Conclusion

Although virtual worlds, and 3D virtual environments more broadly, have been used in educational contexts for more than 20 years, there remains a great deal that we still do not know about how best to design and use them to maximize learning effectiveness and outcomes. The contributors to this volume have explored a range of research topics related to the use of virtual worlds in education. Topics spanned human-computer interaction issues related to navigation, communication, identity formation, and authentic learning; leading-edge technologies that have the potential to take learning in virtual worlds forward in new directions, with a specific focus on conversational agents and computer-controlled avatars; and considerations and frameworks for designing and implementing learning in virtual worlds. The contributions made by these chapters within the broad areas of human-computer interaction, advanced technologies, and learning design and implementation are discussed in turn in the following parts before concluding with a summary of the main contributions of the book as a whole and the opportunities that exist for future research.