Embracing Technology in a Hybrid Citizen Science Protocol: Increasing Access...and Loneliness?

• In Event: Informal Education Using Online and Hybrid Tools

Abstract

We asked citizen scientists nationwide to collect ginkgo leaves to help us better understand climate change. To facilitate nationwide, simultaneous collection we designed a hybrid protocol using the iNaturalist platform for virtual data collection paired with the physical collection of a mailed sample. While the data and sample collection efforts were successful, we recognize that opportunities for community and connection, a central goal of citizen science, were diminished. Here we report on how some participants engaged in creative misuse to communicate with us, prompting a critical examination of our protocol to explore how technology might encourage, rather than constrain, community and connection. We begin to answer the question: Are technology-mediated citizen science projects, while increasing access, inadvertently fostering loneliness?

Authors

• Heather Killen, University of Maryland

• Lucy M. Chang, Royal Ontario Museum

• Laura C. Soul, Natural History Museum, London

• Richard S. Barclay, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution