Prof Stephen Bax (1960 – 2017)

It is with great sadness we announce the passing of a valuable OpenTEL Steering Committee member, Prof Stephen Bax.

Stephen was from the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics. He joined The Open University (OU) as Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics in 2015. He took on the role of Director for Research Excellence in August 2016 when the new School of Languages and Applied Linguistics was formed in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS).

Stephen was an internationally recognised researcher in the area of technology for language learning. Stephen was committed to making language research the best it could be, at the OU and elsewhere. Stephen was pivotal in shaping the research and scholarship agenda of the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics and nurturing colleagues to fulfill their research potential. He was a very kind man, always positive and always ready to have a good laugh. We’d like to express our condolences to his friends and family. We will miss him terribly.

Citizen inquiry: Synthesizing science and inquiry learning

Christothea Herodotou, Mike Sharples and Eileen Scanlon, The Open University.
Christothea Herodotou, Mike Sharples and Eileen Scanlon, The Open University.

Citizen science or crowdsourcing has gained increasing popularity in recent years with web-based platform such as Zooniverse and iSpot scaffolding interactions between scientists and members of the public.

Little emphasis has been given to the educational benefits of citizen science, in particular for volunteers or members of the public who wish to contribute to citizen science activities.

Citizen inquiry: Synthesizing science and inquiry learning, recently published by Routledge, is the first edited collection of its kind to draw the emphasis on inquiry-based learning from participation in citizen science activities.

Continue reading Citizen inquiry: Synthesizing science and inquiry learning