Case Study on Overcoming the Digital Divide in Education for Rural Areas Schools: Combining Museum VR/AR and 5G O-RAN
摘要
AR/VR application in school settings has become a common teaching method in recent years. However, remote and rural areas schools lack resources to integrate AR/VR with teaching, illustrating the digital divide in education. In 2023, Taiwan’s government departments promoted a project to subsidize CATV System companies in some rural school’s areas to establish 5G O-RAN, combined with artistic AR/VR content from museums. Through 5G O-RAN architecture, museum’s content is delivered via Mi-Fi to AR/VR head-mounted devices to provide AR/VR experiences in rural classrooms. This project also established an asynchronous digital learning system, where museum staff conducted exhibition tours while broadcasting them to rural schools using 5G for remote tours. All the above are helpful in teaching art and history courses in rural schools through diverse digital experiential modes. The findings of this case study indicate that the project was implemented and maintained by local CATV operators in rural areas, which would help to sustain the project’s impact in rural regions over the long term. This case study also found that this project leverages 5G to overcome transportation difficulties in rural areas, effectively providing students various AR/VR experiences and teachers with digital learning systems and artistic teaching resources.