Talk at Moscow State University October 2013

1. OpenScience
A new Perspective on Distance Education and Inquiry Learning
Mike Sharples
Institute of Educational Technology
The Open University

2. The Open University
• Largest university in the UK
• 250,000 students
• 1,100 academic staff
• 7,000 Associate Lecturers
(tutors)
• Modern distance learning
Milton Keynes

3. Open Education
• “The Open University's
mission is to be open to
people, places, methods
and ideas”
• 44% of undergraduates
start without university
entrance qualifications
• 12,000 students with
disabilities
• 20,000 students outside
the UK

4. OpenLearn.com
Free learning
materials
26 million
visits

5. FutureLearn.com
Massive
Open
Online
Courses
from worldleading
universities

7. How can we open practical science
to everyone?

8. Ten years ago
Home
experiment
kits

9. Now
OpenScience
Lab
Science
experiments
and
investigations
online

10. Do practical science anywhere

11. Real equipment:
PIRATE remote telescope

12. Real data: Virtual Microscope

13. Real science investigations: nQuire

25. www.nquire.info

26. Personal investigations: Healthy Eating

27. Healthy Eating: Daily food diary

28. Healthy Eating:
Compare to recommended daily intake

29. Citizen inquiry
citizen science
+ inquiry learning
+ creativity
= citizen inquiry

30. Citizen Inquiry: iSpot
www.ispotnature.org
• Open citizen science
• Wildlife observation
• Finding and naming
birds, trees, flowers,
insects
• Sharing knowledge
• 40,000 registered users
• 250,000 observations

31. Insect species new to Britain
reported to iSpot by a 6-year-old girl
Young people acting like scientists

32. Smartphone as a scientific tool
• Camera
• Audio recorder
• Light meter
• Sound meter
• Compass
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Location sensor (GPS)
Temperature
Magnetic field
Accelerometer
Barometer
Humidity Sensor
Wind speed
Heart rate

33. nQuire datalogging app
Pedometer

34. Smartphone investigations
• Am I a better driver than my parents, or my partner?
– Accelerometer and compass to measure how „smooth‟ is my
driving (10 samples/second)
• Is noise stressful?
– Log ambient noise for a day, and record when I feel
stressed (1 sample/minute)
• Is this room suitable for my baby at night?
– Temperature and humidity (12 samples/hour)
And share data with many other people

35. nQuire authoring tool

36. Thanks to
Eloy Villasclaras-Fernandez
Christothea Herodotou
www.nquire.info
www.opensciencelab.ac.uk
www.ispotnature.org