SecondLife in FirstLife - The mashup of augmented reality with live online maps and it's potential impact on education

This recent TED Conference presentation by Blaise Aguera y Arcas we see a glimpse of the not so distant future in which video and mapping/gps converge on the phone and desktop to provide a live feed of personal presence and interaction. I have been prognosticating about this technological advance for about three years after having a debate with a colleague over the future of SecondLife, a virtual world where people assume avatars and interact in real-time in a computer generated environment. We have toyed with this world as a potential teaching tool, but our experience mimicked that of many other teachers referenced in a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education highlighting most educators dismay with the virtual world concept and eventual disinterest in using it as a teaching and learning tool. I argued early on that SecondLife offered a glimpse of what could be in the real world if technology permitted us to have a virtual presence in our existing environment. The educational possibilities would be enormous. Now we see a glimpse of how this might work out and I am wondering what other people think of this as a burgeoning learning space. How could it supplement, enhance or otherwise replace our current classrooms?