Empowering our teachers and school children to fight global warming through paperless homework
Released on = January 19, 2007, 5:23 am
Press Release Author = Alan Foo Ho Kok
Industry = Education
Press Release Summary = School students are among the most profuse users of papers. By empowering teachers around the world with PRACTICAL tools to effect paperless homework/tutorials solution will bring millions of students to the forefront of our Anti Global warming initiatives. Trees will be saved and continue to breathe CO2. Our children will show the way to the world the need to conserve.
Press Release Body = Hello Kay Sexton
One of the biggest challenge today is how to conserve our trees all over the world. The demand by industries for papers besides furnitures is so huge that trees are chopped down at unprecedented rate today.
It is not just planting more trees. A better way is to reduce the demand for papers around the world by NOT chopping trees.
Who among us all are using papers everyday, besides newspapers around the world?
Well, they are none other than our children. Yes, they use papers for books, exercise books, worksheets, assignments etc. A more significant observation is these students number in the billions!
If we are to estimate that each school going child will consume 2 rims of papers for homework a year, 12 pencils or ball point pens(which contains inks and plastics), toners from photocopying of the worksheets by teachers for homework assignments, the amount of environment detrimental items used are just mind boggling.
To make matters worst these papers will either end up in landfills or burnt to produce even more CO2 into the atmosphere.
We have here a double whammy. Cut the CO2 breathing trees to make papers and burn them to release more CO2 into the atmosphere. Add to that the inks, pencils and ball pens need more energy to produce and that means more release of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Recycling is only half the solution because the trees are still cut down for the papers used not to mention the cost of collections and recycling.
The best solution is NOT to use the papers at all. Reduce this demand for papers by millions of students around the world, the impact can be significant to equal any measure we are undertaking today.
Many have tried this approach by creating paperless classrooms. One needs only to google \"paperless classroom\" will produce links leading to many initiatives towards this direction. All current efforts have one thing in common. All need some expensive gadgets like IPODs, PDAs or Tablet PCs. While they are effective, these efforts are too expensive for the majority of the schools around the world.
So these efforts are non starters for our anti Global warming efforts.
Other solutions like using pure online solutions requiring Internet connections have also failed to achieve this goal. Neither has CD ROM based offline solutions as they are too localised and impractical for mass education.
Hence schools around the world are still dependent on papers.
So what is the solution then?
In order for this solution to be effective, our first task will be to empower the teachers, who are too daunted by existing technologies to want to effect a paperless classrooms. They need a simpler system.
A more practical way has to be provided for teachers to do it not merely on moral grounds alone but on necessity and need to do so for their own benefits. Efforts should be enhanced to make giving digital homework a no "brainer". This will encourage teachers to do so voluntarily. Only then we can see a more spontaneous growth of such initiatives in schools around the world.
Such projects can be given another push by having a worksheet exchange program so teachers do not have to reinvent the wheel. After all , Einstein\'s law in England is still the same as in USA.
The delivery of contents between schools\' computers and students\' home computers should be easy for ALL students, old or new computers, diskette or pendrives etc.
Such an approach is being promoted and can be found at www.paperlesshomework.com.
While it is accepted that this alone is not going to reverse global warming, it is at least one direction among many that should be pursued. It is important because our children are now active participants of our Anti global warming goals.
Other benefits of such an initiative are enabling more home computers to be used for school work rather than being used for games and learning will be faster.
Teachers will be relieved of boring time consuming routines and free for other tasks.
What are more important is that our children will be active participants and be aware of the importance of conservation. Only through active participation of all can this project take off.
Can our global warming be reversed? Let our children decide. Mother Earth depends on them.
Submitted by Alan Foo Ho Kok VVC Global Network www.paperlesshomework.com
If one child can save 2 rims of paper a year, how many would that be across the world? No recycling and less trees are cut. Less landfill or CO2 to care about.
Web Site = http://www.paperlesshomework.com
Contact Details = VVC Global Network 5-2 Jalan 2/137B Off Old Klang Road 58000 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. mobile: 60193754266 Tel:60379809901 Fax: 79803593