Tech Mahindra launches metaverse classroom to teach coding to students in villages

Tech Mahindra’s R&D arm Makers Lab has announced a metaverse platform called Meta Village on Roblox for students from rural India who want to learn the basics of computer science and coding in their native language. 

The IT company said this initiative is part of its commitment to promoting skill development and technical education in rural India. “Metaverse is one such disruptive technology that has the power to revolutionise learning through immersive digital experiences,” said Nikhil Malhotra, Global Head, Makers Lab, Tech Mahindra. 

Training through Meta Village will first start with students in Pargaon, a village in Maharashtra. The students will be able to join live classrooms and offline sessions in Meta Village. 

Also read: Tech Mahindra, Microsoft collaborate to develop virtual security solutions

Makers Lab is already providing training to students in the basics of computers and in Bharat Markup language (BHAML), a web-based editor developed by Makers Lab that allows HTML coding in the mother tongue.

According to Malhotra, Tech Mahindra will leverage metaverse to build innovative solutions for society. The IT company’s foray into Metaverse started this February when it announced TechMVerse, an initiative to use its expertise in 5G, AI, AR/VR, and blockchain to build and offer immersive experiences to customers in the metaverse. 

Some of the projects the IT company has planned under TechMVerse include DealerVerse — a metaverse-based car dealership, Middlemist — an NFT marketplace, and Meta Bank — a virtual bank. 

Roblox has emerged as one of the top choices for building worlds and sharing classroom experiences in the metaverse. The platform is available on smartphones, VR headsets, and gaming consoles. According to RTrack, Roblox had 220 million monthly active users in Q4 2021, up from 150 million in 2020.

Though Tech Mahindra has made early inroads, large enterprises in India are making the move in the metaverse space. For instance, in February Jio Platforms bought a 25% stake in the silicon valley startup Two Platforms, which is working on AI, AR and metaverse.