Vienna, September 2026: From 2 to 4 September 2026, the partners of the European PAX project met at the University College of Teacher Education Vienna for the PAX consortium’s fifth face to face meeting. The meeting was hosted by I, Fashion and Design, at the Urban Diversity Education Campus of the University College of Teacher Education Vienna. The focus was on current project results, experiences from the participating countries, and planning the next steps.
PAX stands for Pedagogical Alliance for XR Technology in (Teacher) Education. The project brings together six European higher education institutions and three partners from the field of XR development. Its aim is to develop research based and practice oriented approaches to the use of Extended Reality in schools and teacher education. Extended Reality, or XR, encompasses technologies such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality. In education, the focus extends beyond the technical possibilities of these technologies. A central question is how they can be meaningfully integrated into teaching and learning processes. Teachers should be supported in assessing XR applications from both subject specific and pedagogical perspectives and in using them purposefully.
The meeting was opened by Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Norbert Kraker. In his welcoming remarks, he addressed the relevance of the project results for engaging with emerging technologies in education and teaching. Two students then presented their work, providing insights into different approaches to XR. Afterwards, the project partners reported on the status of the individual work packages and discussed progress to date, outstanding tasks, and the next joint steps. Key topics included the PAX XR Compass, the PAX Guideline for XR Developers, the PAX Training Space, and experiences from the PAX Refinement Hubs. The exchange also covered the transfer and dissemination of project results, their impact, and plans for further publications.
One of the project’s main outcomes is the PAX XR Compass, developed under the leadership of the Vienna PAX project team. It supports teachers in navigating XR technologies and in planning their use in educational contexts on a sound basis. The PAX XR Compass addresses fundamental aspects of XR, potential applications in teaching, competence development, and approaches to evaluation.
During a joint VR tour of Vienna, the participants explored the practical use of Virtual Reality as part of a city tour and discussed the experience from an educational perspective. The tour also provided an opportunity for informal exchange within the international consortium.
On the final day, the focus was on reports from the participating countries, experiences from previous pilot activities, and planned upcoming activities. Further topics included preparations for the PAX VR Days, which will take place in Münster in February 2027, as well as a discussion entitled “PAX 2.0: Visions of the Future”, which explored possible perspectives for continued collaboration.
The project meeting in Vienna showed that several concepts developed during the project are increasingly being translated into concrete tools and application scenarios. The PAX XR Compass, the PAX Training Space, and other project outcomes are being continuously tested and further developed. Exchange between research, educational practice, and technological development remains a central component of the international collaboration.
