Slashdot Mirror
Environmental Costs of Computer Use?
arhines asks: "I'm working on a little research project to figure out what the environmental cost of heavy technological reliance is, and want any suggestions Slashdot has for factors to consider. My school has started requiring students to own and use laptops in all of their classes, under the pretext of saving paper. Having read about the problems with computer recycling on Slashdot, I've become suspicious of the true effect of having several hundred computers thrown out each year. What statistics should I focus on, and are there any definitive studies on the topic you could point me to?"
Speaking as an 8th grader, I can tell you it would be very useful. I'm probably rather biased, as I type extremely fast and it would be much easier to do my work on the computer then on paper, but I believe that it would be much easier for everyone to use a computer.
The primary reason is organization. It's a lot easier to find a file on a computer then it is in a notebook, plus everything you need is in one place, and it allows you to easily access another piece of work or study material after you finished something else.
well i'm happy in thinking that the worst is past in that most computers that even our grandmothers have are capable of all that most people do on a computer (web email word solitaire) so there's going to be less computers thrown out when upgrades come. plus the shift to laptops and lcds and thinner clients means even the wasted computers of the future will have less crap to them.
and as for schools, the thing we should look forward to the most is not laptops in the classroom but the classroom in the laptop. home based learning will take all the paper away and much of the commuting while moving social interactions into more realistic venues.
as long as we can make it another 30 years without trashing things to the point of extinction of all life i think we'll be at a point of permanently sustainable life. now is definitely the time to be trying extra hard.
I'm a tactil learner. So for me the act of writting notes is a learning process in itself (I rarely go back and reread them). typing just doesn't set into stone the same way hand writting does. Also, as someone else mentioned, its very awkward to type calculus
Waiting for the Blackouts... http://www.perkigoth.com/features/music/
Speaking as a CS student at a major university, I've watched the kids with laptops play games during lectures. There is no use during class, all a laptop will do is add to how much you have to pay up on your student loans when your school is over...
If you're an 8th grader at a Jr. High/Middle School I take it you must go to school in a ritzy area to want to actually haul your $1000+ (or even $200 old beater) laptop around all the rif-raf that go to most public schools these days...
Besides, aren't most 8th graders who use their computers too busy looking up pr0n and bragging about how cool they are because they have this warez and they "hack" aol with this and so on...
All it is is just another "show off" item to boost one's ego (as most in the computer industry will be very well aware of, that is, massive egos.) "Hey look at me I'm cool I have a laptop"
"My school has started requiring students to own and use laptops in all of their classes, under the pretext of saving paper."
/parents must pay for a laptop to be used in the classroom, they can limit the amount of paper materials that teachers are required to distribute. Teachers can then distribute most of their classroom materials and handouts electronically and eliminate a lot printing and copying. Copying costs and printing cost are a huge expense for the schools, and if this cost can be reduced by moving to electronic documents, then it would make financial sense for the school to do so.
I think everyone is assuming that the schools is doing this based on environmental factors (and maybe that is how it is being presented,) but I doubt that is actually the case. More likely they are looking at this from a cost savings standpoint for the school. If they can create a requirement in which the students
My experience has been that even if a paper is submitted to a teacher or professor (I played this game five years ago in high school), the teacher immediately prints it and pulls out a red pen rather than grading it electronically.
.
It's especially cute that the department at my college that seems the least inclined to grade and return my papers electronically rather than printing them out is the environmental studies department. The most inclined is the Math dept., where some professors won't even accept hardcopies anymore.
Plus, using electronic sources leads to paper wastage, too. A textbook is used over and over. If you hand students an electronic source, many of them will print it out, then throw it away. And again next year. And again. And again. And again.
And then there's all of the cute pictures people find on the 'net and print out. .
> If anything, computers can lead to MORE paper use.
Oh yes. I've been trying to convince faculty to make their PPTs more general and NOT required to print out to get a good grade. My comments have fallen mostly on deaf ears, but I think some people are thinking about this.
The real issue is that PPT is a poor-mans text book. Okay, so Jane Professor has had her book rejected eighteen times. So she pushes an abridged version of her rejected book in PPT format. Everyone prints it out and take notes on it. Score: Professor's ego 1, envinronment 0. It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to buy another book, usually VERY underutilized, for the class because of department requirements. Worse, these types of teachers always have it in for the required book. Really now, your half-assed PPTs are no substitute for a decent book on the subject, a book with an index, and clearly labeled chapters.
Some professors do use PPT properly: as outlines to lectures and not as quasi-books. These outlines rarely need to be printed out as the notes you take in your notebook work just as well.
There are some serious usability issues with PPT becoming the new micro-publishing. It wouldnt be so bad if we all had tablet laptops that we could take notes right on with a stylus, but that ain't gonna happen anytime soon, if ever.