The Utterly Amazing and Exciting
World of Science Communication
Online!!!!!
A Few Suggestions from the Science Online
2009 Conference
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Miriam C. Goldstein
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
January 20, 2009

Moving Beyond Cat Captions
(not that there’s anything wrong with that)
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Four Aspects of Online Communication
• Your online persona
• The internet in the classroom
• Diversity outreach online
• Strange & exciting future directions for
science online
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1. Your online persona: professionalism
• You already have an online persona
• Make sure YOU control it
– Google yourself frequently
– Adjust Facebook privacy settings
versus
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Your online persona: self-promotion
Promote your expertise:
Low commitment: professional webpage
Medium commitment: build an resource
High commitment: write a blog

Persona Demo
• Googling the teeming hordes of Miriam
Goldsteins
• Miriam’s invertebrate video collection

2. Using the internet in the classroom
Introducing Miss Baker’s
biology class
• “I think TV will be wack in 20
years.”
• “We can’t imagine what it
was like for you all [before QuickTimeª and a
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the internet].”
• ““Thank god for older people
who are able to access
computers and contribute
online materials.”

Classrooms online: methods
• Twitter and AIM
– Questions on homework
• Skype
– Video-chats with scientists
• Ning
– Private social networks with message
board, walls, real-time chat
• Wikis
– Webpages that all members can edit

Classrooms online: uses
• Blogs
– Field trip blogging (high-stakes for students)
– Summarize peer-reviewed papers
(ResearchBlogging.org, video podcasts)
• Wikis
– Create project or resource, (e.g., guide to field trip
location)
• Message Boards
– Discuss controversial matters privately (e.g.,
evolution)

Introducing the Creepy Treehouse
Power dynamics on the internet
– Keep personal lives separate
• Love those Facebook privacy settings!
• Can be in same Facebook group without being
Facebook friends
– Students should always initiate online
contact, never teachers
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Classroom Demo
• Miss Baker’s class blog
• Ning - a class page and the Synapse
• ResearchBlogging.org

3. Diversity Outreach Online
Problems:
• Low student recruitment
• Feelings of isolation in pasty white
science-land
• Lack of mentorship
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Online Solutions
Online communities can supplement what
is lacking in real life communities
• Compile list of minority-authored
science blogs
• Blog “carnival” about minority academic
issues
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Offline Solutions
• Mentorship
– You can reach out/mentor someone who
looks different than you
• Get more undergrads involved
– Bigger net = more minority recruitment
– Invite undergrads to attend seminar, to
volunteer, to go tidepooling, etc.

Demo: Diversity Resources Online
• Urban Science Adventures!

Strange and exciting future directions for
science online
• Open Notebook Science
– Putting primary record online as it is
recorded
• Multimedia methods
– Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE)
– SciVee Pubcasts and Postercasts
[DEMO]

A final caution
• Possible conflict with employer or
stakeholders - and it won’t be what you think
• Negotiate blogging agreement AHEAD of
time
– Privacy issues
– Verboten topics
– The occasional crazy stalker and your workplace