Are your students missing out on real laboratory experiences due to the cost of real laboratory instrumentation? The Integrated Instrumentation Network (ILN) project at Western Washington University has developed a way to share actual (not simulated) lab instrumentation with faculty and students around the world – with live control via the internet. Wow…
This morning I attended the 3rd Annual Sloan Consortium Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Online Learning. There in San Jose, California, I had the pleasure of meeting Devon Cancilla, Director of Technical Services at Western Washington University. Funded through the US National Science Foundation, Dr. Cancilla and his collaborators have set up an array of high-power scientific instrumentation that can be accessed by the internet.
These are not simulations of scientific instruments. These are the real tools of science like a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer, Scanning Electron Microscope, UV-VIS Spectrophotometer, and more. Students can even send the labs their OWN samples and sign up for some time to run their samples themselves (with the help of an on-site technician, if needed).
The ILN team is also developing curricula to complement the array of test equipment available, and faculty from other institutions are beginning to integrate these resources into their own courses. For more information, visit http://ilndev.wwu.edu/iln/Introduction.
I’ve heard of sharing CPU cycles, but this extends the idea to nuts-and-bolts test and measurement instrumentation that many institutions simply cannot make available to students. The possibilities are exciting, especially when it comes to eventually providing “access and opportunity” to students around the world. I wouldn’t mind playing with a mass spec again myself…
Congratulations, Dr. Cancilla and Team!
Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Education Program Manager
HP Office of Global Social Innovation
Hewlett-Packard
www.hp.com/go/socialinnovation
Follow me on Twitter @jgvanides
