A Second Life for Educators: A Hybrid Extended Reality Education Between Zuckerberg’s Vision and Educational Researchers’ Imaginary

Abstract

While Extended Reality (XR) education is a contested future that consists of diverse discourses, Meta’s monopoly of XR technology leads to the misconception that Mark Zuckerberg’s vision will be the only future of Metaverse education. To address this discursive power imbalance, this paper draws on the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse to analyze the interests and significance behind different discourses on XR education. In particular, through an exhaustive comparison between Zuckerberg’s vision for Metaverse education and educational researchers’ imaginary of XR education, I identify that the primary difference between these discourses is the extent of users’ digital autonomy. This difference unveils the two parties’ grasping motivations: whereas Zuckerberg uses his utopian vision to cover Meta’s recent economic crisis and to secure Meta’s power in the future education market, educational researchers employ their decentralized imaginary to maximize their degree of freedom to create in the future learning environment. Lastly, I argue that the two radical dreams should learn from one another about digital governance. Thus, a hybrid XR education is proposed.