Enabling Participatory Science: Technology Enhanced Collaboration, Learning & Participation in Science
http://participatory-science.blogspot.com
Josh UNDERWOODa, Hilary SMITH b, Kevin WALKERa, Duncan ROWLANDc
a London Knowledge Lab, University of London, UK
b HCT Group, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
cMixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham, UK
Concerns about the state of science education, falling numbers of students choosing to study science and the need for a scientifically informed public equipped to participate in current debates in science (e.g. climate change, GM foods, stem cell research) have led to new initiatives in science education. The emphasis is now often on the need for learners to understand the relevance of the science they study to their lives and the well being of the world at large. Alongside these changes, the nature of science itself is changing and is open to wider debate and less certainty.
New technologies are playing a significant role in enabling these changes, for example, providing the tools to support easy and open access publishing and peer review, mobile research live from the field, ubiquitous data collection, large scale data sharing, remote sensing and collaboration and academic social networking. Such activities can employ both purpose built infrastructures (e.g. Grid computing) and/or Web 2.0 tools to provide Virtual Research Environments (e.g. myExperiment1). This coming together of e-Science and Web 2.0 is resulting in the democratization of science (De Roure, 2008) by empowering everyday scientists to participate globally and pervasively in new kinds of research and collaboration, sharing results, data, tools and methods with ease and on hitherto unprecedented scales. The skills required by scientists are therefore also changing, with a greater emphasis upon collaboration, debate, large-scale analysis and above all the appropriate application of technology.
Simultaneously, advances in ubiquitous, mobile and personal technologies coupled with falling prices are changing expectations of how, when and with whom and what the general public expect to be able to interact. Coupled with community engagement there is unprecedented potential for the public to be involved directly in science. Many projects have begun to show the ways in which the public may contribute to science and access scientific tools (e.g. Encyclopedia of Life2, Faulkes Telescope3, Climate Prediction Net4, People's Arboretum5, galaxyzoo.org , etc).
In summary, we face a future in which we need more people to be enthused and knowledgeable about science, and we need learners to engage in ”real science” at a time when the nature of science is itself changing. Technology is altering the way science is done and there is real potential for science to be more participatory. However, there are many challenges in delivering this kind of science activity both in the classroom (Underwood et al, 2008) and elsewhere. This workshop aims to explore the ways technology can and should be used both to change the way science is learnt and to enable broader participation and collaboration in science both within and beyond formal learning contexts. In realizing this vision the AIED community has much to contribute, from its experience in developing software to support collaborative learning, its understanding of the implications of working with multiple external representations, its experience and expertise in the development of systems that adapt to and scaffold learners’ needs, and more recent work on educational data mining.
AIED and other Technology Enhanced Learning approaches have been employed to promote science inquiry learning (e.g. Quintana et al, 2004, Ravenscroft, 2007) and in educational e-Science (Woodgate & Stanton Fraser, 2005). However, with current concerns about science education, the need for a scientifically informed public and the impact emerging technologies are having on ways of doing science it is timely for the AIED community to look afresh at how technology can and should be used to enhance the kinds of learning that are relevant to current and future scientific practice and particularly at how we can enable greater public participation in and engagement with science.
Enabling greater participation in science involves building systems that care. The challenge to broaden participation may require new ways of representing knowledge and understanding context. Increasing engagement may require modeling social, cognitive, metacognitive, and affective dimensions and building Participatory Science may involve linking theory and technology from AI, cognitive science, and computer science with theory and practice from education and social science.
Through selected short presentations and/or demonstrations and structured discussions we aim both to share knowledge about current work in this area and to develop a vision for the future of technology enhanced Participatory Science. Related workshops were held at AIED 20076 and at the international e-Science 2006 conference7.
This is a half-day workshop at AIED (provisionally on the morning of 7th July) followed by an afternoon discussion. The discussion will take place at The Interact Lab located a short distance away in the Sussex Countryside. The morning workshop will involve short presentations and discussion of a small number of accepted papers. Accepted submissions will be made available to participants prior to the workshop and online discussion of these will be prompted.
The afternoon will consist of discussion activities structured to explore the future of technology enhanced Participatory Science, research challenges and implications for designers, learners, educators and policy makers.
Morning – Workshop presentations and discussion in Brighton
Afternoon – Structured discussion at The Interact Lab, Falmer
We will provide a more detailed timetable when we receive confirmation of timings and dates from the AIED organizers.
We are interested in descriptions of practical, theoretical and technical work directly related to using technology to support science learning and increase participation in science in formal and/or informal contexts. All relevant submissions will be considered, some possible topics are given as examples here:
Studies of participatory and community science teaching and learning
Descriptions of e-Science and/or Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies and their use to support science teaching and learning and/or participation in science.
Accounts of the design and evaluation of novel tools (e.g. Augmented Reality, Mobile learning, Games for learning, Virtual reality) used to support science learning/teaching/participation.
Virtual communities for science learning and participation.
Tools to support skills (e.g. reflection, data analysis, visualization) for science learning and participation
Shared virtual scientific instruments, sensors and tools for data capture and publishing.
Studies from, and across, formal and informal learning contexts (e.g. classrooms, museums, fieldtrips, home, a family walk in the countryside)
To participate in the morning AIED workshop, submit a short (5 page) paper describing your research as related to the topics below. Authors should follow AIED formatting instructions. In their submissions, participants should clearly state the relevance of their work to the workshop. Submissions will be reviewed and to facilitate discussion the number of presentations at the workshop will be restricted. To participate in the afternoon discussion, submit a short (up to 5 page) paper describing your vision for future science addressing the role of technology in increasing participation in science and/or science learning and teaching.
Any participants wishing to demonstrate systems should contact the workshop organizers at the earliest opportunity to clarify requirements.
Josh Underwood, j.underwood@ioe.ac.uk, is a researcher in educational technology at London Knowledge Lab. A former science and language teacher, he has experience running workshops at international research conferences and with science teachers.
Hilary Smith, hilarys@sussex.ac.uk, is a research fellow at the University of Sussex investigating technology used for a variety of formal and informal learning experiences. Her research background includes collaboration in playful learning and social networks.
Kevin Walker, k.walker@ioe.ac.uk, is a researcher at London Knowledge Lab working on projects related to technology in science education, development, and museums. He also designs software and hardware, and has a background in anthropology, journalism, design and interactive media.
Dr Duncan Rowland, dar@cs.nott.ac.uk, is a senior research fellow at the Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham researching emerging technologies. He has worked as a professional games developer and while Reader in Games Computing at the University of Lincoln co-founded the Lincoln Social Computing Research Center.
Neil Bailey, WildKnowledge, UK - http://www.wildknowledge.co.uk
Dr Tharrenos Bratitsis, University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Dr Willem-Paul Brinkman, Delft, Netherlands
Prof. Charles Crook, LSRI, University of Nottingham, UK
Dr Christophe Choquet, Université du Maine, France
David Crellin, Director, Sciencescope, UK - http://www.sciencescope.co.uk
Prof. Martin Dove, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK
Dr Geraldine Fitzpatrick, HCT Group, University of Sussex, UK
Dr Silvia Gabrielli, , FBK-irst, Italy
Dr Judith Good, HCT Group, University of Sussex, UK
Prof. Peter Halfpenny, National Centre for e-Social Science, Univ. of Manchester, UK
Dr Lucinda Kerawalla, Institute of Educational Technology, OU, UK
Prof. Rose Luckin, LKL, University of London, UK
Dr Niels Pinkwart, Clausthal University of Technology, Germany
Prof. Rob Procter, National Centre for e-Social Science, University of Manchester, UK
Prof. Andrew Ravenscroft, London Metropolitan University, UK
Prof. Dave de Roure, University of Southampton, UK
Dr Duncan Rowland, MRL, University of Nottingham, UK
Prof. Eileen Scanlon, Institute of Educational Technology, OU, UK
Dr Felisa Verdejo, UNED, Spain
Dr Jocelyn Wishart, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, UK
Dr Dawn Woodgate, Department of Psychology, University of Bath, UK
Dr Peta Wyeth, QUT, Brisbane, Australia
De Roure, D. (2008). The New e-Science Edinburgh Late Edition. Presentation, from http://www.slideshare.net/dder/new-escience-edinburgh-late-edition-presentation retrieved 15 Jan, 2009.
J. Underwood, H. Smith, R. Luckin, & G. Fitzpatrick, (2008). e-Science in the Classroom - Towards Viability. Computers and Education, 50(2), 535-546.
Woodgate, D. & Stanton Fraser, D. (2005) eScience and Education: A Review. Report produced for JISC. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/ACF2B4.pdf retrieved 15 Jan, 2009.
Quintana, C, Reiser, B.J, Davis, E.A., Krajcik, J et al (2004) 'A Scaffolding Design Framework for Software to Support Science Inquiry', Journal of the Learning Sciences 13:3,337 — 386
Ravenscroft, A., (2007) Promoting Thinking and Conceptual Change with Digital Dialogue Games. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, v23 n6 p453-465