Backdrop: A dad, prompted by an app he’s trying out, runs outside with his 5 year old son to catch a 30 second glimpse of a satellite passing overhead. As they wait, the dad shares that as a boy, he loved astronomy–a previously unknown detail about him. He snaps a few pictures, and afterwards posts a brief celebration and photo about their skywatching together. They had such fun, the son asks if there are other apps they might try out. Other family members suggest they should all go camping to do better star gazing away from the city lights…
No lingering concerns about if the son will take up a STEM career. No long range plan on my part to obtain a large grant to send family members to Spacecamp. They have a shared [science] memory– this is good.
Session Concept: For some time now, I’ve felt that powerful [science] learning happens in a moment. With this idea in mind, I’ve been exploring “backpack citizen science journalism”. Backpack journalism appeals to me as it recognizes learning on the move and gives value to hearing from diverse voices in the field. It can also promote using everyday technologies to communicate about learning–cell phones, Tweets, Instagram, etc. What I am uncertain about is–who, how, where, why, when might citizens share about their learning? And as a university researcher, what should I consider about my relationship to these learners and my professional interest to research their learning? I’m not convinced many persons read article-based research, raising my concern about the extensive amount of time spent generating and publishing manuscripts, doing so largely in isolation from people. I’d hope participants in this session could explore notions and technologies associated with being a “backpack journalist”, and how this type of work might be useful to opening our research and educational practices. Keywords that I might bring to the table would include: mindfulness, generative research, Web 2.5?.
