Transcript

JANICE ANSINE

In the UK, many of us are passionate about our natural heritage. But although we enjoy being in our gardens, walking in local parks and green spaces, how much do we really know about the flora and fauna? Being able to recognise and name different species is very important. It is fundamental to biological education, science, and conservation.

Understanding that people like to share this type of knowledge and want to learn more, the Open University created ispotnature.org, a citizen science social networking platform for biodiversity. iSpot supports and engages both beginners and experts through their interest and curiosity about the natural world.

As you are by now aware, iSpot is aimed at helping anyone to identify anything found in nature. It is designed to enable people to upload their observations of wildlife, help each other to identify species, and share and discuss their findings.

In this week, you will be taken through the process of using a citizen science platform that supports species identification.