Day 2: Wednesday 16 June 2021, 14.45 – 15.40

1. What makes a citizen: co-producing inclusive citizen science with people with learning disabilities
2. Researching the complete picture? Some methodological opportunities and challenges in using 360-degree video for research (change to 9.20-9.50am)
3. Hyperlocal Learning Network La Campana-Altamira: Supporting digitally enhanced maker education for low resourced communities during a pandemic

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What makes a citizen: co-producing inclusive citizen science with people with learning disabilities

Jessica Carr

One of the oft-cited aims of citizen science is to involve non-scientists in scientific inquiry drawing on their collective community knowledge to inform scientific practices. The relative value of citizen science is still debated by some in the scientific community, however, who believe ‘science is an unashamedly elitist activity’ (Durodie, 2003). These contradictory ideas can create confusion around the identity of a citizen scientist. Can they be professionals? Are they only to be thought of as amateurs? Can they ever ‘belong’ within the ‘elite’?
This paper will focus on the PhD work of Jessica Carr and will present the inclusive and creative methods used with a local learning-disabled self-advocacy group to co-produce an inclusive citizen science project. The commentary will present key aspects of the capacity building programme, looking at how the participants have approached the task of becoming citizen scientists and researchers. Currently, there is a distinct lack of research meaning how to engage this group in citizen science. The proposed paper aims to begin these conversations within the research community.
The proposed paper highlights the importance of engaging previously under-represented communities in science communication. Furthermore, the commentary will focus on the co-researchers of this study and their experience of citizen science. The readers of CTSP will be encouraged to broaden their participant base and consider their own practice and its inclusivity.
The example discussed in the proposed commentary is based in the UK at a local level within an Oxfordshire town.

Researching the complete picture? Some methodological opportunities and challenges in using 360-degree video for research

Simon Cross

Affordable consumer-level 360-degree video recording and VR headset viewers offers researchers a potential new tool for the study of the places where learning happens, the capture of a single point perspective on interactions, and the reflection on practice for training or scholarship. This in addition to significant potential as a teaching tool. 360-degree video does not require the researcher to decide where to point a camera beforehand but instead creates a full spherical record that can re-viewed, shared, and archived. This presentation will outline the potential methodological opportunities and challenges for research and professional reflection of this still nascent technology. For example, what is the potential for the delegated capture of events that researchers cannot attend in person due to travel restrictions or cost, improving inter-rater reliability, establishing a ‘complete’ record for reference in the field, use as a mediating artifact for stimulated recall or discussion, and for capturing perspectives of others. The presentation will conclude with a brief review of the best affordable omnidirectional cameras available at present and a look ahead.

Hyperlocal Learning Network La Campana-Altamira: Supporting digitally enhanced maker education for low resourced communities during a pandemic

Mark Gaved, Noé Abraham González-Nieto, Nicole Lotz, Lay-Wah Carolina Ching-Chiang, Alejandra Díaz de León, Juan Manuel Fernández-Cárdenas, Derek Jones and Rafael Machado

Maker education seeks to educate, engage and empower learners through hands-on design and making activities in a social setting where experienced and novice participants interact and learn from each other. This presentation reports on a collaborative initiative between Open University researchers and Mexican academics and community activists to support maker learning and educational continuity for children and families in a marginalised neighbourhood in urban Mexico, while schools and makerspaces have been closed due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Low income communities’ educational opportunities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic: they cannot simply transfer their learning online, often due to lack of financial resources and poorer urban infrastructures, so alternative approaches have to be considered.
‘Hyperlocal Learning Network La Campana-Altamira’ has taken an innovative approach to overcoming these challenges, supporting socio-constructivist, creative, hands-on learning using hybrid physical/offline digital tools for families who are at home but geographically proximate to others, during lockdown.
The research team, including community activists, devised an educational programme, resourced with craft kits, offline networked hubs (Raspberry Pi computers) and smartphones to enable 11 families to engage with studio-like maker learning and share outcomes while maintaining social distancing. Families were guided through the activities and introduced to the tools by researchers and social service programme undergraduate students while minimising contact yet enabling local-but-remote interactions.
In this presentation we describe our approach, the challenges of carrying out community-based research as a transdisciplinary and internationally dispersed team during a pandemic, and our initial findings. We reflect on the challenges of taking a participatory action approach to research with a strong empowerment agenda, and our attempts to embrace a decolonial approach to computing (or technology supported learning) while managing practical constraints. We will conclude by setting the project into the wider context of related activities and considering future ambitions.