Ocean Literacy for All: A Tool Kit

This publication is made of two parts. The first part presents the history of oceanliteracy, and describes its framework made of 7 essential principles, and connectsthem to international ocean science programs that contributes to enhancing oceanknowledge and observations. Moreover, marine scientists and educators wereinterviewed to share their professional experiences on ocean literacy as well astheir views on its future. The last chapter of part 1 describes the existing challengesto marine education, as well as the path for the development of successful oceanliteracy activities in the context of the 2030 Agenda. One of the most importantfactors identified is related to the creation of multi-sector partnerships amongthe education, government, and private sector that have jointly built ocean literacyprograms for all formal educational levels from the primary school to the universitylevel as well as for non-formal learners. Worldwide examples of such programs arepresented.The second part, after introducing the methodological approach based on themulti-perspective framework for ESD developed by UNESCO, presents 14 activitiesthat could provide tested examples and support for the implementation of marineeducation initiatives. The aim is not to provide a one size-fits-all ready to usecollection, but rather to offer support and examples of what could be then adaptedfor different geographical and cultural contexts. The resources are designed to berelevant for all learners of all ages worldwide and to find their application in manylearning settings, while in their concrete implementation they will, naturally, haveto be adapted to the national or local context

How can Facebook contribute to the creation of a more ocean literate society?

The ocean provides countless goods and services supporting economic human activities. These goods and services are under threat as a consequence of a continuously increasing human population with limited knowledge of the ocean. It is important for citizens to take an active responsibility for ocean conservation, and therefore they need to develop ocean literacy. One challenge is that the knowledge is mainly held by scientists, often admonished for their lack of ability to communicate with the public. The online social media have become common resources for learning, sharing of knowledge and communicating with others. This constitutes a unique opportunity and a challenge for scientists to promote ocean literacy. This study takes a socio-cultural perspective of learning and argues that participation and interest are key components of the learning process. This study investigates the potential of Facebook for scientific communication and develop best practices to maximize its benefits. Quantitative (Facebook statistics analysis) and qualitative (interviews and discourse analysis) methods were used to scrutinize the Facebook page from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). From a quantitative point of view, the best strategy to optimize the reach and the followers’ interactions is to post daily and use picture or movies. From a qualitative point of view, MBARI’s fans seem to learn from MBARI’s stories to a certain extent, but this study indicates that Facebook pages do not offer the appropriate social context to foster participation since it has only a few of the features of an arena where such practices could develop. However, the context might be more favorable for participation when the fans share MBARI’s stories with their own friends. Moreover, MBARI’s stories hold the potential to develop people’s personal interest in marine science, supporting the learning process and enhancing their ocean literacy. In conclusion, social media can facilitate the development of user’s interest in the ocean and their ocean literacy. However, it is essential for scientists to increase their social media literacy in order to manage their pages in a more appropriate and timeefficient way, to benefit from the potential opportunities offered by online social media

Digital technologies and ocean literacy

Over the last century the ocean has been negatively impacted by human activities. In order to continue benefitting from marine services and goods, and the qualities afforded to human life through the ocean, citizens need to be informed about their relationship to the ocean and their own impact on it, that is they need to be ocean literate. Marine education is challenging, as most of the ocean is invisible to the human eye and marine processes are spread over large temporal and spatial scales. Digital technologies have the potential to support learning about the ocean as, virtually, they can take learners into the depths of the ocean and help them visualise complex interactions between different factors over time and space. This thesis consists of four studies scrutinising the role of different digital technologies for learning about marine environmental issues with an emphasis on communicative aspects, with two of the studies having a specific focus on ocean literacy. Study I is a literature review of the use of digital technologies in environmental education. Study II investigates the use of a marine research institute’s Facebook page aimed at supporting communication and learning about marine topics. Study III addresses the use of a carbon footprint calculator as an opportunity for students to reason about their greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, Study IV analyses the questions asked by students on an online platform where they engage in an asynchronous discussion with a scientist around the issues of ocean acidification. The four studies show how the use of digital technologies in environmental education can make the invisible visible, allowing engagement with and manipulation of the abstract features of the ocean. As demonstrated in my studies and as is evident from previous research in the multidisciplinary field of environmental science, digital technologies offer new means to make sense of and engage with global environmental issues. These technologies provide a field of action where users can experiment, make mistakes, get feedback and try again in ways that are different from paper-based learning activities. The findings from Studies II, III and IV also illustrate the challenges associated with these technologies, and it becomes obvious that the technical features of a tool do not determine the kind of interactions that will evolve from its use. The contexts in which a tool is used, and what the features mean to the users in situ, are key, and demonstrate the importance of studying not only the outcome of a learning practice but also the ongoing interaction between the users and the tool in a specific context. In conclusion, this thesis offers an overview of the range of impacts that digital technologies can have on the development of ocean literacy, as well as illustrating how technologies open up new ways of learning about marine environmental issues both inside and outside of school. It also provides an account of why ocean literacy is such an important skill for 21st-century citizens living in a rapidly changing world with significant challenges to the environment and our own habitats

Marin pedagogik : Inventering av lokala behov av stöd och kunskapsmaterial

Regeringen gav Havs- och vattenmyndigheten (HaV) i uppdrag att bidra till att stärka arbetet med utbildning för hållbar utveckling inom havs- och vattenfrågor, särskilt marin pedagogik. Uppdraget har genomförts av Havsmiljöinstitutet och forskare vid Göteborgs universitet som kontaktat lokala aktörer inom marin pedagogik, och inventerat deras behov av kunskapsmaterial och stöd. Marin pedagogik är ett verktyg för att skapa förståelse för hur havet påverkar oss människor och för hur vi påverkar havet, vilket kallas för ocean literacy på engelska och som översätts till havsmedvetenhet i rapporten. En marinpedagogisk aktör förmedlar information om havet och/eller sambandet mellan vatten och hav, vilket i sin tur kan ge upphov till havsmedvetenhet om mottagaren tar ställning till informationen och sätter in den i ett förståeligt sammanhang. Regeringsuppdraget avgränsades genom att inkludera aktörer vilka fokuserade helt eller delvis på havsvatten och som befinner sig utanför det obligatoriska skolväsendet. Aktörerna lyfter fram behov av: finansiellt stöd (som bör vara långsiktigt) nätverk (mötestillfällen skapas) databas (för att dela med sig av marinpedagogiska resurser. Aktörerna efterlyser kunskapsmaterial av olika slag, främst: skriftligt material/information (material anpassade för olika åldrar Digitala resurser (för att inspirera och engagera ungdomar) forskarkontakt (som behövs för metod- och faktakoll

ZEF scale

15-item scale to measure Zoom fatigu