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Iyer, S. et al. (Eds.) (2022). Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Computers in Education.
Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education
Two-way Knowledge Transfer Among
University Academics, Young Entrepreneurs,
NGOs and Students in STEM and IoT
Metaverses: Conceptual Model, Research
Agendas and Contextual Challenges
Percy Lai-Yin KWOK a*, Joe Kwong-Ngai CHEN b & Jordan Tsz-Chun FUNG c
aThe Education University of Hong Kong
b ICT-In-Physical Education Foundation Ltd.
c Jordan Fung & Company (Hong Kong) Ltd.
*lykwok@eduhk.hk
Abstract: This paper presents an innovative metaverse design through collaborations among
university academics, industry entrepreneurs, NGOs and students through a two-way knowledge
transfer (KT) model. Unlike previous one-way KT approaches, this paper endeavors to formulate
an interactive two-way KT conceptual model with evaluation of creative technological products,
entrepreneur coaching programs and social caring services through (Arts/Green/Sports) STEM
and IoT Metaverses. In the top layer of the KT model, one gigantic integrative network of
academics, scientists and creative technologists work as a big data pool to provide high-tech
professional knowledge. In the lower layers, collaborations among university academics,
technology developers, industry entrepreneurs, NGOs and students work out
knowledge-building community-of-practices using youth entrepreneur leadership models to
develop technological products and provide services. For sustainability of knowledge transfer,
educational / social funds will be used to support student activities financially. Participating
young entrepreneurs care the elderly and disadvantaged people and develop their moral
conscience during some STEM activities in empathic societies. Noteworthy, this paper presents
five key features of decentralization, immersive properties, digital currency ecosystems (using
blockchain technology), social experiences and persistency in the construction of met connecting
real and virtual worlds. It also shows valuable learning experiences of participating students in
STEM, game-based learning and IoT metaverses to testify the feasibility of knowledge transfer.
Future research agendas in knowledge transfer in metaverses and contextual challenges will be
addressed through action project reflection in the paper.
Keywords: Knowledge transfer, metaverses, STEM, IoT, action project
1. Introduction
Metaverse is a current and future integrated totality of the physical world and virtual world
connecting internet-of-things (IoT) and other aspects of human lives with a wide range of applications
of (wired / wireless) computer networks, handheld mobile devices, augmented reality / virtual reality /
substitutional reality / mixed reality / extended reality (AR/VR/SR/MR/XR), artificial intelligence (AI)
and robotics. Currently, metaverses provide a range of human imaginations and potential functionalities
that enable new modes of e-business, e-trades, e-digital currencies and e-learning, and lots of immersive
social and virtual experiences in STEM education and game-based learning (GBL). IoT and STEM
metaverses refer to focused uses of internet-of-things (IoT) and STEM applications respectively into
daily lives connecting the physical world and virtual world in metaverses. Proponents of metaverse
education often pay heed to its virtual world construction but fail to pay close attention to the
connections between physical and virtual worlds especially when some new technology is being applied
into our daily lives (Hirsh-Pasek, et al. 2022). In this paper, an innovative two-way knowledge transfer
model is implemented with evaluation in some IoT and STEM metaverses.
Previous knowledge management (KM) models aim to turn implicit knowledge into explicit
knowledge, partly originated from Polanyi (1962)’s distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge.
New KM emerging concepts in 1995-2005 include knowledge economy, knowledge alliance,
knowledge culture, knowledge organization, knowledge infrastructure, and knowledge equity
(Baskerville & Dulipovici, 2006). However, it is very difficult for KM and educational researchers to
find out those socio-cultural mechanisms for transforming implicit knowledge into explicit one. Facing
such problems, some KM researchers in school education would like to start firstly with KT from
individual students’ tacit knowledge and sharing of learning experiences in apprenticeship or
mentorship through Socialization; secondly, transforming from tacit knowledge to explicit one in group
activities through Externalization; thirdly, a Combination (socio-cognitive synthesis) of existing
explicit knowledge into new explicit knowledge; and fourthly, students’ putting what they have learned
into practices from their explicit knowledge through individual Internalization by adopting traditional
KM (SECI) models of Nonaka & Konno (1998), Nonaka & Toyama (2003). The two processes for
knowledge entering and leaving the KT system are assimilation and dissemination respectively in
organizational knowledge. There would be a strong potential of using some ICT innovations in virtual
worlds (AR/VR/SR/MR/XR) and real world to make connections with those socio-cognitive features in
the four-step spiraling processes of SECI interactions between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge
through metaverse construction. And KT should not be limited to teacher-oriented knowledge transfer
(TKT) (like Peng et al. 2021) and student-oriented KT should have strong communal connections with
other members of communities-of-practices beyond school education.
Knowledge transfer (KT) is more than learning. KT conceptually differs from knowledge
sharing or knowledge dissemination, which was merely used for knowledge exchange between sources
and recipients of knowledge. KT takes certain forms of information science and software engineering as
knowledge reuse (Markus, 2001) but extends beyond the KM organizations’ absorptive capacity to
identify, assimilate and exploit knowledge (Alavi & Leidner, 2001). Previous KT models in school and
workplace education have only one-way direction from high-level technical knowledge in industry or
academics to students and teachers or very limited two-way interactions between academic institutions
and the larger communities without direct, practical applications to schools. Therefore, there would be
another strong feasibility of constructions of AR/VR/SR/MR/XR to connect with student knowledge
transfer (SKT) to go beyond the scope of prior KT research studies through STEM and IoT metaverses.
2. Interactive Two-way Knowledge Transfer Model (See Appendix 1)
2.1 Importance of big data pools for provision of high-tech knowledge
In the top layer of the KF model, one gigantic integrative network of academics, scientists and creative
technologists as a big data pool to provide high-tech professional knowledge. Without such content
knowledge, KT cannot be initiated or updated as students need to obtain new professional knowledge
directly from those experts and indirectly from university academics. In Web 3.0 metaverses, student
learners are engaged into a variety of NFT STEM programs in the action projects. There are five
underlying characteristics of IoT metaverse depicted in table 1.
Table 1. Key features of metaverses and socio-cognitive functions in student activities
Key Features
of Metaverses
Socio-cognitive Functions in Two-way
Knowledge Transfer (KT) model
Students’ exemplified activities in IoT
and STEM metaverses
Decentralized
Communal ownership enhances
socialization and externalization in KT
Students learn Ethereum blockchain to
understand the importance of communal
ownership for e-trade transactions,
tokens, e-marketing prices & bitcoins
Immersive
4-D / 5-D visualization facilitates
members’ embeddedness into
metaverses for cognitive assimilation
and dissemination in KT
Students’ valuable ‘immersive’
properties can be actualized by their
usage of AR glasses and VR/MR
headsets with some multiple-role
perceptions of ultra-realistic digital
worlds in metaverses experiences
Digitalization
Monetization in digital currencies to
In digital currency ecosystems using
build value systems of buying goods and
consuming services in combination
(cognitive synthesis) in KT
blockchain technology, students use
e-cash coupons in AI shops to buy / sell
products and services in T metaverses
Social
experience
Gamification and STEM / IoT
experiences builds empathized
knowledge and moral conscience
through internalization, externalization,
socialization and combination in KT
Students exercise young
entrepreneurship skills to produce new
knowledge products and provide caring
services to the elderly and disadvantaged
people
Persistency
Accessibility without spatiotemporal
constraints consolidates communal
membership and further enhances
socialization and externalization in KT
Students share their STEM / IoT
experiences by interacting with other
members without spatiotemporal
constraints in STEM / IoT metaverses
There is a strong potential for metaverse members to be fully engaged in private and sharable
communal spaces without possible threats posed by the pandemic (Hady, 2022). Such privacy and
health security further enhances two-way KT.
2.2 Key features of metaverses and new educational directions of metaverses
The following features of IoT metaverses help foster socio-cognitive development of students
and other key members of the two-way KT model. Some shortcomings of traditional collaborative
learning communities-of-practices would not be found in IoT metaverses. Various types of knowledge
transfer (KT) have been fostered and sustained by the following features of IoT metaverses (e.g. What
is Metaverse? Step-by-step guide into the Metaverse, 2022):
⚫ Awareness of ethical and legal concerns in members’ social and moral responsibilities, data
privacy, patent and intellectual property rights of members and products / services in metaverses
⚫ Flexibility and diversities in all types of individual and social seamless learning, formal and
informal education, (serious or causal) game-based learning (GBL) and non-game-based learning,
academic discussions and experiential sharing (in videoconferencing, cloud phones, and online events
platforms) and knowledge-building discourses anytime and everywhere
⚫ Freedom earned in selection of learning and teaching modes, choices in real world (RW), virtual
world (VW) and RW-VW, inviting or recruiting particular members or groups of members for
interactions or accepting others’ invitation or recruitment (allowing self-learning times and modes for
deep or extensive learning)
⚫ Transferability of information and sharing in single-, cross- and multiple-platforms in all types of
PCs, handheld devices, dataloggers, mobiles, other PCs in wired / wireless networks, IoTs and so forth
2.3 Roles of NGOs in knowledge transfer
Being a good strategic partner in two-way KT, non-government organizations (NGOs) have played
significant roles of catering for ongoing and ever-changing needs of local communities in flexible
mode, creating innovative collaboration projects for diverse needs of schools and social service centers,
providing realistic startup and meaningful youngsters internship opportunities through project
collaboration, maintaining regular business relationships with technology vendors and social worker
partners and connecting learning, course materials and learning tools with real industry. In some
circumstances, NGOs perform more flexibly and earn more freedom for collaborators to explore than
formal education partners in the perspectives of industry entrepreneurs and students in the
aforementioned action projects (Institute for Social Innovation, 2022; Zbuchea et al., 2019).
3. Action Research Design and Deliverable Products / Services
3.1 Overview of three cycles of action projects
The action projects run in ceaseless spiral cycles of ‘planning-monitoring-evaluating’ in two successive
stages. Stage 1: initiating individual-, group and class-oriented IoT and STEM projects with stepwise
evaluations and preparing for future development of related metaverses at micro-and meso-levels
(one-way KT). Stage 2: connecting current projects and developing big-scale ones after stepwise
evaluation, adjustment and modifications in current development of related metaverses at micro-and
meso-levels (two-way KT)
In Stage 1, a series of innovative STEM programs and products have been delivered by the
second and third authors in the following activities in table 2.
Table 2. Learning Outcomes in STEM programs related to KT
Programs or Stories Behind
Learning outcomes (sharing links)
Aspects of KT
1. Projection Mapping Prince Fat
Shing@ The Education
University of Hong Kong:
True love to share the STEM education
experience of climbing up from the bottom
of life: https://youtu.be/3mbIgWe5xHw
Sharing student learning
experiences for promoting
educational services in
STEM education
2. Cyberport Tai Chi Pass vs MoCap
Events
Co-organized school summer activities
held after students completed the course
internship
https://youtu.be/F42LxaNzZ34
Actualizing Sports STEM
into martial arts Tai Chi
using student internship
3. AIR ‒ AI Retail (Community
Retail):
Students’ usage of e-cash coupons in
purchasing products and consuming
services
https://www.ictinpe.org/ai-ministore
Sharing student learning
experiences in digital
currency ecosystems
4. IGB ‒ IoT Green BMS (Building
Management System)
Students’ awareness in Green education
https://www.ictinpe.org/iot-classroom
Raising awareness in
Green education and
revolution in empathic
societies
In Stage 2, several educational, social and industrial funds are being drawn to support a series of
Blockchain and NFT STEM program which will be delivered to some needy students. For instance, the
two-way knowledge transfer will take place when one young entrepreneur with undergraduate major in
Blockchain technology delivers some lectures and conduct some instep training tutorials for a group of
participating secondary school students.
Figure 1 & Figure 2. Snapshots of one NFT STEM tutorial on metaverse and coding on blockchain
3.2 Nature of Collaborations Between Academics, Industry Entrepreneurs, NGOs and Students
In the two-way KT model, university academics provide professional research support, look for fund
and co-organize coaching and training programs for participating students and young entrepreneurs.
Industry entrepreneurs devise innovative technological products and services, launch coaching and
training programs on new technology to needy students, and finetune or improve them after seeking
valuable student feedback. Meantime, NGOs provide funding support, recruit young knowledge
co-workers, provide career planning services, provide appropriate industrial resources (free space,
connections with people and intern programs) for developing youth entrepreneurship models.
Participating schools maximize students’ other learning experiences (OLE) resources and applying for
external grants to purchase necessary equipment and other learning resources.
3.3 Youth Entrepreneur Leadership Model in Metaverses
Past research literature on youth entrepreneurship focuses on social and cultural capital (Turner &
Nguyen, 2005) and entrepreneurial resourcefulness (Quagrainie et al., 2022). This paper presents
another model using KT in metaverse education. During the implementation stages 1 and 2, proactive
student leaders have played distinctive roles of creating innovative technological products in the
business / industry sector, coordinating intern teams and supporting collaborations team works,
nourishing moral conscience and positive / value education in entrepreneurship and providing caring
services to needy (elderly and disadvantaged) people. Such traits exhibit a new young entrepreneur
leadership model in metaverses, which is an under-researched topic in ICT education (c.f. training
programs offered by Summer Discovery, 2022). Youth entrepreneurs use an intrinsic motivation to
explore interested learning topics and invent creative technology products, and they learn by mistakes.
4. Future Research Agendas
Since the applications of metaverses in school and workplace education are still in an immature stage.
Currently, there has not been any detailed cognitive or socio-cognitive international or local studies on
using IoT and STEM metaverses in school and workplace education. After the first and second stages of
the action project, some heated research agendas need to be addressed such as quantitative and
qualitative measurement of knowledge transfer (KT), socio-cognitive aspects of KT in Arts / Green /
STEM and IoT metaverses, socio-cultural and sociological issues like gender inequalities, parental
motives for buying paid products and services from schools and industry entrepreneurs and curricular
development of relevant blockchain application course modules to those needy students in Arts / Green
/ STEM and IoT metaverses
Challenges ahead include sustainability in subsequent / parallel development of various types of
metaverses, continuity of funding support, professional accreditation of organized products and
deliverable services, lack of academic / know-how knowledge in blockchain applications in school
education and uncertain collaboration channels and unclear virtual world-real world connections.
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Green arrows denote knowledge transfer (KT)
Red arrows denote educational coaching / training;
Blue arrows denote financial support
Appendix 1. A Multi-level Two-Way KT Model in STEM and IoT Metaverses
A Big data pool of knowledge from academics, entrepreneurs & technologists
Educational
& Social
Funding
Arts / Sports /
Green STEM
Metaverses
IoT Metaverses:
IoT MetaBattels
Youth Entrepreneur
Professionalism
(creativity, instincts)
Empathetic Society:
caring others and
moral conscience
Socialization of
tacit knowledge
through lived
experiences in
STEM
metaverses
Internalization of
knowledge from
explicit knowledge
Combination of
Explicit knowledge
to form new explicit
knowledge
Externalization
from implicit to
explicit knowledge
in IoT Metaverses
Knowledge Transfer:
Deliverable Products & Services
By Primary and Secondary
school students
Coaching
/ training
courses co-run
by tertiary
institutes,
industry
entrepreneurs
and NGOs
Two-wa knowledge transfer
evaluated and
modified by action
project reflections
Virtual world
Real world
