Preparing for the Forthcoming Industrial Revolution: Beyond Virtual Worlds Technologies for Competence Development and Learning

Virtual worlds (VW) propose an immersive environment and sophisticated infrastructure for active learning and complex competence development. While recently the interest toward VW declined, it is expected the release of virtual/augmented reality hardware equipment to bring new impulse for its further explorations in education. The present research aims to discuss the challenges behind VW implementation in the educational process from three main perspectives. First, there will be identified the main benefits of applying virtual worlds for knowledge acquisition and development of complex competences. The second perspective discovers how virtual worlds can be used to transform the educational process, developing a new set of learning and training experiences. Finally, virtual worlds will be analyzed from a disruptive technology point of view, discovering its strengths and limitations for education. At the end, the discussion provides a general framework for assessing the VW benefits for education and its expected further development.