A dispute with potentially far-reaching consequences has flared over how far the Internet can go in displacing the brick-and-mortar science laboratory.

... the College Board, one of the most powerful organizations in American education, is questioning whether Internet-based laboratories are an acceptable substitute for the hands-on culturing of gels and peering through microscopes that have long been essential ingredients of American laboratory science.

Virtual labs appear to me as another form of science library with some planned interaction between student and software. It's like reading a book with mostly images vs. mostly written descriptions. I've not seen data that support virtual labs replacing real, hands-on manupulations.

What's your experience? How accurately do your students who use virtual lab learning generalize skills and information to real lab performance?


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