Education
iSpot helps people learn about nature
Learn what you’ve spotted in the park with iSpot’s community of friendly experts and learners.
iSpot is a website open to anyone interested in wildlife and the environment. Users can upload pictures and share observations from their local areas, join discussion groups and forums, and learn from others willing to impart their expertise and knowledge on the site.
iSpot has pulled together expertise in ‘citizen science’, getting the public to contribute to real science, and in 2010 won the New Media category in the Panda Awards – the wildlife and environment equivalent of the Oscars.
Headed by Prof Jonathan Silvertown (Faculty of Science), iSpot consists of six related projects and feeds into the OU module Neighbourhood nature. It was developed with £2 million funding from the Open Air Laboratories project, via the Big Lottery Fund, and has recently attracted £100,000 JISC funding.
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