The safeguard of the biosphere and sustainable development depends upon strong science research, education, and resources to support the increasing demand for biological scientists and students, as well as the scientifically-literate public.
In recent years ICT development have considerably helped science teachers. By providing a quick and easy access to scientific information, it has help reduce the lag between scientific advance and its inclusion in the curriculum. In addition, it also has broaden the range of educational tools available. Computer learning packages, interactive and non-interactive information websites, communication via the web and collaborative projects, all of them provide an educative potential available to all student in a variety of formats catering for all kind of different learning styles.
Today's problem with using ICT in biology is not anymore the lack of information but the surplus or unnecessary excess of information. Part of student education will be to teach them the skills for selecting, evaluating and organizing information.
Where do we start with good science websites?
In their article, Jack O'Gorman and Amy Gullen (2010, Reference on the Web: Science Blogs and Tweets, http://www.booklist.com/) reviewed several excellent resources for biology teacher and students willing to keep up with developments in science. Networks and aggregators are fantastic sources for locating unlimited information. Since summer 2010, the number of sites assisting to locate good science blogs and twitters has literally exploded.
A network is a “cluster of blogs that group together for a specific purpose”.
Three very usefull networks are recommanded by the authors:
- PloS Blogs (http://blogs.plos.org/plos/) from the Public Library of Science
- Scientopia (http://scientopia.org/blogs/) groups around 25 blogs arranged by subjects including Biology and Environment, Brain and Behavior, Education and Careers, Humanities and Social Science and Politics.
An aggregator is “a directory of blogs, a one-stop shop to look through many different kinds of blogs”. Valuable scientific resources can be found on the following:
- Science Blogging Aggregated (http://scienceblogging.com)covers writing from media organizations, science publishers and scientific organizations like Scientific American, National Geographic, Smithsonian, The lay scientist or Panda's thumb, as well as some bloggers' collective.
- Science Pond (http://sciencepond.com)a twitter aggregator for science topic.
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