As a teen & young adult, the only magazine I ever subscribed to (and amassed quite a collection of) was National Geographic (NatGeo). Each month, the latest issue would arrive, and I would pore over it, marveling at the incredible photography and engrossing text and, perhaps more than anything, learning about the natural and cultural richness of this amazing spinning rock we all share. Had you told me then I would eventually get to visit some of the exotic Asian places it showcased – all so far from my home in Canada – I would have had major doubts. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I even ..read more

What a great start to the new year – our book is out, showcasing many diverse facets of the urban ecology of bats, with chapters co-authored by > 40 diverse authors based in many different countries.  What an honour to work with all these wonderful people ! The post Urban Bats – finally published ! appeared first on The Urban Ecologist ..read more

As you may know, bats are, in many cultures and contexts, undeservedly maligned. The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated that. Most likely, a species of horseshoe bat was the original reservoir for the viral ancestor to SARS-CoV2, which causes COVID. But the media and even the scientific literature have widely misrepresented the role of bats in COVID-19. In our latest paper, we used Q-methodology to investigate stakeholders think about the conservation and management of bats in Singapore – especially where they converge and diverge on the issue. We ultimately uncovered three unique “discour ..read more

Introducing our newest lab member, Taylor Rubin, who will do her PhD research with us. Taylor comes with a slightly unconventional and super appealing background. She obtained her master’s degree in neuroscience and animal behaviour in 2012 from Emory University. Her research subjects were tufted capuchins – am I the only one who wonders if the late Keith Flint modelled his hairstyle after these capuchins? Anyway, Taylor studied their cognition and facial expressions. This included a year in Argentina working with these adorable monkeys in the field. But ever since then, Taylor’s main jam has ..read more

Sulaimon Lawal will soon join our lab as my first PhD student. He grew up (and still lives) in Lagos, the largest of Africa’s three megacities. Sub-Saharan Africa! The motherland for our species. The only land that was spared the worst of the Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions. A land of huge cultural and biological diversity. But also, a land where extreme poverty and strife have most people living at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And the world’s fastest urbanising continent. That’s a huge problem. In 2012, the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook explicitly recognised the potential ..read more

Back in 2019, at the International Bat Research Conference in Phuket, Thailand, I gave a talk on knowledge and views of bats among Singaporeans – the work of my honours student, Cheryl YIP. At the end of the talk, I said this was the pilot for a global study I was keen to do, and invited conference attendees to collaborate with me. This led to a poolside meeting and, eventually, the formation of a small group of researchers who were interested in embarking. Four of us – Drs Tanja Straka, Ewan Macdonald and Tigga Kingston and I – upon Tanja’s suggestion decided to create a research project inve ..read more

These days, we recognise that cities play a starring role in the global climate crisis. Indeed, at least 70 % of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from cities themselves or activities that take place elsewhere but satisfy urban demand for goods and services. So, limiting warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels — a goal we must reach — hinges on urban sustainability solutions. Because the best urban levers to mitigate warming are variable, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to urban energy policy. And although outdoor urban lighting is probably not the most important sour ..read more

In our final post, we are asked to critically reflect on our overall ONL202 learning journey. To that end, we are given five guiding questions. What are the most important things that you learnt through your engagement in the ONL course? How will your learning influence your practice? What are your thoughts on using tech to enhance learning/teaching in your context? What are you going to do as a result of your involvement in ONL? What suggestions do you have for development of eLearning in your own teaching or context? To be honest, I find this difficult. Maybe I’m the only one who feels thi ..read more

This, for me, is the most relevant topic so far. I was motivated to take ONL202 so I could become a more competent online educator. Although I couldn’t get through the 35-min intro ppt (sorry, but what was the thinking there ?), I did find the other materials much more useful. Salmon’s 5-stage model gives theoretical structure to the design of effective online or blended courses, although I could’ve used some concrete examples. The most impactful resource was the article by Hodges et al, who compare and contrast mindfully designed online learning (OL) with emergency remote teaching (ERT). It g ..read more

This third ONL202 topic alienated me a bit at first. As I watched Kay Oddone’s YouTube videos (1 and 2) on the theory and practice of personal learning networks (PLNs) and read the studies by Capdeferro & Romero and Brindley et al, I felt kind of ‘meh’. Quite a contrast from how content for the first two topics immediately sparked thoughts about my practice as a digital learner and educator and how my students learn in the environment I create. My main takeaways from Oddone’s videos were that this is about informal use of social networking sites to exchange info and build your teaching pra ..read more