The role of digital literacy in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality in popular science education: a review study and an educational framework development

This study aims to bridge the gap between extended reality (XR) and digital literacy (DL) in popular science education and further develop a DL–XR framework. XR includes augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR, VR, and MR), which has received increased attention and has been used for educational purposes in recent years. However, the studies of XR in popular science education and its impact on students are scant. It is also challenging to find studies entailing XR and DL in education. This study not only offers an overview of the status quo of XR education but also is the first research presenting a referential framework that systematically integrates the many dimensions of XR and DL for future research and educational practices. XR has been extensively used in museums, benefiting users with immersive, authentic, hands-on, and interactive experiences. In the DL–XR framework, based on the variations of “individual-group” and “passive consumption-active creation”, eight dimensions of DL linked to XR are proposed, including “access and understanding”, “evaluation”, “ethics and well-being”, “interaction”, “collaboration”, “creation”, “problem-solving”, and “civic engagement and responsibility”. In the nurturing of DL, evidence revealed that XR is mostly used for learners to access knowledge/information and interact with virtual items; nonetheless, its applications for active creation, problem-solving, and collaboration are seldom prioritised. This study further proposes integrating project-based learning into XR pedagogical practices, which can maximise its impact on learning and empower the learners to achieve advanced levels of DL.