Open educational resources in support of science learning: tools for inquiry and observation

Abstract

This article focuses on the potential of free tools, particularly inquiry tools for influencing participation in twenty-first-century learning in science, as well as influencing the development of communities around tools. Two examples are presented: one on the development of an open source tool for structured inquiry learning that can bridge the formal/informal spaces for inquiry learning. This is contrasted with an example of the use of free tools and community development for observation of scientific phenomena supported by open educational resources (OER) with a citizen science perspective. The article provides an assessment of how the availability of the resources has a potential for shaping the communities using OER for science learning and a discussion of the means of supporting inquiry.

Keywords:

• open educational resources
• science
• inquiry learning
• participation

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the members of the OLnet project (supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation), in particular to Patrick McAndrew, and to members of the Personal Inquiry project (funded by the Technology Enhanced Learning program of the ESRC/EPSRC joint research council initiative) especially to Mike Sharples and Mark Gaved, and to Doug Clow for a discussion of the National Lottery funded iSpot initiative.