September 2001 — Features
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The Viability of Distance Education Science Laboratories
Distance laboratories also offer a unique opportunity for educational models that take advantage of geographical features. In our last example, one student used multiple- instrument setups simultaneously over an uninterrupted one-week period. Several volunteers at sites in Nebraska, New York, Indiana and Pennsylvania attached a light-sensing instrument to their Internet-connected computer and ran a small communications program to give access to the instrument. Over the week, the student’s computer program controlled instrument parameters and recorded the light measured at each distant site every second from our campus.
With inexpensive instruments and technically simple means, other data could easily be collected from multiple distant sites. One unanticipated discovery was the logistics of locating and coordinating distant volunteer sites that were far more challenging than the technical elements of the project. The current limits of using the Internet to perform large-scale distant laboratory exercises seems more dependent on limitations of human resources than with technical challenges.
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Distance education offers the possibility for very different kinds of learning opportunities, such as large-scale collaboration. With student collaboration at distant schools, experiments based on sharing local weather data of barometric pressure, temperature and wind speed are quite possible. Other collaborations, such as seismographic data, ambient particulate contamination and air quality in different parts of a building or in an entire organization become very feasible. Imagine if students had been able to monitor local radiation levels in various parts of Europe after the Chernobyl incident, or the nuclear tests in Pakistan and India. Such projects appear to require large amounts of equipment and organization, but with the Internet as a collaborative tool and cooperation at the distant sites, it is quite practical to perform some of these collaborations cheaply and effectively.
Among the unanswered questions in distance education is the role of the science laboratory. As an alternative to computer simulations, videos and laboratory kits sent out to the student, we have investigated some facets of conducting real laboratory experiments at a distance. While we do not believe distance laboratories can or should replace other approaches entirely, distance laboratories can offer considerable educational advantages, even when compared to traditional laboratories. Greater student access to equipment can be provided that would not otherwise be available due to time restrictions by the student or the instructor. Physical location and expense of the equipment can also be made less important. Web-based delivery offers a means to conveniently package a complete laboratory, including written guides, data collection and data analysis tools, whatever the location of the student or experiment. Finally, by keeping control of an experiment in the hands of the student, distance laboratories can achieve educational goals important in the traditional laboratory.
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Kyle Forinash, Ph.D., is a professor of physics at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, IN. His research interests include computer modeling of the nonlinear dynamics of solids such as bio-polymers. He has also investigated the application of computers for data collection in the student laboratory, including remote control of experiments using the Internet.
E-mail: kforinas@ius.edu
Raymond Wisman is an associate professor in the Computer Science Department at Indiana University Southeast.
E-mail: rwisman@ius.edu
