An Educational "Killer App" for Second Life?

I've been trying hard to figure out Second Life and see beyond the hype, particularly what it can do as an educational tool. There are lots of interesting experiments, but this is the first one that really made be sit up (or fly up :) and take notice. That's my avatar, Emby Semaphore, visiting the Sistine Chapel.


A team at Vassar College has created a realistic and presumably accurate model of the interior chapel. There have been lots of great projects over the years to create 3D reproductions of various environments past, present and future, but this is the first one that I've seen that's immediately accessible to millions of people. You can get information by visiting this site in Second Life that you can't get from a live visit (kind of hard to fly up and inspect the ceiling close up) let alone from a book. A book could give you beautiful reproductions of the panels, but in 3D you can understand the scale and the relationships that's just not possible any other way. I can't wait for the docent guided tour.

Kudos to Vassar on this achievement. Here's the SLURL, I suggest you visit now before they get slashdotted.