Adapting Traditional Field Activities in Natural History Education to an Emerging Paradigm in Biodiversity Informatics
Adapting Traditional Field Activities in Natural History Education to an Emerging Paradigm in Biodiversity Informatics
复制标题
DOI：
10.1525/abt.2018.80.7.501
复制
发表时间：
2018-09-01
影响因子：
0.5
通讯作者：
Hardy, Nazli W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hardy, Christopher R.;Hardy, Nazli W.
使用基于网络的信息学工具，如eBird、iNaturist和NatureAtlas，使任何人都可以找到和分享自然界中有机体的出现和观察，这很容易与基于分类单元的自然历史课程的历史悠久的标本收集和实地记录部分相结合。然而，我们发现，在这类课程中，使用过任何此类工具的不到2%。因此，绝大多数学生没有正式接触到21世纪的技术和概念，这些技术和概念正在改变课程本应进入的领域的数据格局。我们对这种技术与课程作业的整合进行了为期七年的实证评估，我们的结果揭示了为什么认识和纠正这一缺陷是至关重要的。我们的数据表明，这种技术可以提高学生的参与度和学生对学习的看法，它与课程工作的更广泛整合可能会对记录和保护生物多样性的区域和全球努力有利。我们的结论是，学术界正在错过一个巨大的机会，让未来的生物学家和潜在的公民科学家更好地参与生物多样性信息学中至关重要的、新兴的范式。
The use of Web-based informatics tools such as eBird, iNaturalist, and NatureAtlas that allow anyone to find and share occurrences and observations of organisms in nature could readily be integrated with the time-honored specimen collection and field journaling components of taxon-based natural history courses. We find, however, that fewer than 2% of such courses have used any such tool. Consequently, the far majority of students receive no formal exposure to the 21st-century technologies and concepts that are transforming the data landscapes of the very fields the courses should be preparing them to enter. We conducted a seven-year, empirical assessment of the integration of such technology with coursework, and our results reveal why recognizing and correcting this shortcoming is critical. Our data indicate that such technology can enhance student engagement and student perception of learning, and that its broader integration with coursework could be a boon to regional and global efforts to document and conserve biodiversity. We conclude that the academic community is missing a tremendous opportunity to better engage future biologists and potential citizen-scientists in a critically important, emergent paradigm in biodiversity informatics.