There is a lot of papers on this topic. If you have access to online databases such as proquest or lexisnexis you can find a lot of great journal articles on it as well as thesis on the topic. I have read several articles which have talked about second life as being used as a classroom for online college courses. There are a lot of articles and feedback from instructors who have used this game for this manner on the internet. I don't think there is a specific MMO for just educational purposes, but second life is open enough to allow you to use it for such purposes including entire islands devoted to historical eras.
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How has the educational games market been doing? Do teachers really use it? Would you use it to teach college students?
Its hard for schools to use and incorporate the educational games because it would require each student to have a computer and constant access to the computer. A lot of schools have educational programs like Mavis Beacon and other similar games, but it isn't worked into the main lesson plan.
Military and other industries have used video game like simulators to help train new personal. There has been both positive and negative criticisms for this and it is a current topic which is still being debated. I wrote a paper on military simulations and its use for education and there are plenty of quality articles and sources on it. If i get a chance I'll try to find my paper and provide you some sources on it (sources only), but a few quick searches will bring up a lot of good articles.
