Education in Virtual Worlds: Virtual Storytelling

This paper is dedicated to the idea of studying in virtual worlds and discusses how virtual storytelling technology (VST) can provide an educational process. We try to answer the question - is it possible to substitute a real learning environment with a fully immersive 3D virtual space? And if so, what role should a virtual teacher play and what skills should he have? We describe several advantages that virtual environment (VE) has as compared to an ordinary classroom. It enables children to explore a phenomenon involved and gives them a strong incentive to study. Further, in VE we can transfer a lesson to inaccessible places and carry out demonstrations and experiments that are unrealizable on Earth. We consider the relationship between VST and game-like environments. We present some particular educational applications developed at our institute on the basis of Avango VR-system. Finally, we discuss the future of educational virtual environments and virtual storytelling.