Abstract
This chapter examines how Turkish educational researchers used the Metaverse concept during the Covid-19 pandemic. A thorough examination of the term metaverse is conducted from its emergence, evolution, past and current usage within the academic circles, along with the terms edufication and gamification. Document analysis method is chosen to do a systematic literature review on academic journals. Search was conducted with added keywords to the Metaverse within the literature in Turkish and English. Although the term is a relatively new entrant to the academic research, it is continuously evolving along with the technological advancements its applications to the industry and social life; hence, the concept and its usage will be a continuous subject of further research. The result of the analysis showed that Turkish researchers mainly prefer ‘three-dimensional virtual world' instead of the term Metaverse, and the ones found to use Metaverse mainly misuse the term out of its internationally accepted definition.
TopBackground
The Metaverse is a hard to define and a complex concept. The term has extended way beyond Stephenson’s 1992 3D virtual world, by encapsulating physical word ‘things’ that interact with virtual environments. In the 2007 report of the Acceleration Studies Foundation’s (ASF) project named MetaVerse Roadmap (MVR) (Smart et al., 2007), the term’s definition was given a good starting point: “The Metaverse is the convergence of 1) virtually-enhanced physical reality and 2) physically persistent virtual space. It is a fusion of both, while allowing users to experience it as either.”(p.4).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Augmented Reality (AR): A computer-generated synchronous or asynchronous enhanced appearance of real-life spaces with sounds, graphics.
Edufication: Enriching a non-educational game with educational experiences.
Virtual Reality (VR): An immersive hybrid reality that contains fictions and imagination which was created using technology.
Three-dimensional Virtual World (3D VW): A three-dimensional digital space that represents a world with some realistic or figmentive characteristics.
Gamification: Applying fun factor of the games into any real-life tasks to transfer advantage of gameful experiences ie. motivation to engage.
Metaverse: A web of interconnected multiuser platforms that allow users to interact both in real-life and immersive virtual environments at the same time with real-time and dynamic communication.
Avatar: An image that was created by user electronically, it may be realistic or manipulated, depending on the user’s wishes.