Netd@ys called into question

Life

Netd@ys is the ‘baby’ of the European Commission’s mandate to promote the creative use of new media, not least the Internet, in day-to-day activities and particularly in the context of education and culture. Since the 1997 launch of the initiative, the European Commission has extended its Netd@ys promotional tentacles across Europe and beyond. In 2002 some 500 projects were registered in Europe and countries as far apart as Australia, Brazil, Canada and Israel.

But is the European Commission’s promotion of Netd@ys a worthwhile exercise; what support do participating projects receive from the Commission; and, is the expense justified?

Beautiful end

Organiser of Netd@ys Europe, the Commission’s Directorate-general for Education and Culture, pulled out all the stops to ensure that the Netd@ys 2002 closing event held November 23 at Les Halles Saint-Géry, Brussels, was a memorable event. Invited project organisers demonstrated their showcase work against a vibrant backdrop of multimedia performances. The venue was “completely transformed into a multimedia heaven equipped with a giant suspended screen for projections and multimedia presentation”. The press were flown in from across Europe. It seems that no expense was spared.

Yet despite lavishness of the occasion the talk from the floor was not altogether complimentary. “What do we get out of this,” asked one project organiser. “We put all the work in and they [European Commission] take all the credit.” Such concerns were shared by a number of organisers. Particular concern was raised over the potentially high costs of promoting and staging the event and several organisers pointed out that their projects had by contrast received not a single euro in funding from the European Commission.

Those project organisers who were invited to showcase their work were but a handful from all those who participated in Netd@ys Europe 2002. What, therefore, did the other several hundred uninvited organisers, and even more importantly the thousands of uninvited children and others who directly contributed to the projects, get out of it?

Digital diary

St Louis Secondary School is one of the stars of the Commission’s Netd@ys initiative. Established by the St Louis order of religious sisters in 1888 at Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, Ireland, this all-girls school has enthusiastically embraced this contemporary technology initiative as a vehicle for learning and expression.

The school has been successful in being awarded the Netd@ys ‘label’ which is now widely recognised as a brand name for quality for its CD Yearbook (www.iol.ie/~dphelan/netdays.html). This multimedia CD has been created on iMacs using the iMovie, QuickTime and HyperStudio software programs. The finished CD, which was launched by Dr Rory O’Hanlon TD last November, contains over two hours of video footage including a full school musical, and 246 photographs. And, most intuitively, while the project was developed entirely on Macs, the CD is fully cross-platform compatible — the Yearbook is accessible in its entirety on both Macintosh and ‘Wintel’ computers.

The idea for the CD was based on the introduction into the school of the LCVP pilot project in 1999 to transform Leaving Certificate project material from paper-based to CD-based submissions. So successful was the project that St Louis’ has embarked on a subsequent Socrates project submitted through Léargas with schools in Norway and Italy. St Louis School was not invited to showcase its CD Yearbook at the Netd@ys 2002 closing event.

St Louis and Netd@ys

Asked how much direct or indirect European Commission support and funding St Louis School had received towards the development of its Netd@ys project, CD Yearbook project co-ordinator, Dave Phelan replied: “Absolutely none”. Phelan does not take exception to the lack of support or funding channelled by the Commission into Netd@ys projects in the field, or in contrast, by the amount of money that the Commission invested in promoting its initiative.

“Netd@ys is just a way of putting your product out there and the label is recognition of quality up to a certain standard,” says Phelan.

He explains that the CD Yearbook project was developed entirely independently of the Commission’s Netd@ys initiative. Léargas suggested that the CD Yearbook project would be ideal for Netd@ys. But Léargas’ involvement in the CD Yearbook seems mainly to have centred on nudging the project into the Netd@ys arena rather than proving funding or support. So just what did St Louis Secondary School actually gain for all its effort made and costs incurred?

“Exposure”, states Phelan. If participants are encouraged to go chasing after available but limited funding or support, “it gets a bit awkward if it generates into a contest,” adds Phelan. “I’m looking mainly for contact.”

We have ‘contact’

The hub of cross-project communication within this arena is the Netd@ys Website (www.netdayseurope.org). At the site projects can be registered, details posted and, most importantly, the site facilitates the development of contact and collaboration between the different project participants.

Where the site would seem to be lacking is in the use of visuals from the participating projects. After all, Netd@ys is all about the creative use of new media and is nothing without being visual. Furthermore, as many of the project teams are associated with — not well funded at the best of times — state institutions such as schools, they may well not have a computer, access to the Internet or their own Website. Should this be the case, there will be no possibility at the Netd@ys Website of viewing actual examples of their project work — firstly because there are no visuals, and secondly, because a link cannot be provided to a project or institution Website that does not exist. Therefore the absence of visuals is a significant oversight. Translations into different European languages of project details would also be helpful.

According to Phelan he only became aware of Web access to Netd@ys a couple of weeks before the project deadline. His principal contact with other participants has been through Léargas.

So was it worth it?

Under the supervision of Dave Phelan, the school’s pupils have achieved remarkable results whilst working with limited resources. The additional contact developed with other schools and Netd@ys participants through the Commission’s Netd@ys initiative, and through Léargas, have facilitated an exchange of knowledge and skills which might not otherwise have taken place. In addition, St Louis School has developed cost effectively a product bearing a recognised symbol of quality accreditation. The multimedia CD Yearbook is available to pupils of St Louis Secondary School for the meagre sum of EUR5.

“What I got out of it was over a hundred times what I put in,” concludes Dave Phelan.

Netd@ys ends in explosion of sound and colour

Netd@ys 2002 ‘showcase’ projects

The European Commission spent a total of EUR1.6 million on Netd@ys 2002. This budget covered support for national correspondents and the communication campaign at European level for the 15 Member States and Norway.

21/02/2003

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