Back in November, I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion with colleagues from Science Chicago, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and Motorola. The topics ranged from workforce readiness to accurate assessment of skills in today’s students. Some of the topics elicited spirited feedback from the audience, especially the lasting dependence on antiquated credentialing practices which have no end in sight. The very engaged audience was made up of scientists, educators and curators, all drawn to Northwestern University for the iLab Visioning Workshop.

The iLab Network (http://www.ilabcentral.org) enables people to use real instruments, rather than simulations, via remote online laboratories using their web browser. Unlike conventional experimental facilities, iLabs can be shared and accessed widely by students and other audiences across the world that might not otherwise have the resources to purchase and operate costly or delicate lab equipment.

This means that students are able to use equipment at far-flung sites like Los Alamos National Laboratories and research universities without leaving their classrooms or homes.  A joint project between Northwestern and MIT, the iLab Network strives to increase inquiry-based learning and expose the next generation of students to authentic scientific practices.

The chief organizer of the event, Dr. Kemi Jona, Director of the Office of STEM Education Partnerships and Associate Professor at Northwestern University, has agreed to sit down and answer some questions about the iLab Network and the future of online education.

SCHMEDLEN: Dr. Jona, thank you very much for taking the time. Can you tell me about how the iLab concept was developed?

JONA: MIT has been working on developing the idea of remote online labs – or iLabs – for over 10 years. They have created a very nice open source architecture that makes it much easier for people to share laboratory devices over the web. Their idea was to make these labs available to their undergraduate students even when the lab room was closed. It can also make it possible for more students to use the device in a given amount of time. With the iLab Network project, I wanted to figure out how we can make these expensive lab devices that universities have available to high school students who would normally never be able to have access to them. So I partnered with MIT to create the iLab Network to make lab devices broadly available to pre-college audiences.

SCHMEDLEN: How does it work?

JONA: Many pieces of lab equipment are already controlled by computer. So even if you are standing right in front of the device, you still control it by telling the computer how to operate it. With the iLab Network you can do the same thing, except that you don’t have to be standing right there – you can control the device from your web browser no matter where you are or where the device is located. You can see the device on a webcam, set up the parameters, run the lab, and get the data back. For example, we’re working right now to let high school students here in Chicago be able to do a radiation lab that is actually located at the University of Queensland in Australia! Another lab we’re working on lets you control a neutron beam coming out of the nuclear reactor at MIT. It’s very cool. When was the last time you got to run a nuclear reactor in high school?

SCHMEDLEN: I noticed that most of the US national laboratories participated in the visioning workshop. Are they looking to raise their profile with students? JONA: Many of the national labs already have education and outreach programs that do some great work with teachers and students. The America COMPETES Act requires the national labs to help improve science teaching, so that is another motivator for them. I was gratified to have such strong interest and participation from the national lab community at the workshop. They are a tremendous resource for science teaching and learning in this country and the ability to provide remote access to their high-end laboratory equipment via the iLab Network opens up some exciting new possibilities. Most of the labs are hard to get to – they are in remote places and have very tight security restrictions. So provide remote access via the iLab Network is a great solution for them.

SCHMEDLEN: Do you see more universities providing their facilities for iLab?

JONA: I hope so. The goal of the iLab Network is to provide “one stop shopping” for teachers and students who want to use labs and for providers like university researchers who want to share their labs. Universities tend to be very “resource rich” – they have lots of money and equipment, while by comparison, most high schools are “resource poor.” Letting universities share their lab equipment with high school students is a win-win: the universities get to help the schools in their community, across the country, and across the world produce students with better skills, and these students get access to exciting, expensive, and rare equipment to work with.

SCHMEDLEN: I know we’re both fans of Michael Horn and Clayton Christensen, so I have to ask – do you see iLabs as a “disruptive technology?”

JONA: Absolutely! One of the things I like most about iLabs is that they allow us to completely rethink how lab science courses are taught. As you know, usually students only get one 45 minute period to do a lab. That’s hardly enough time to set it up, do one quick pass through it, and clean it up before the bell rings. But that’s not how science experiments are really done and it ends up giving students a totally wrong idea about what science is like. Scientists run an experiment multiple times, compare their results, and figure out if the results they are getting look reliable. With iLabs, students aren’t limited to doing a lab during a 45 minute class – they can do it at home or in study hall. That means they have a lot more time to run an experiment, collect data, and analyze the results in a way that much more closely resembles how scientists actually do it. So aside from making many more labs available to high school students, iLabs is disruptive in that it will change how science courses are taught.

SCHMEDLEN: Do you see iLabs as replacing traditional high school science labs?

JONA: Yes, although it will take some time to happen. The labs that are currently done in high school are usually the ones that are safe, easy to set up and clean up, and can be done in 45 minutes. But are they really the ones that are the best for teaching students science and, just as importantly, getting them excited about science so they want to continue taking science courses in high school and college and consider science as a career option? I’m not so sure. What we need to do is go back and look at all the labs and ask some tough questions. Is this lab worth keeping? Is there an iLab we could provide that would be better? What combination of hands-on labs and iLabs would make for the most effective and engaging science learning for students?

SCHMEDLEN: What’s next for the iLab project?

JONA: We are going to be testing our first high school iLab in early 2009, so we are looking for teachers who want to try out iLabs in their classrooms. We also want to add more labs to the iLab Network so we are also looking for researchers and scientists – at universities, national labs, or companies – that want to share their equipment.

SCHMEDLEN: Where can people find more information?

JONA: Check out our website at www.ilabcentral.org to see which labs we making available and join our community!

SCHMEDLEN: Dr. Jona, thank you very much for your time.