Utility of Second life for education?

The debate we should be having is about whether SL is able to serve any useful educational function.

And I have to say, having spent a little time in SL over the last few months, I'm somewhat skeptical. Not that I dislike SL, far from it. I'm just struggling to see how it will be used in the near future to support real learning activities in any meaningful, large-scale way.

• The technology required is too advanced (in hardware terms) for many users.
  
• The ability to dynamically embed external content too clunky.
  
• The technology too closed.
  
• Even the 1 to 1 and group communication / collaboration aspects of SL, the primary area where there does seem to be real potential, is labored by being chat only.

There is real potential in SL and similar environments but my skepticism about its educational usefulness is tempered by an acknowledgement that I don't have much imagination! The fact that I can't see how SL will be used in the context of learning probably just means that I'm not clever enough to think of how to do it.