Leveraging the metaverse wasn't the only topic on the agenda at this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting — the future of education, as envisioned by the meeting's participants, also prominently figured in the meetings last month in Davos, Switzerland.

The WEF held several sessions on education, including "Growing Up in the Pandemic" and "Restating the Economic Case for Education."

The theme coming out of this year's meeting, in relation to education, is the sense of urgency in "reimagining" education, whose future — as imagined by WEF stakeholders — includes a heavy dose of virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

While participants touted the purported economic benefits that would accompany the adoption of these technologies in the classroom, they had little to say about the need to protect children's data or digital identities — or, for that matter, providing the types of early-life experiences children require as part of their socialization.