Despite the rapid growth of digital tools in education, many classrooms still struggle with limited engagement, rigid instructional methods, and equity gaps that hinder personalized learning. Traditional teaching often fails to provide safe, interactive environments for skill practice, while access to advanced resources remains uneven across regions. Generative artificial intelligence (AI), however, offers a transformative solution by powering immersive technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality to create learner-centered classrooms. AI-enhanced VR delivers adaptive simulations and virtual field trips; AI-driven augmented reality overlays personalized content on physical textbooks; and AI-guided mixed reality blends real objects with virtual overlays for safe, hands-on practice. Core strategies include AI-supported virtual reality field trips, augmented reality enhanced textbooks, mixed-reality simulations, real-time analytics dashboards, adaptive difficulty, and teacher-in-the-loop professional development. In Southeast Asia, applications are already visible—Singapore deploys AI-enabled driving simulators, Malaysia builds extended reality studios and immersive-ready schools, and the Philippines integrates AI-powered augmented reality history apps and virtual reality campus tours within the MATATAG Curriculum. Together, these examples highlight how AI and immersive technologies not only overcome traditional barriers but also boost engagement, personalize instruction, bridge equity gaps, and equip learners with future-ready competencies.
Libby MacdonaldJill AshburnerKeely Harper‐Hill