The last decade has seen virtual worlds transform from novelty to powerful tool. In education, learning environments have been created with this technology in subjects as diverse as genetics, midwifery, sculpture, language learning and occupational psychology. In addition, in the US, major corporations have used virtual worlds for staff training and collaboration, as have the US army. This talk will describe six generic ways in which virtual worlds can offer a better learning environment than the physical world, with examples from the speaker’s experience. The talk will conclude by discussing the seventh reason for teaching in a virtual world – the future. In particular, the speaker will share his vision of a development path for virtual worlds, and show how the six existing reasons will be amplified as technology and teaching practice moves forward. [Note, some images have links to relevant YouTube videos]