Svarga is a mythical concept world designed to be an interactive and evolving ecosystem. It reminds me very much of one of my favorite games - Myst. You can take a tour of the island via a flying wasp and learn of the many intriguing design elements. This type of world would be a great addition to my developing unit on descriptive writing. It is beautifully rendered despite using proto-prim technology from 2006. A beautiful and inspiring place to visit.
The University of Southampton has an extensive presence in SL. One of the projects that they are developing is an exercise in visualization of an ancient Roman port. In addition to SL, they are also developing texture maps for Google Earth. The Portus Project in SL is referred to as Portus 2 and is a developing interactive representation of the entire port city. Posters, video, and other multimedia displays show the evolution of the project.
This location takes a famous concept from geology of using a spiral timeline to illustrate the history of the Earth. As you walk through the interactive exhibit you get a sense of the passage of time as well as the slow and gradual evolution of life on Earth. I really like the idea of walking through a timeline and interacting with exhibits and can see how this would work with a class. There are many opportunities for discussion and demonstrations along the way. I also think this type of collaborative site would make a really great class project. Constructed by students at the University of Arizona.