Lessons in digital democracy

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Peter Stidwill, senior web producer for education at the Houses of Parliament, offers insight into parliament's online learning tools

Create your own speech, control a Commons' debate, answer a quiz as you clean Big Ben, watch video tips from MPs and Lords, and create your own interactive diagram of Parliament and government – these are some of the existing and upcoming activities on Parliament's education website.

In recent years, Parliament's education service has grown as a result of more interest in educational provision among Members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Our relaunched website (parliament.uk/education) performs a key role in promoting school visits to Parliament and outreach activities. More importantly, it has the potential to reach all children across the UK. As the site grows, it will become an important resource for the teaching community, and provide essential support and content for teaching and learning about democracy and political literacy.

With a range of interactive games, videos, lesson plans and print publications, the website's learning content will continue to expand. Our aim is to produce high-quality, relevant and multi-platform content whilst ensuring a safe and trustworthy web destination – values all highlighted by the Digital Britain initiative.

Our commitment to these values is demonstrated in the first of a series of interactive whiteboard resources just launched. The benefits of digital content are exploited by offering a fully interactive, rich media guide to Parliament that is differentiated across three age ranges at the click of a button. Users can zoom into the Commons' and Lords' chambers and explore an interactive graphic of the structure of Parliament and government. On-screen prompts encourage learners to interact with the resource via the whiteboard. Off-screen notes and supporting worksheets help guide teachers through a topic widely acknowledged as difficult to teach. The resources are easily maintainable, meaning we can offer the most up-to-date and relevant information that will keep users coming back for more.

Another genre of content we are keen to exploit is the 'serious game'. Electronic games and simulation are explicitly mentioned in the Digital Britain final report as having a 'significant role in Britain's digital content ecology'. MP for a Week is a game we are currently developing that enables students to step into the shoes of a parliamentarian: representing constituents, scrutinising the government and legislating for the UK.

We are also working together on a partnership with Futurelab, who are industry leaders in gaming and educational technologies, to look at the feasibility of a game to facilitate learning about Parliament and democracy. Both projects aim to engage students in the fundamental processes of our democracy in an immersive and playful way.

Developing this kind of new web content is also an opportunity to deepen our links with teachers and experts. Their input helps ensure that the website is relevant to children and matched to the school curricula across the different ages, especially linking to citizenship and political literacy.

Our shrewdest partners, however, are often the children themselves. Regular user testing is a key part of the development process. Usability, language and concepts are tested with the target audience.

One insightful young girl using the site said she 'found out how big Parliament is and what happens there'. She also added: 'It's quite interesting, but some of it is hard to comprehend.' Her comments illustrate the challenge of explaining Parliament's complexities and engaging young minds with the workings of democracy.

In this sense, the idea behind all our new content is to provide young people and their teachers with resources that are interactive and fun, while still matching up to the school curricula.

Technology and users' expectations continue to develop. With increased use of video, audio, mobile services and other interactive technologies, there is also an increase of the load on the technology infrastructure. Additionally, teachers, students and parents require universal access in order to take advantage of new online learning experiences. These issues of connectivity and access – which feature heavily in the Digital Britain initiative – are important considerations whenever we develop a new resource. Whilst some of our projects push the boundaries, we ensure that the same learning objectives are covered through our full range of resources.

If you'd like to find out more or follow the work of the education service, I encourage you to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter, available at www.parliament.uk/education.