Extended reality technologies for public engagement and skills development

Abstract

We will illustrate some experiences and projects presented at the VITE I conference in the field of extended reality technologies for public engagement and skill development. Extended technologies have many benefits when applied to educational contexts, providing immersive and engaging learning spaces, enhancing the sense of perception and grasp to the students, and thus improving the process of learning and motivation to access to science. Many speakers at the conference underlined that the lack of interest towards scientific topics and the difficulty in understanding science were the main problems they commonly encountered at public events, especially on the part of the young public. The use of extended realities can help overcome these problems, and is also effective for professional training in risky situations providing “a training platform that can be used multiple times for training, without worrying about the cost, availability, risk, and complexity of the equipment or system” (Doolani et al. (2020)). Moreover, when innovation generated by research responds to the need of the production companies, especially SMEs, the knowledge transfer generates a virtuous path, that stimulate the developement of our Country.