I’m looking for links to updated instructions, or videos for adults on how to (and how not to) use iNat. Some of the How-to articles are a bit out of date. If you do not know of any updated instructions, what do you think are the most important instructions to share with new groups of adult users?
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Getting Started (5)
A collection of how-to pages for new iNaturalist users.
https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/folders/151000552105
Video Tutorials (7)
https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/folders/151000547795
What’s the context? Usually most adults start with the app but if this is a hobbyist group like birders or those seriously into photography, it’s best to go straight to the web uploader.
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Based on the most common mistakes I see or hear about:
- Realize that the website exists, and that other users can interact with your observations through it. Preferably learn to use it yourself as well, instead of (or in addition to) the app.
- Add an identification to each one of your observations, at the most precise level that you feel comfortable with. Don’t blindly trust the Computer Vision suggestions, particularly on lower-quality photos (subject blurry or small, etc.) but they’re probably accurate for common species. If you’re not sure, identify to genus or higher. If you have absolutely no idea, “Life” is better than nothing.
- Check your notifications. The website is better for this. Pay attention to your observations as they get IDs or comments. Learn which species you’re seeing, and which diagnostic features to photograph in the future. If someone disagrees with your ID, ask why, and withdraw yours if you aren’t confident about it.
- Make sure your locations are both accurate and as precise as possible. Adjust the “accuracy circle” as needed so that it definitely covers the correct location. If it has to be large to do that, that’s fine. Remember that it should represent the exact location of the organism, not yourself. If you set locations with GPS, check to make sure they’re correct before uploading.
Those are the most important things to know in my opinion. Also worth explaining is the importance of identifications, and how to add them to other people’s observations, but that’s something that should only be done by people who are already comfortable with the system.
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Why, or how, is Life better than nothing?
A broad ID to enable annotation I can understand.
If you have no idea what something is, but you know it’s alive, identify as Life. If you have no idea what it is, and you aren’t sure if it’s alive or not, leave it Unknown. That’s how it would work in an ideal world anyway. More practically, there are fewer observations of Life (3,150 Identify pages, versus 15,058 pages of Unknowns) and it’s only used by people who know how iNat works, so people who want to identify the really weird stuff can look there. Unknown is so cluttered up with plants, etc., from new users that it’s not very useful for its intended purpose.
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If I only have a few minutes (before someone starts to hear ‘waa-waa-waa’), after giving the pitch for all the positives, I add …
Figuring out the site involves learning by doing
If you make a mistake it can always be fixed
People will help you recognize mistakes and help you ‘get things right’ (or better)
Don’t feel embarrassed by getting something wrong
(Or irritated that you received a correction)
Just check your notifications so can recognize and correct any mistakes
It may seem daunting at first but I felt comfortable within a few weeks (about 25 obs) of use
People will help and want to help. If you feel someone has gotten a bit pissy with you, don’t take it personally or feel like they represent the community as a whole
(and I eliminate some of those points when I sense their eyes glazing over)
When teaching adults something outside of a structured classroom, I feel like the biggest hurdle can be not letting them feel discouraged when they aren’t quickly ‘good’ at that something, especially when they see (or come in contact with) others who appear quite accomplished.
And I’m mostly talking about adults past a certain age. College students trying something new usually stayed positive and playful. They’re used to not ‘knowing it all’ (since they are in an active learning environment) and it doesn’t bruise their ego when they aren’t good at a new thing.
But as we age, many of use find ourselves pretty good at whatever career or avocation we’ve been pursuing. When we have a go at something outside of our comfort zone, we don’t always have the urge to push past that uncomfortable, awkward phase of ‘initial learning curve’.
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Hi @tnriverline, I hope you’re very well. I wrote a note here on iNat about this topic (Spanish version-Learning to use iNat: useful links and resources)
Aprendiendo a usar iNat: enlaces y recursos de interés
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/rafael_gianni/32004-aprendiendo-a-usar-inat-enlaces-y-recursos-de-interes
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Isn’t “Life” for anything that is biological? Which means dead organisms should also count as “Life”.
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Yes. I didn’t mean “alive” as in not dead, I meant as opposed to things that are never alive, like lawn ornaments. I’m not sure what a better concise way to say that is.
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Abiotic?
Side note: I am an adjunct at a tribal college and I don’t use the words living or alive to describe anything that undergoes cellular respiration.
Culturally, the words alive and living are used to describe plants and animals as well as water, rocks, air and clouds, basically anything that is natural that has some sort of energy or animation associated with it. This is really an issue of translation in that in English we don’t have a word to describe the animating forces of the abiotic parts of the natural world so it gets translated as living when it’s not quite.
Even when I work with kids, I use the words biotic and abiotic and explain biotic as things that breathe, eat, and grow.
Just something to be aware of.
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