ABSTRACT
Storytelling has long been a part of oral culture, but this oral exchange occurs in a special kind of imaginary setting, a toy castle that has an embodied autonomous agent-Sam-projected on a screen behind the castle. Sam is programmed to promote literacy skills by interacting in humanlike ways with children by taking turns as they tell stories. Autonomous agents like Sam allow realistic interactions in 3-D virtual environments (VEs) that can promote literacy skills through social interaction.
