This seems so much more applicable for education than SecondLife.
What is Edusim:
Edusim is a free opensource 3D virtual world specifically for your classroom interactive whiteboard! Edusim is an extremely powerful way to engage your students by bringing a 3D virtual environment that allows the direct manipulation of the 3D virtual learning objects directly from the interactive whiteboard surface!
Educational uses of Second Life
Wiki for the development and use of Second Life and the Second Life private islands of MIT.
The virtual laboratory for NMC member institutions and their faculty in SL.
Interview with Daniel Huebner, who is in charge of governance at Linden Labs
Traffic stats and measures of land use in SL
Evaluating Educatioal Uses of "Second Life"
web form for building your own slurls