Is Science Different?

Eileen ScanlonProfessor of Educational TechnologyCentre for Research in Education andEducational Technology The Open University

Is science different?

To consider

• Traditional view of science communication

• Web 2.0 science

• Examples– Nature, Nature.com etc– Environmentalism, social movements and the

Internet

Traditional model of progress in science

• Contributing to the knowledge repository!• Ready made science and science in the making• Learning about science or learning science• Peer review• ‘Experts’ etc• BUT• Preprints• ‘Shunning’!

What type of science ?

• “Ready made Science”

• “Science in the Making”

They are as different as the two sides, one lively, the other severe, of a two-faced Janus Bruno Latour, (1987, p4)

Web 2.0 science

• Communities using social networking to share and create information

• Open review

• ‘Experts’

• Developing open science movement

• Science blogging see e.g. Science blogging conference 2008, North Carolina

Despite enthusiasm for the concept, open peer review was not widely popular, either among authors or by scientists invited to comment.

•What do you think of the notion of "Science 2.0?" Will Web 2.0 tools really make science much more productive? Will wikis, blogs and the like be transformative, or will they be just a minor convenience? •Science 2.0 is one aspect of a broader Open Science movement, which also includes Open-Access scientific publishing and Open Data practices. How do you think this bigger movement will evolve? •Looking at your own scientific field, how real is the suspicion and mistrust mentioned in the article? How much do you and your colleagues worry about getting “scooped”? Do you have first-hand knowledge of a case in which that has actually happened? •When young scientists speak out on an open blog or wiki, do they risk hurting their careers? •Is "open notebook" science always a good idea? Are there certain aspects of a project that researchers should keep quite, at least until the paper is published?

•--M. Mitchell Waldrop asks•http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=science-2-point-0-great-new-tool-or-great-risk&page=1

Scientific American experiment on joint authorship

Mitchell Waldron asks

Environmentalism on the Web

• Informal science learning

• Lots of resources

• Impact of science on ‘real life’

• ESRC project at University of Edinburgh

Conclusions

• Both formal and informal learning science is well resourced

• How can resources be evaluated, and how should learning be structured?

• Learning contemporary science or informal science also well resourced

• Could be beneficial to develop an understanding of processes by which knowledge is constructed ( and this is changing)