• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.134-142
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• 2021

Background: From 2018 to 2020, the Expert Study on Public Understanding after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident (the Expert Study Group) identified and analyzed activities designed to promote public understanding of science and radiation since the Fukushima accident, and held discussions on how to achieve public understanding in the situation where public confidence has been lost, and how experts should prepare for dealing with the public. This panel session was held at the 53^rd meeting of the Japan Health Physics Society on June 30, 2020. Materials and Methods: First, three subgroup (SG) leaders reported their research methods and results. Then, two designated speakers, who participated as observers of the Expert Study Group, commented on the activities. Next, the five speakers held a panel discussion. Finally, the rapporteur summarized. Results and Discussion: SG leaders presented reports from researchers and practitioners in health physics and environmental risks who provided information after the Fukushima accident. During the discussion, experts in sociology and ethics discussed the issues, focusing on the overall goals of the three groups, local (personal) and mass communication, and ethical values. Many of the activities instituted by the experts after the accident were aimed at public understanding of science (that is, to provide knowledge to residents), but by taking into account interactions with residents and their ethical norms, the experts shifted to supporting the residents' decision-making through public engagement. The need to consider both content and channels is well known in the field of health communication, and overlaps with the above discussion. Conclusion: How to implement and promote the public engagement in society was discussed in both the floor and designated discussions. Cooperation between local communities and organizations that have already gained trust is also necessary in order to develop relationships with local residents in normal times, to establish an information transmission system, and to make it work effectively.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.99-147
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• 2016

This paper critically reviews the previous discussion over public engagement with science and technology by Science and Technology Studies literatures with a focus on justification and acceptance. Recent studies pointed out that the "participatory turn" after the late 1990s was followed by confusion and disagreement over the meaning and agency of public engagement. Their discussion over the reproduction of the ever-present boundary between science and society along with so-called late modernity and post-normal science and sometimes through the very processes of public engagement draws fresh attention to the old problem: how can lay participation in decision-making be justified, even if we agree that privileging the position of experts in governance of science and technology is no longer justified? So far STS have focused on two conditions for participatory turn-1) uncertainties inherent in experts' ways of knowing and 2) practicability of lay knowledge. This paper first explicated why such discussion has not been logically sufficient nor successful in promoting a wide and well-thought-out acceptance of public engagement. Then the paper made a preliminary attempt to explain what new types of expertise can support the construction and sustainment of participatory governance in science and technology by focusing on one case of lay participation. The particular case discussed by the paper revolves around the actions of a civil organization and an activist who led legal and regulatory changes in wind power development in Jeju Special Self-governing Province. The paper analyzed the types of expertise constructed to be effective and legitimate during the constitution of participatory energy governance and the local society's support for it. The arguments of this paper can be summarized as follows. First, an appropriate basis of the normative claim that science and technology governance should make participatory turn cannot be drawn from the essential characteristics of lay publics-as little as of experts. Second, the type of 'expertise' which can justify participatory governance can only be constructed a posteriori as a result of the practices to re-construct the boundaries between factual statements and value judgment. Third, an intermediary expertise, which this paper defines as a type of expertise in forming human-nonhuman associations and their new pathways for circulations, made significant contribution in laying out the legal and regulatory foundation for revenue sharing in Jeju wind power development. Fourth, experts' conventional ways of knowing need to be supplemented, not supplanted, by lay expertise. Ultimately, the paper calls for the necessity to extend STS discussion over governance toward following the actors. What needs more thorough analysis is such actors' narratives and practices to re-construct the boundaries between the past and present, facts and values, science and society. STS needs a renewed focus on the actual sites of conflicts and decision-making in discussing participatory governance.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.124-147
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize PUST (Public understanding or science and technology) with a new theoretical perspective and to measure the Korean PUST through a national survey. Then, it suggests policy implications of improving the Korean public understanding of science and technology. Our new theoretical perspective is focused on an information receiver's one rather than an information provider's one. Thus, we concepualized PUST as a process of engagement: how a citizen becomes to be engaged to science or technology. It does not stress how hard s/he is pushed to learn science or technology. A national survey was done by a face-to-face interview method. About 1,200 adults were sampled from 18 or more years old population by a stratified area sampling method which had been used as a common and reliable one in South Korea. Each half of the total sample were for science or technology. The survey was conducted in September, 2001. We found that many Korean adults had positive but disproportionate impressions of science or technology that were related mostly to utilities for life such as computer, internet, car, refrigerator, television, etc. Most of them failed to continue to be engaged to sciences and technologies after first exposure to them through compulsory education. They were not able to relate sciences or technologies to solving individual or social salient problems. This study shows that PUST would be improved by our engagement to sciences or technologies through their relationship with social problems or issues.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.71-85
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• 2021

The history of the Bakken Museum, the Museum of Electricity in Life, is useful to understand the universality and particularity of a local science museum. Beginning with the small collections at the medical device company, the Bakken Museum has expanded its scope and facilities by reidentifying its mission from research institute to educational center. The educational turn of the Bakken Museum has been completed with two remarkable events: the launch of the Summer Institute in 1984 and the construction of the new education facility, New Wing, in 1999. During this change, the museum staff developed unique strategies for public engagement, using the history of science and technology as an educational tool. The shift of the Bakken Museum's mission provides an excellent example of how a local museum could meet the social needs for museums to be educational centers by utilizing its history and collections.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-31
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• 2015

Various concepts and practices of public deliberation have been exercised over the last three decades in western countries for science and technology (ST) governance. There has been a general social consensus for the need of such new governance notwithstanding, ends and means to achieve it varied. Among various rationales, while normative and substantive perspectives are explicitly claimed in public as reasons for public engagement in ST policy making, instrumental perspectives tend to be implicitly arranged by interested parties and still affecting policy significantly. This paper therefore, examines the implications of such instrumental perspectives in public engaged ST governance. To do so, this paper analyses the discourses and practices of public deliberation for ST governance in the UK from the late 1990's until the mid 2000's. It examines the proposals made by various policy institutions and two real public deliberations- the GM Dialogue for commercialization of genetically modified crops and the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management(CoRWM)'s programme. This study finds that policy institutions tried to employ public deliberation as strategic instrument for their policy interest, which contrasted with their outwardly claimed rationales of democratic policy making and better quality in decision for ST governance.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.117-127
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• 2023

In many training institutions, the major advancement of Information Technology is having a profound impact on the way in which instructors teach and students learn, as well as how the two interact. The training process is continuing with the goal of enhancing the calibre of instruction and engagement. Top colleges and institutions have more recently developed a variety of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) systems centred on the development of new educational offering ways. These have not only captured the interest of students and scholars in the field of higher education, but also that of staff members in the private and public sectors. This study uses a Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to assess the top MOOC providers and pinpoint the key elements influencing learner acceptance of MOOCs in Saudi Arabian training. A total of 382 government trainees in Saudi Arabia participated in an online survey, the results of which underwent analysis using structural equation modelling. This study identifies the key elements influencing Saudi government employee trainees' intentions to use MOOCs, with the findings indicating that the suggested model can account for 86.2% of user behaviour and 88.5% of user intentions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.43-50
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• 2011

There are emerging issues to update the educational environment for schools in terms of information and communication technology in order to provide customized programs to students as well as all participants relating to learning and teaching. The past year has been turbulent as the education facilities has changed and new procurement processes such as BTL have emerged. In this study, the feasibility analysis of ICT for the public educational environment is to analyse the current primary schools by means of collecting parent's opinion. In the web-site questionnaires, it was designed with 70 items such as teaching method, class organization, aptitude drill and educational community. As results, the statistical analysis is to propose the list of priority and orientation covering social agenda in the issue of ICT for education, the benefits schools can achieve by smart environment is to have the advanced learning services and solutions that represents parental engagement with identical local aims of interactive interface between their students and qualified teachers at a school. Both the national curriculum as well as the after-school program initiatives from the ministry of education, science and technology may reduce negative effects of private education so that the program has to be carefully developed for balanced education society revitalizing mutual communication within regional learning participants such as students, teachers and educational experts.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.5-23
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• 2016

As new technologies change a society, librarians need to understand and adapt to technology innovations. However, most innovations that librarians are supposed to adopt are government-driven or top-down changes; and there have been very few studies conducted to identify any patterns or consistencies in librarians' perceptions of innovation. This paper, therefore, has two research purposes. First, it introduces the Concern Based Adoption Model (CBAM) as one method to gain a deeper understanding of how librarians see such changes. Second, this study identifies school librarians' concerns regarding digital textbooks in South Korea applying the CBAM theory. The test signifies that school librarians present a typical non-user profile, and the pattern anticipates a potential resistance to digital textbooks. Also, it discovers the less experienced and innovator librarians had higher concerns across every stage. The findings underscore a need of various interventions. The CBAM theory suggests, in terms of intense Stage 0 and 1, it is required for school librarians to have events to gain information about digital textbook implementation. Regarding targeted interventions, since the biggest gaps occurs in Stage 4, Consequence and Stage 5, Collaboration, according to school librarians' experience and adoption style, new school librarians need stronger engagement with the community, which including associations, mentors or peer support, and collaborating with public libraries; innovator school librarians require opportunities to test and present their use of digital textbooks (Hall and Hord 1987).

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.107-137
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• 2016

By analyzing a nationwide survey on Korean publics, this study examines the social determinants of public support for three types of scientific research-basic research aimed at pure knowledge, applied research toward industrial application, and research for social problem-solving which aims to enhance ordinary citizens' quality of life. The present study finds the differential effects of social- and political value orientations on the level of public support for respective types of research. As ones have more progressive in their subjective political orientations, they are more likely to support research for social problem-solving than other types of research, while conservatives tend to support basic research and those with neo-liberal ideology tend to support applied research. The Korean public also tends to perceive research for social problem-solving as a counter to basic research while it has been developed against the conventional emphasis on applied research in Korea. Also, the level of support for research for social problem-solving increases with the higher level of trust in scientific authority and expertise, while it has been developed against expertism and included public engagement in science as an important element. Finally, those who have lower income tend to support for research for social problem-solving than other types of research. The implications of these findings are discussed.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.15 no.4 s.57
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• pp.106-114
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• 2006

The purposes of natural science museums are to educate the general public on the principles and application of science, and help them understand various aspects of science technology. Data should be analyzed by considering these educational aspects of exhibition, and the methods of presenting exhibits should be decided. Accordingly, the composition of exhibition contents with various exhibition elements has an important role at natural science museums. The relation and structure of exhibition themes are significant factors in helping visitors understand the principles of science and a system of viewing circulation can be used as an important tool for understanding the flow of exhibition. In other words, at the planning stage for the composition of exhibition contents, the relation of exhibition themes as well as the circulation patterns of viewers can induce active viewing behaviors. Therefore, centering on the patterns of viewing circulation as well as on the connectivity of exhibition themes at natural science museums, the purposes of this research are: 1) to conceptualize the composition of exhibition contents; and 2) to find elements that can induce active viewing behaviors by analyzing visitors' viewing behaviors. This research was establishing an analytical indicator of contact for viewing behaviors observed from the composition of exhibition scenarios, the active viewing patterns of engagement, first contact, and repeated contact were analyzed. First, a composition pattern with a high participation rate, in contact with exhibits, was found to induce an overall-viewing circulation and have a big ring of the composition of exhibition themes. Second, by inducing a partial-viewing circulation pattern, a high rate of first contacts was observed from a ring pattern of theme connection. Even for the structure with theme connection with depth, a high frequency of contacts with various exhibits was found when exhibition themes have a ring pattern. Third, the repeated contacts were mostly found in the form of scenarios, which has a successive structure of ring and cross patterns.