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Contents
updated on Monday 11-June 2001 The purpose of this document is to provide some background information to the European Commission-funded RISCOM II project and its activities with schools and colleges. These details offer little more than a 'first taste' of the activities and time-scale of the project. These details have been produced primarily for an audience of teachers, departmental heads, school head teachers and college principals. Updated information on partner schools and colleges and on resource developments will be available throughout the Summer & Autumn. Questions which arise from this material should be sent to Mike O'Donoghue in the Centre for Studies in Environmental Change (CSEC) at Lancaster University. -Contacts details are provided at the end of this letter.
The overall objective of the RISCOM II project is to 'support the participating institutions and the European Union in developing transparency in their nuclear waste programmes and means for a greater degree of public participation'. The project began in December 2000 and has 13 partners (4 in Sweden, 5 in the UK, 2 in France, 1 in Finland and 1 in the Czech Republic). Public consultation has traditionally been structured around small group meetings and discussion. A panel of subject specialists and/or officials are brought together with members of the public (invited or otherwise) to discuss the range of issues and concerns surrounding particular plans or developments. This process has a number of limitations, not least of those being cost, availability, and sometimes willingness, of specialists to participate, and the opportunity for the public to attend these events at specific times and places.
The development of the Internet, in particular that of the World Wide Web (www), has led to a rapid increase in the number of people using electronic communication media. Personal e-mail accounts are now freely available from a range of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telephone companies. The number of online chat rooms and discussion spaces available has increased dramatically and is cause for concern for a growing number of parents and special interest groups. According to one source, "A new web site appears every 22 seconds - more than 3,900 new sites every day." [Kids Online, 1998] However, the www has demonstrated a potential to allow people to electronically exchange information, views and opinions, and to form online communities with shared interests. Where this has been carefully organised the outcomes have been both positive and constructive. This potential has not gone unnoticed in the field of education where a wide range of online learning activities have been supported by the government of the United Kingdom, through British Telecommunications plc, and from funding made available by other public companies. The RISCOM II project seeks to explore the potential offered by the Internet and the www 'for providing information and promoting discussion on nuclear waste issues among young people'. In order to achieve this, the RISCOM II project will create a series of online resources to support and encourage discussion between invited groups of students and their teachers.
Large numbers of organisations are increasingly turning to the World Wide Web to provide information on themselves or related topics, or to market their products. The notion of developing a 'web site' to establish an 'Internet presence' is becoming increasingly established as means for providing and referencing information. For many, the development of a website is simply a means of producing a series of web pages to present information for public access. From the user's point of view, web-based activities are often confined to reading the presented materials. Communicating with the information provider is often restrictive and usually achieved by providing an email address for correspondence. A wide range of educational materials follow this particular formula, but how useful such materials are is questionable. The American company 'Click to Learn', for example, were criticised for producing materials which do little more than allow users to 'Learn to Click'. Saying we aim to create a website for schools for the RISCOM II project would be inappropriate if we are to achieve the project aim in 'promoting discussion'. If our intention is to develop online resources which students and teachers find useful and engaging, it is important to create resources which actively promote discussion on radioactive waste management. Put simply, we need to do more than offer a few pages of text and images related to the project and personnel involved if we are to investigate the potential the Internet offers in promoting discussion amongst young people across this subject area. As a result, the design for RISCOM II's online learning environment is one which brings together a range of resources with the intention of engaging its participants by offering a range of activities and opportunities to contribute to and participate in discussion.
Six educational institutions will be invited to participate in the project activities in the United Kingdom. It is expected that the majority of student participants will be based in Sixth Form schools or colleges, but this may also include schools which have a small Sixth Form study group as well as students involved in study at the tertiary (Further Education) level. Whilst Sixth Form students are expected to form the majority of the online contributors, it is permissible that some students in their final year of compulsory education - those currently preparing for GCSE examinations - might also be given an opportunity to participate.
The decision on which group(s) of students should participate is left to the head teacher or principal of each partner Sixth Form or College involved. However, we can offer a little guidance on which group(s) may derive more learning benefits from participation than others. In preparation for the online resources ten subjects at A/AS level were identified from Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) information which appeared to offer a firm connection with the project content; a further ten subjects were also identified which offered possibilities for constructive participation. Some subject specifications are clear in their relationship to the RISCOM II material - Radioactive Waste is identified and included in the A/AS level specification for Environmental Science (module EN02, topic 3.3, for example). However, in view of the variety of factors involved in radioactive waste management there is a good opportunity to bring in student viewpoints from study areas such as Economics, Sociology, Geography (both A and B specifications), Government and Politics, General Studies, and others. In many ways, the quality of the discussion which will evolve depends on the width of the range of viewpoints available within the contributing audience; the possibility to involve students from areas of study which are not immediately thought to be connected with the environmental issues surrounding radioactive waste management may provide a bonus for all those involved.
The main focus of the online resources created is to allow participating students to put forward their views and opinions on radioactive waste management. Some students may chose to make contributions in response to other views or questions put forward. Some may chose to contribute to issues which arise from their examination of materials available through the online space. Others may chose to add a response from a group discussion that has taken place with their tutor. In short, the web space will provide a variety of online resources which we hope will stimulate and engage students in different ways and which provide different mechanisms for each to respond in their own way. Some of these activities will be based on teachers' or students' ideas. Whilst considering the design of materials, attention has been and will continue to be given to encouraging student contributions; at the same time, we hope that the students who participate will be able to draw on their experience and learning from the project within their own individual study areas.
For schools who accept the invitation to participate, the only commitments are:
It would be very difficult to impose strict guidelines on how often groups should be made to contribute, and even if these guidelines existed they would be almost impossible to police. However, at this stage of development, it is our expectation that students at each participating school or college should examine the materials available at least once every two weeks; this is the anticipated lifespan of the polling questions we will set up and use. How long students should be online is also difficult to determine; it is perfectly reasonable for a group to go online for a thirty minute session each week, if this is the way the teacher feels s/he wishes to use the resources. It is also acceptable for a group to participate in a more intense online period of activity over a period of days, if this fits in with the objectives the teachers have and with the activities arranged. Essentially, how and when staff and students chose to go online is a question teachers at each school need to consider.
Participating schools will not be charged for participating in the project. However, any running costs the school incurs as a result of participation (e.g. online connection charges, photocopying, and staff time) cannot be met by the RISCOM II project partners.
The creation of the online resources to support RISCOM II project activities will take place during the Summer of 2001. The vast majority of resources will be created by staff at Lancaster University, who will also host the web-based materials and discussion spaces. Prototype designs will be made available for inspection and comment in the Summer. A number of information-based resources will be provided by other project partners and re-structured to fit into the RISCOM II web-space. It is expected that the full web-space will be available for final comments towards the middle of September. Whilst the bulk of the online resources will be produced by RISCOM II project partners, it is the intention to work with the participating schools and Sixth Forms to develop others. For example, one feature we will include is a simple voting facility which will give each participant the opportunity to vote on a specific issue or question. The first question will be provided by one of the project partners, but it is expected that each school will produce a question on a related radioactive waste management theme for future use. A resource will also be created which will provide details of the school partners, the groups of students involved, and of their teachers. It is through such resources that we hope to develop and instil a sense of online community amongst the participants. We expect groups of students and their teachers will begin to use the RISCOM II online materials and discussion spaces from early October 2001. This period of participation is expected to continue throughout November and into early December, after which the evaluation and analysis of activities will begin.
As the RISCOM II online materials will be made available across the Internet it is important that each participating school or Sixth Form has access to the Internet and a suitable web browser. Netscape and MS Internet Explorer are the two most popular browsers available for PCs and Apple Macintosh computers. Whilst most of the materials can be accessed by either browser with little problem, audio and video materials will be encoded for MS Netshow and so can only be made available for users with Internet Explorer (IE5). The initial screen format will be 800 x 600; this format is supported by many end user computers, but schools invited to participate who may experience problems with these screen dimensions should contact me as soon as possible. The time required to download materials will be minimised as much as possible; participants do not necessarily need a high speed Internet connection or local area network, but users with connections less than 56kbps may experience delays in access and downloading. All users are likely to experience delays in network connections at peak use time, usually those times when many users in the United States come online. ISDN connections (2x64kbps) may offer the best connections for small clusters of computers or LANs. Schools and colleges should also give consideration to how their students will participate in activities. If online group work is considered the optimal mode for working and contributing, then access to suitable computing resources to support this need to be made available. Our previous experience in running school and college-based projects suggests that participating in RISCOM II activities through an after school club is unlikely to generate engagement or enthusiasm. Where possible, schools thinking of participating in the RISCOM II project activities should consider:
Colleagues in schools or colleges receiving this information and who have an interest in participating in the RISCOM II activities as outlined should contact Mike O'Donoghue (see end of document). A few brief details of the school or college would be useful, but of most importance is the name of the staff member who will act as a point of contact (POC). Any initial thoughts on which groups and subject areas may be able to contribute would also be useful, though we appreciate that enrolments for subject in the Lower Sixth may not be known until September. This information should be sent to us no later than Friday 22nd of June 2001. Once this information has been received we will make contact with the nominated POC in each school or college before the end of the academic year in order to gather a little more data and answer any questions that may arise.
Any questions about this project, the resources in development, or letters expressing an interest in participation should be sent to: Mike O'Donoghue
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Introduction
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