Virtual worlds can be used for educational purposes by allowing students to take on different roles and identities, communicate both synchronously and asynchronously, and collaboratively create and manipulate virtual objects. While recreating an entire school within a virtual world can be time-consuming, pilot projects have shown educational potential in motivating students. For virtual worlds to be effectively used in education, teachers and experts should work together to develop a variety of didactic scenarios of varying complexity that provide clear added educational value.