People educated at a time before computers became so ubiquitous might be surprised that game construction is considered educational. But Donna Burton-Wilcock, chief executive of Immersive Education, can see where this approach delivers, thanks to her teaching background.

The Cassington-based company makes creative educational software and was set up to continue the work of a research project backed by hardware and software giant Intel and Oxford University.

Mrs Burton-Wilcock, 47, said: "The important point is that these are tools to make games, not games themselves.

"This means children are using their deductive powers, logic, imagination and even mathematical and writing skills when constructing a game.

"It is particularly good for reluctant writers, as the text they have to write is broken down into small chunks, which makes it easier. Both trainers and learners enjoy themselves and when that happens, people learn more."

The seeds of the company were sown during a research project in 1997, with the business being incorporated the following year.

Mrs Burton-Wilcock explained: "What essentially happened was that Intel went to Oxford University's Educational Studies Department and said if we give you funding and access to designers and graphic artists, what software would you make for children?'"

She was then teaching English at Bartholomew School in Eynsham, but got involved in the project while studying for her DPhil at Christ Church College.

The project took off and she helped establish Immersive Education, which was set up to develop commercial products from the results of the research.

The first major product was Kar2ouche, a PC-based application that allows children to create storyboards, role-playing activities, films and publications.

Now used in 7,000 schools worldwide, it is a tool that can be used either to create content from scratch, or ready-made material can be loaded into it, for example a Shakespeare play, or a period of history.

It was the traditional methods of teaching Shakespeare that Ms Burton-Wilcock targeted with the first Kar2ouche implementation.

She explained: "So often Shakespeare is taught in a way that puts children off for life. The language is hard to understand and reading it in class doesn't engage learners.

"I started putting Shakespeare plays into Kar2touche to animate them and hold children's interest."

This paid off, and Kar2ouche became a respected product, winning many BETT awards at the British Trade and Technology shows. It was followed by Krucible, a simulator aimed at physics with a lot of mathematical work behind it, and then Mediastage, which allows learners to create plays and shows.

But Ms Burton-Wilcock wanted to deliver more. "There were a lot of good graphics in the products from the people Intel gave us access to, but little in the way of any game element. That is what I wanted to see, but it's a very expensive business to be in."

This desire led to the creation of missionmaker' which allows teachers and pupils to design and play their own 3D computer games.

Immersive focuses on making tools so that teachers, pupils, or other commercial operations, can carry the overhead of making the games.

Immersive's shareholders expect profit to be delivered but are not pushing hard at the moment, as they are realistic about the investment involved and are all interested in giving something back to education. This feeds the company's reputation.

Mrs Burton-Wilcock said: "We are one of the few companies respected in education for having integrity, as we are driven by educational research, not profit alone."

Future plans involve global expansion as Immersive feels that the UK market is too small for the level of investment it has has made in its products. The company is looking for this growth through the development of licensing deals.

"We have deals signed up in many areas in the world where English is widely spoken and the education system is similar, such as Singapore and Australia.

"Our tools can be used to create new content and our existing content can be adapted to fit a new market," Mrs Burton-Wilcock said.

This adaptation process, known as localisation', is also picking up pace closer to home, with Gallic language versions for Scotland on the way, and a lot of interest from the Scandinavian countries, too. The flexibility of the products is key.

"We don't want to put any glass ceilings on children," said Mrs Burton-Wilcock.

"We are constantly surprised at what people do with our products - quite often they are used in ways that we never envisaged."