Classrooms Are Using Digital Twins to Teach Smarter
New Tech Tuesdays
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Published August 19, 2025
Remember chalkboards and textbooks? By now, you're likely aware that these teaching staples have mostly retired, and whiteboards have led the charge for some time. But now whiteboards are being outdone by new educational technologies. Many of today’s students interact within intelligent learning environments that include real-time data and immersive technology. A 2023 survey found that more than 77 percent of teachers are developing unique classroom materials to supplement or replace legacy textbooks.[1]
While digital twins have benefited sectors such as aerospace and manufacturing for some time, these virtual replicas of physical systems that update in real time are now being used inside classrooms, labs, and remote environments. With digital twins, students can gain hands-on experience that allows them to test hypotheses, track simulations, and explore the world without leaving the classroom—or their desk, for that matter.
With the help of sensors, embedded processors, and cloud or edge connectivity, digital twins can mirror everything from climate controls in a smart building to anatomical structures in a biology class for virtual dissections. This means teachers can educate students at the system level and demonstrate real cause-and-effect situations.
Digital twins aren't just a great way to upgrade the education process; they also offer more personalization. Some platforms now use performance data to monitor students individually and adjust simulations in real time based on their performance. For example, in an engineering class, a student can design and virtually build a machine and then see how that design would function in the real world with sensor feedback and predictive modeling.
This week’s New Tech Tuesdays explores some of the possibilities that digital twins offer to educators as they design the classroom of the future.
Building the Brains of the Digital Classroom
In order to bring digital twins into the classroom, several technologies are needed.
Smart Platforms and Sensors
Solutions like Siemens’ Digital Twin Classroom or PTC’s Vuforia Studio allow schools to integrate industrial-grade simulation tools into lesson plans.[2], [3] These platforms incorporate embedded microcontrollers, IoT connectivity, and sensors—temperature, pressure, motion—to simulate real-world behavior inside the classroom.
AI and Edge Computing for Real-Time Feedback
NVIDIA and Intel® are working on artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced digital twins that run real-time physics simulations for hands-on STEM education. Incorporating edge processors in the classroom means the simulations can run locally, reducing latency and allowing students to work on a model and observe results instantly.
Wearables and AR Interfaces
Companies like Lenovo and zSpace are integrating augmented reality (AR) into digital twin education.[4], [5] These immersive learning tools use MEMS motion sensors, embedded GPUs, and AI-enabled visual processing chips to create lifelike, interactive experiences that are especially useful in anatomy, architecture, and engineering.
Currently, the technology is in its early stages, with much of it being used for virtual surgical training (Figure 1). In Switzerland, a joint effort from ETH Zurich, Balgrist University Hospital, and the University of Zurich has been testing surgical digital twins that include virtual reality technology to immerse users and allow them to learn in a similar environment.[6]
Figure 1: Medical students can practice surgical techniques in a virtual simulation environment. (Source: Framestock/stock.adobe.com)
Digital twin technology is also expanding the reach of the classroom. At the University of New South Wales, Teaching and Learning Immersive Authoring (TALIA) is a low-cost digital tool that enables lecturers to create virtual field trips to places that would be inaccessible, like geological sites or Mars.[7] Other uses include applying the digital twin at higher levels of education, such as in automation lines with full-scale industrial equipment right in front of students at research centers.
As the technology becomes more accessible, expect to see more advanced classroom applications like remote lab collaborations, self-adapting courses, and AI-generated learning simulations. There could even be some integration with AI tutors and 5G for low-latency AR and virtual reality (VR) content.
The Newest Products for Your Newest Designs®
The Renesas Electronics AIK-RA6M3 reference kit offers an end-to-end solution for developing AI and machine learning (ML) applications. The kit, based on the Renesas RA6M3 microcontroller, provides AI/ML models and sample applications to speed development. Additional features include two MEMS microphones, a touch display, a camera, and a six-axis MEMS motion-tracking device with a temperature sensor. This kit is ideal for developing real-time analytics and computer vision applications that are integral to digital twin technologies.
Tuesday’s Takeaway
Digital twins are stepping into the classroom to make these environments immersive and more intelligent so students can explore and learn in real time, at all levels. As the hardware evolves, this could be the next step in “hands-on” education that gives students a head start.
Sources
[1]https://www.k12dive.com/news/curriculum-materials-in-classrooms/692920
[2]https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/academic/real-life-educational-experiences-virtual-world/
[3]https://www.ptc.com/en/case-studies/monash-university
[4]https://pages.lenovo.com/ThinkReality-VRX-that-works.html
[5]https://zspace.com/
[6]https://ethz.ch/en/industry/industry/news/data/2024/03/digital-twins-for-the-machine-industry.html
[7]https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2024/08/UNSW-revolutionising-university-education-with-new-virtual-field-trip-tool