Technology-enhanced learning in citizen science projects

On 19 November 2024, Till Bruckermann participated as an external reviewer in the defense of Miriam Calvera Isabal (under the supervision of Dr. Patricia Santos) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. The defended doctoral thesis is entitled ‘Empowering educators’ inspiration during the learning design process with citizen science data and technology-enhanced learning’. Other members of the committee were Dr. Juan Ignacio Asensio Pérez (Universidad de Valladolid), who chaired the committee, and Dr. Jaime Piera Fernández (Institut de Ciències del Mar ICM-CSIC), who served as secretary.

In her dissertation, Miriam Calvera Isabal developed an exploration tool that can be used to extract learning-relevant information from citizen science projects and to develop learning opportunities. To do this, she used a crawler to extract data from data sets, analysed the data with regard to relevant information for learning, and developed the exploration tool with (prospective) teachers and experts in technology-enhanced learning.

The findings of the dissertation are relevant for the CitSci@Schools project at the Institute of Education. The research project identifies conditions for the successful integration of citizen science projects into science teaching, develops teaching materials based on these, and provides further training for teachers. In particular, the data exploration tool can provide a basis for the development of teaching materials.

Calvera-Isabal, M., Santos, P. & Hernández-Leo, D. (2023). Towards Citizen Science-Inspired Learning Activities: The Co-design of an Exploration Tool for Teachers Following a Human-Centred Design Approach. International Journal Of Human-Computer Interaction, 40(14), 3805–3826. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2023.2201554