Open Notebook Learning
Science has traditionally been done by scientists in their labs, trying to prove or disprove some hypothosis. Their experiments work or they do not work. They learn something important or the do not. We learned, when the result were significant and they were reported. What if Science opened up so that we could see and learn from successes and failures — good falures. (Image1)
Preparing the keynote for tomorrow’s launch of rural Scotland County’s (North Carolina) “one to one” initiative, I discovered an idea being promoted by Jean-Claude Bradley. The Drexel University Chemistry Professor, after some discussion with other scientists on the Blue Obelisk mailing list, suggested in a blog post the concept of Open Notebook Science (ONL). The Wikipedia entry for ONL begins
Open Notebook Science is the practice of making the entire primary record of a research project publicly available online as it is recorded. This involves placing the personal, or laboratory, notebook of the researcher online along with all raw and processed data, and any associated material, as this material is generated. The approach may be summed up by the slogan ‘no insider information’. It is the logical extreme of transparent approaches to research and explicitly includes the making available of failed, less significant, and otherwise unpublished experiments; so called ‘Dark Data’.2
I would suspect that it was fairly radical idea, though it would probably have seemed down right blasphemous in an earlier time, when we were not so accustomed to ubiquitous conferencing. The first thing I thought of, as I read through the Wikipedia article was the teachers who have told me that the best thing about having students do their collaborative work on a wiki is that they (teacher) can go back and review not only the students work, but the processing of their work, identifying who contributed what, and what they might have included at one point in the process and then dis-included later up, upon further research or consideration.
Appropriately, the article lists a number of scientists open notebooks, both experimental and theoretical. Advocates maintain that the practice of opening up the scientific process, without “unreasonable” delay or filtering,
- Improve(s) the communication of science,
- Increase(s) the rate at which research can progress, and
- Reduce(s) time lost due to the repetition of failed experiments.3
It seems an idea especially well suited to education, especially as we are coming to understanding the importance of process in the learning experience along with achievement. I mean, after all, what are scientists, but students whose teacher is that aspect of the world they are probing.
This also seems an especially fitting topic considering the emerging learning environment in Scotland County and the growing number of schools and school districts who are embrasing tools that give all their student-learners and teacher-learners ubiqutous access to networked, digital, and abundant information — and the capacity to work that information and express discoveries and outcomes compellingly to authentic audiences.
I am certainly not suggesting a new buzz word or learning philosophy. But the idea of opening up the work of learning learning seems worthy of some conversation.
What do you think?
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- Tourtellotte, James. “CBP chemist reads a DNA profile.jpg.” Wikimedia Commons. 7 Oct 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Web. 20 Sep 2009. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CBP_chemist_reads_a_DNA_profile.jpg>. [↩]
- Goetz, T. Freeing the Dark Data of Failed Scientific Experiments Wired Magazine, Sept.25, 2007.
- ”Open Notebook Science.” Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia, 20 Sep. 2009. [↩]
The Open Notebook Learning by 2¢ Worth, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Good to see Scotland County is getting on board with this stuff. My first full time teaching job was at Scotland HS, back in the mid-80’s. A part of me considers Laurenburg to be home, even if I lived there for only 4 years. Good luck to all of them.
Reply to TsakshaugI lived in North Carolina for almost 10years and never heard of Scotland county must be a very small town, anyway in regards to education and technology, am currently in school for to get my masters in childhood education (career change) and one of the courses am required to take is an advanced technology course, from creating a blog to creating a curriculum web, this is all new and challenging to me. With the way kids are with technology these days, teacher have to be able to keep up, by coming up with new and innovative ways of learning
Reply to ifyDave – thanks for bringing attention to ONS! I have not seen you in a while – will you be attending the ScienceOnline2010 conference in NC this January?
Reply to Jean-Claude BradleyI have in the past. It’s an interesting event as it blends a specific discipline to information and communication technologies. If I’m able to attend, I hope that you’ll be there, talking about ONS. I think it’s a powerful idea that has far-reaching implicaitons beyond science.
Reply to David WarlickI think this is something really useful for classrooms. I think more schools should try something like this, it could benefit alot of different areas and allow children to grow as students.
Reply to michaelI am a current Walden University and working on a assignment regarding Blogging. As I searched for Blog ideas, I came across the name David Warlick and my mind went back ten years ago to a NCET Conference in Greensboro where I sat in on a presentation by David Warlick. The Blog regarding Scotland County is close to the county in which I teach, I was wondering if other counties in NC had considered the “one to one” initiative?
Reply to Mark Trueblood