finding, while also offering tailored educational experiences for students depending on their individual learning data profiles.
It also offers round-the-clock conversational chatbot support to students, ensuring they always have the information they need to excel, no matter where they are on their learning journey. A recent survey conducted by the platform showed decisive support for its AI integration – particularly for distance learners. In response to the question: ‘Do you feel that Century helped you to improve your skills in your subjects?’ learners gave an average score of 4.56 out of 5. When prompted if they felt the platform helped them boost their confidence, the average score was 4.5. What’s more, 92% of learners reported finding the platform’s AI tools beneficial during the revision process.
VR and AR integration in digital learning platforms
When it comes to VR and AR in the digital learning platform segment, things remain at a decidedly tentative stage. While numerous metaverse-based learning platforms do exist, they tend to be complementary to a central platform, with limited co-integration at best. With that said, some can be quite robust. Metaverse Learning is among the most popular AR and VR learning platforms available today, and has seen fairly substantive adoption at a number of leading technology-oriented learning institutions. Cardiff and Vale College (CAVC) – one of the UK’s largest colleges – is using the Metaverse Learning platform to prepare young students for a fast-changing future. Specifically, it wanted to embed advanced technologies like extended reality into daily teaching and instill the digital literacy skills essential for future employment in students. It also wanted to make children excited about the prospect of embarking on further learning at college.
CAVC has used the Metaverse Learning platform extensively – both in early years programmes and health and social care programmes. Both staff and students have expressed enthusiasm about the efficacy of VR. The college claims that the use of VR goggles has both enhanced learner engagement and improved assessment capabilities in areas including multiple-choice question formats, scenario-based skill development. “We need to move with the times – what happens when a young person becomes an adult; they have to go out into the world to work, and technology is a fundamental part of that,” remarks Jamie Evans, deputy head of health and care at CVAC. “The metaverse has really enabled us to excite learners about coming to college […] It takes the pressure off a classroom environment where they’ve got to contribute in front of their peers.”
“We need to move with the times – what happens when a young person becomes an adult; they have to go out into the world to work, and technology is a fundamental part of that.”
Jamie Evans, deputy head of health and care at Cardiff and Vale College
Into the deep future of tech-infused education
As we peer further into the future, we can glimpse a future where technology has created an educational landscape that is virtually unrecognisable.
As we’ve established in this article, the next major advancements in the education world are likely to be extended reality and AI tools. The more these innovative technologies are deployed at scale and integrated into existing digital learning platforms, the better-prepared tomorrow’s workforce will be to handle rapid change. But the further into the future we go, the more radically transformed our society is going to be. This means that educational institutions can’t let themselves become complacent – they must continuously invest in their students’ futures and remain diligently aware of the latest developments.
What those developments might be, however, might startle you a little. Like most people, you’re probably more than a little squeamish about the idea of neural chips. Quite understandably, too – as far as companies like Neuralink have come in trialling their implants in people suffering profound physical disabilities, things have gone wrong more than once and the technology remains at a very nascent stage of development. If we fast forward to 2050, though, these issues will almost certainly have been corrected a long time ago. In 2050, brain chips won’t just be a core part of people’s lives – they’ll be an essential tool in education and people’s learning journeys.
Eventually, human cognition and AI will be deeply intertwined. By directly interfacing with the brain, neural chips could allow students to process and retain information far more quickly than traditional methods. This means people will simply be able to learn more, pushing educational institutions to ramp up the challenge of their students. Digital learning platforms could even integrate with students’ neural chips, using quantum AI to analyse a student’s cognitive patterns and adapt teaching methods to suit their unique learning style. If you want to take the challenge out of learning entirely, it is conceivable that we will eventually be able to download entire knowledge sets instantaneously into our brains. Suddenly, complex skills like programming or playing a musical instrument could be a matter of a day’s work – not a years-long process.
And while you’re sitting in that future classroom, enjoying your brain chip-enhanced education, you might also find that your teacher isn’t actually a human at all – he’s a hologram. Holographic teachers are essentially virtual representations of teachers, projected into a space using holographic technology. Some of these teachers will be AI-powered, of course, but this technology promises to be a boon for human instructors, too. After all, it effectively allows them to be in multiple places at once – they can stand in one lecture hall, and beam themselves to a hundred more around the world.
Holographic technology may sound far-flung, but unlike neural chips we’re already seeing some fairly meaningful steps towards their realisation at scale. In 2024, the UK’s Loughborough University became the first in Europe to experiment with the technology. It used it to bring in sports scientists from MIT to teach fashion students how to create immersive and mind-blowing shows, as well as to test management students on how to navigate difficult business situations. Director of Undergraduate Studies, Vicki Locke, told The Guardian that students “absolutely love” the technology and find it far more engaging than video conferencing tools. Apps like Zoom, she explained, make students “feel like they were watching TV […] there’s a distance. A holographic image is a lot more engaging and real to them.” The technology – which is based on Proto’s holographic box solution – is slated to be formally introduced into the university’s curriculum later in 2025.
In closing
So, what’s the big takeaway from all this? Well, the truth is that the rapid pace of technological innovation presents both massive opportunities and real challenges for the education sector. It is certainly evident that integrating advanced tools like AI and extended reality into classrooms and digital learning platforms is not just a luxury – it’s a necessity. These technologies have the potential to revolutionise learning by reversing the trend of student disengagement, creating new levels of personalisation, and equipping students with the skills they need for an increasingly tech-driven world. At the same time, these very technologies must become part of the core curriculum that we teach our children. You can’t just deploy AI without also providing clear guidance and instruction to students on how to use it advantageously.
At the same time, integrating all of these things at scale requires massive investments, the likes of which the education sector has not seen in quite some time. Exponentially more so in developing countries where basic digital literacy is itself a luxury. Should we leave these countries behind on our quest to revolutionise education, the deep inequities of modern life will only worsen.
Throughout this article, we’ve provided numerous examples of the major strides already being made to bring the education sector into the future. From AI-powered teaching assistants to immersive VR experiences, there is clearly no shortage of effort to redefine what education can look like. And, as we look to the future, the possibilities become endless. Neural interfaces, holographic teachers, and quantum AI may one day reshape the educational landscape in ways we can only imagine. Throughout it all, the goal remains constant: to prepare students for a world of change by instilling them with the knowledge and skills to thrive. By embracing these technologies with equity and outcomes as our guiding principles, we can ensure that education remains the furnace of future innovation.
