Students might enjoy meeting and chatting to people their own age. Visualising 3D objects - while students can use premade objects from the object library some students will want to build their own. Building objects in 3D relies on a knowledge of the Cartesian coordinate system. Those students who don't want to build objects from scratch can improve their 3D visualisation skills by manipulating and fitting together objects inside the virtual world. More advanced programming may be encouraged by showing students how to build bots.
Bots are automated programs which can have all sorts of functions.
For example, some worlds features bots which will play soccer with you. Other worlds feature bots which will answer questions about the world or even give you a tour. Many projects will require the co-operation of a number of people. Literacy is promoted by the fact that the chat interface is text. 2D and 3D creative skills will be encouraged in this new medium where they will be finding out what the creative rules are, by exploration as opposed to learning by instruction.