Teaching in the Metaverse: Recreating an Italian Level A1 Course in Meta Horizon Woorkrooms

In recent years, the concept of the Metaverse has led to considerable ethical and moral discussions about the digital creation of an alternative world. Despite the extensive investments made by multinationals such as Meta [1] or Roblox [2], the possibilities offered by the Metaverse in Virtual Reality have not yet been able to meet expectations due to issues such as the high cost of Head-Mounted Displays and a low presence of active users. The creation of virtual lessons that can be delivered directly within the Metaverse is an aspect that has not yet been properly explored and could finally lead to effective use of the virtual worlds born in recent years. This paper aims to lay the theoretical and practical basis for transporting a course designed to teach Italian at level A1 within the immersive environment of Meta Horizon Workrooms [3]. The features offered by the virtual office created by Mark Zuckerberg's company can provide a safe environment in which to engage students while keeping their active attention on the educational objective and avoiding the distractions caused by distance learning.