TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Web and CD ROM work undertaken with Chris Hamilton

In the mid 1990s whilst working on learner networking with the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network, we had a succession of unsatisfactory experiences with much-vaunted web and CD materials. Our problems were, in the main, owing to consultants driven by the exciting possibilities of the medium and passions to include all of the bells and whistles. We thus ended up with unstable systems of little substance with lengthy down-loads times that were impossible to update. By the end of this game I had become thoroughly sceptical, avoiding all electronic materials.

It took some perseverance by Jim Taylor to convince me to work with Chris Hamilton, my prejudice having labelled him as yet another web-zealot on his own mission. To my surprise, Chris was able to make things light, workable and easily updated. He was also able to develop and compile what we wanted and to open new more workable possibilities. We engaged him to compile 10 years worth of materials into an electronic information system 'e-info' for environmental learning in schools. A notable innovation was a habitat-based interactive learning resource with pictures and his making the Enviro-Facts materials accessible through differing index systems.

On the strength of this work, I invited Chris to contribute to an Australia / South Africa project to rework the UNESCO international CD 'Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future' for use in Southern Africa. He made useful contributions that made the project successful and has subsequently made corrective updates and redesigned elements, integrating e-info to make the resource one of the most functional environmental learning systems of this nature.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Chris and his team to anyone wanting electronic materials that work and can be managed on the web.

Prof Rob O'Donoghue
Director Gold Fields EE Service Centre
Rhodes University Environmental Education Unit