A critical review of multimedia design and its transition to immersive education

This article presented a critical review of multimedia design in education and its transition toward immersive environments, particularly the metaverse. Far from approaching it as a mere technical innovation, it was conceived as a symbolic habitat: a projected construction in which subjectivities, bonds, and ways of knowing were reconfigured. From a technohuman perspective, it was argued that design was not a neutral aesthetic, but a cognitive and affective architecture that taught—not through content, but through the form that gave it structure. Drawing on the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, connectivism, and critical digital literacy, it was analyzed how immersive interfaces conditioned the educational experience. It was not enough to digitize content or transfer the classroom to a virtual environment; it was necessary to rethink the educational act as an ethical, situated, and sensitive design gesture. Each texture, each avatar, each navigational rhythm embodied an implicit pedagogy that configured the dwelling of knowledge. The article articulated seven chapters that traversed from the visual language of design to the ethical dilemmas and subjective implications of interaction in the metaverse. It was not about celebrating immersion for its novelty, but about questioning it for its effects. Because teaching in these new territories was not about dazzling with stimuli, but about igniting critical thinking. Everything else was mere scenography.