Of the many applications that 5G will bring to our everyday lives in the short term, there are some that represent real hope. Chiefly because of the technological leap forward they represent in a range of sectors, but also because of the qualitative improvements they will bring to these sectors and their activities. Education could be one of the big winners when it comes to improving communication and wirelessly transmitting huge volumes of data in the classroom.

Benefits of 5G in educational settings

Initially, 5G will open the door to a range of new devices. And not just peripheral devices, systems and equipment that can’t currently be used in educational settings, but also improved performance of those already in use. Faster networks, lower latency and higher device capacities that can be increased without fear of losing functionality will lead to new ways of designing the curriculum and lesson plans in schools to really benefit from these new opportunities. What’s more, development of the IoT will help these devices broaden their potential applications, given they’ll be able to interact with one another.

On the other hand, the greater connectivity capacities that 5G facilitates will make the world of education the perfect testing ground for introducing augmented reality and virtual reality to the learning process. It will also be much easier to design bespoke learning experiences, both for those with special educational needs and students who need more specific learning pathways.

To round off this promising development, the capacities offered by 5G to significantly improve delocalised IT and data storage, as well as data management in the cloud, mustn’t be forgotten. Over time, this will help schools and other educational settings to connect with one another, sharing information and developing collaboration strategies in real time.

Gaps must be monitored, both in terms of 5G and education

All of the above may just tip the balance towards a firmly optimistic outlook, and rightly so. But we mustn’t forget that, at the moment, there is still a significant amount of work to be done in the world of education if we want 5G to play the role intended for it. On the one hand, because wireless connectivity still isn’t being rolled out in a balanced way in all towns and cities.

There are significant inequalities when you compare large population centres with more rural areas, which are also looking at innovative educational policies as ways to attract young couples to settle in those areas, lessening the impact of the recent demographic exodus. But it’s also necessary to tackle inequalities that exist in terms of the programmes and resources earmarked for educational settings. There are also inequalities in regulations and technological literacy programmes.

Pilot scheme: 5G makes holograms in classrooms a reality

A good way to solve these issues would perhaps be to strengthen remote teaching, given there wouldn’t be so many staff required and educational programmes in remote areas could be strengthened. Thanks to 5G connectivity technology, student experiences could be improved, reducing the negative impact of not having a teacher present by using holographic tutors instead.

The 5GCat pilot project in Cataluña successfully proved two-way holographic communication experiences could be applied in remote learning scenarios, making it possible to volumetrically capture the image of a speaker at a remote location before broadcasting it via streaming, reproducing it three‑dimensionally at another location, all via a private 5G network – which just goes to show, this could be a very promising option for isolated populations further down the line.