Science, meet the people!
Now that I’m getting some order into this work I can start to re-read back issues of the BES Bulletin. It strikes me that there’s a lot of concern in ecology, as in other sciences, with public perception and understanding. Books on the topic are becoming increasingly frequent – here’s one I reviewed earlier! The June 2012 bulletin listed some critical areas that needed to be addressed:
- science to inform policy-making
- sustainable food production
- natural capital
- ecology and planning/health
- etc.
This isn’t the full list but you get the drift. “Science” complains that the public doesn’t understand its work and yet it fails to grasp the key point of communication that as teachers we all know: it’s about the receiver not the sender! If someone doesn’t understand you, the art is to change until they do. OK, so part of the response to this is for societies such as the BES to have a communications officer and possibly even a policy officer but that’s only half the solution.
So, how do you communicate? I see two issues here – the basis of science which comes to us through the “scientific method” and the idea of refutation via Popper‘s work. The former gives us a way to work; the latter suggests we are always looking for a way to disprove. It doesn’t take long to realise that anyone looking to dispute science will find it in the very method of science itself!
What can we do? It’s a pity that so few science courses have syllabuses where communication is part of the core material (let’s face it, we’re too often just trying to get through the content!). So, following another Bulletin article (thanks to Phillip Martin for the inspiration):
- Get a Twitter account (mine’s @ecogeog). This is not as cutting edge as it once was – a student of mine pointed out it was now only used by really old people – at that time, anyone over the age of 25 so it’s not that much help. There’s a lot of help online (start here) about getting the most out of your account but the key is to “follow” people whose views you find interesting. Start posting;
- Get a Facebook page. Note it’s a page and not an account (although you’ll need one of those first. A page allows comment – why not use it to communicate to your students – but it does not allow access to your private posts (but, Facebook is often sneaky, check the privacy settings);
- Start a blog. There are numerous hosts, some paid, some free. Blogging is a briefer form of writing where thoughts can be jotted down and responded to – the aim here is to get readers to your site;
- Use online tools at work, but use the social side as well. Every university has an online learning system (e.g. Blackboard, Moodle etc.) but I’m guessing most use them only as a way of getting files from a to b. Start interactivity – set up a forum, blog, chatroom (all very simple). Get students to post content as you talk – this means they add to the substance of the lesson/lecture and makes them far more involved.
Is this easy? Well, yes and no. Setting them uyp takes a little time, getting them used effectively takes years mainly because these things are social and building a community takes time. But it’s worth it!!
Here’s some educational ideas to consider:
- Get students to tweet an ecological concept;
- Run your group via a Facebook page – most students check it regularly – probably during your lesson so post things while you are talking, at least you’ll know they’re awake;
- Give students a topic and tell them to use a forum to check out possible answers. That way, most of the hard work is done before you enter the room and you can focus on the critical stuff the didn’t get (it’s called a flipped classroom – can be useful if not overdone);
- Tell the students to make the textbook, not read it.
There are masses of great ideas out there. Share some here.
