The metaverse is a concept that has recently emerged as a key topic of discussion across various industries, including education. Although there is no universally accepted definition of the metaverse, it is generally understood as a collective technology-supported virtual space that facilitates interactive communication, collaborative learning, and innovative content creation. This paper seeks to investigate multiple perspectives on the definition of the metaverse, placing special emphasis on its applications within the educational sector, and employing keyword analysis from relevant academic literature to highlight current trends and key insights. The need for this study stems from the potential of the metaverse to transform educational experiences by offering personalized, immersive, and engaging learning opportunities. Nonetheless, successful implementation of the metaverse in education requires overcoming a range of technical, security, and social challenges. Educational institutions must invest in the necessary infrastructure, training, and resources to effectively integrate these technologies into their curricula. This paper contributes to the body of research with a coherent overview of how the metaverse can be defined and applied in educational processes, and by analyzing key terms and trends, aims to highlight the essential technologies and approaches that shape this emerging field. The research findings indicate that the metaverse in education is increasingly linked to the development and application of cutting-edge technologies that foster richer interactive experiences. Key technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), as well as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet-of-Things (IoT), blockchain technologies and others, are revolutionizing traditional educational paradigms by providing immersive environments where students can engage with content in new and innovative ways. Critical issues like ethical concerns, data privacy, AI bias, and the psychological effects of immersive environments, are pivotal to the ongoing discussion and essential for the integration of the metaverse into education in a sustainable, scalable and holistic manner.

This paper examines the area of technology development for virtual educational avatars. Since such avatars can be real-like and closely resemble real or fictional persons, the paper examines practical aspects of such designs, linking technology designs to pedagogy requirements. Following these, technology development considerations for realistic voice and video generation and the corresponding architecture which enables realistic virtual avatar for use in education are discussed. Additionally, using powerful CPUs and GPUs shows how current technology allows for efficient and sophisticated video and audio generation, emphasizing the need for optimized resource management to balance processing speed and output quality.

This paper presents a novel method for generating speaking avatars from text, images, and custom audio, designed to enhance digital communication and virtual interaction. Method involves two primary components: image processing and audio synthesis. It starts with a static image of a person and applying facial recognition and animation algorithms to create a dynamic, lifelike avatar capable of realistic mouth movements and expressions. Concurrently, it utilizes text-to-speech (TTS) technology to convert written text into natural-sounding speech, tailored to match the avatar's identity and intended emotional tone. By integrating these two elements, it is ensured that the avatar's lip movements are synchronized with the generated audio, resulting in a seamless and engaging user experience. Additionally, by leveraging powerful CPUs and GPUs, it is demonstrated how current technology enables efficient and sophisticated video and audio generation. The findings underscore the need for optimized resource management to achieve balanced processing speed and output quality. As a potential direction of future research, it is proposed to test virtual avatars in real educational environments, with an emphasis on evaluating the effect on learning, motivation and engagement of students.

This paper presents the results of a systematic review of the research papers on the use of explainable AI in the real world. The present body of research indicates there is a huge drive from the academic society in pushing and exploring explainable AI across disciplines from a research perspective, and there is inherent need to design prototypes with increased complexity to tackle the numerous scientific and methodological issues in the process. The main conclusions of the review are that there exist serious methodological issues with the use of XAI in complex systems which reside on vast or layered information systems spanning across multiple organizational units with important data sometimes missing, potentially limiting the validity of the XAI approach used in practice. For XAI to work in the real-world context of education, the approaches to presenting explanations to the stakeholders such as teachers and students should be understandable by them to take appropriate actions or decisions. This would highlight the need to study of human-computer interaction between AI and users that would lead to better transparency, trust and personalization.

This paper describes the results of a systematic review dealing with the use of personas, avatars, and characters in conjunction with AI-supported tools such as chatbots or generative AI in education. Although the use generative AI in education is gaining traction, this study seeks to systematically review the body of knowledge dealing with personified and conversational approaches to education with both pre-generative and generative AI. The results of the study emphasize the importance of the three key elements of such systems: the use of pedagogical agents, interaction, and personalization. These key elements can be relevant when considering the adoption of the new generation of generative AI in education. Such systems should scaffold learners’ understanding providing guidance and support, promote self-directedness and ensure effectiveness in learning, provide customized learning paths, and promote ethical use.

In this paper, the use of generative AI for creating educational personas is presented. Prior to the appearance of generative AI, conversational AI was used to enhance educational environments with the use of technologies such as chatbots. Generative AI brings a new dimension as it allows for the creation and use of personas mimicking real people, historical figures, and even fictional characters. Such designs potentially bring a new immersive and interactive dimension to learning, but further research is required to understand the full potential of these technologies. In this paper, the experiences and challenges in appropriating language learning models to act as potential educational personas are described.