Field Botany Changed the World

Two pretty telling student quotes from the video¹ above.

“I was real excited that our blog is now an example for anyone. If you want to look up high bush clover you can look on one of our blogs and find our pictures.”

“I think that knowing that the blog and the material would be accessible to anyone made the idea of putting it out there made the idea more exciting in some way but also I put more thought into it for that reason.”

The Field Botany blog ended up with 3,675 posts from 27 students. That’s some pretty serious output.

That content will remain accessible and the site can evolve² with each iteration of the course.

Two rather simple questions stay in my head lately.

• How can we have students do more than stairmaster work? – I’ve never cared for burning calories just to burn calories. I’d rather go somewhere. Even running in a circle is better than running in place. I can’t stop thinking about how much time and energy go into things that neither the student nor the teacher want.
• Since we can aggregate and archive student work, how does that change what we ask students to do?
  Student work can be valuable. It can add value in the context of other student work. It can be a resource for other students. It can help set norms, build community, provide a really important window on programs . . . there are so many things this simple possibility might allow if we reconsider what we have students do.