This section should take you approximately 30 minutes to complete.
Transportation
Watch this video (starting from 2:53) and explore the impact of transportation on climate change:
Instead of using various means of transportation which emit fossil fuels, university students could decide to use EdTech and study from home. The number of immobile students in the United Kingdom (UK) has increased. In addition, many students choose to attend universities from home (Holton & Finn, 2018: p. 426). This suggests that learning from home and not commuting to schools can help lower transportation usage and harm climate change.
University campuses
EdTech can help replace campuses (Dias Pereira, 2014: p. 912). Universities are driven by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which lead to increased energy consumption and production on campuses (Popoola, 2018: p. 781). University campuses need projectors, computers, gaming apps, digital whiteboards, and others. These resources require a lot of energy. After salaries for teachers and staff, energy costs are the second-highest cost for educational institutions (Dias Pereira, 2014: p. 912). Space heating is the highest energy expense for educational institutions based in the US. It accounts for 47% of energy expenses (Dias Pereira, 2014: p. 912). It can be saved if students study from home because the heating system, in most cases, still needs to be turned on, and costs occur. Therefore, University campuses would save a lot of energy.
Personalised learning
Watch this video and explore the impact of Edtech on personalised learning:
Students can also learn the detrimental effects of climate change and solutions that students implement while employing student knowledge, interests and needs personalization strategies. For example, adverse effects and solutions to climate change crises can be based on the specific geographical location where students are found, depending on cultural and personal backgrounds. For example, suppose a student is based in a country where the primary type of transportation is a private car. In that case, they can find personalized learning material on the harmful effects and how they can be substituted. If a student is in an environment where meat consumption is prevalent, personalized resources could show the relationship between meat consumption and climate change. Therefore, EdTech can enable personalized learning and make learning about climate change more efficient.
Now, answer these questions:
- How do all the things mentioned above apply to your educational settings?
- What is your opinion about personalized learning? Does it outweigh potential drawbacks?
- What are other factors of EdTech that would not have a negative influence on climate change?
References
Bernacki, M. L. et al. (2021). A Systematic Review of Research on Personalized Learning: Personalized by Whom, to What, How, and for What Purpose(s)? Educational psychology review. [Online] 33 (4), 1675–1715.
Cakir, O. & Simsek, N. (2010). A comparative analysis of the effects of computer and paper-based personalization on student achievement. Computers and education. [Online] 55 (4), 1524–1531.
Dias Pereira, L. et al. (2014). Energy consumption in schools – A review paper. Renewable & sustainable energy reviews. [Online] 40911–922.
Holton, M. & Finn, K. (2018). Being-in-motion: the everyday (gendered and classed) embodied mobilities for UK university students who commute. Mobilities. [Online] 13 (3), 426–440.
Klašnja-Milićević, A. et al. (2011). E-Learning personalization based on hybrid recommendation strategy and learning style identification. Computers and education. [Online] 56 (3), 885–899.
Marrero, Á. S. et al. (2021). Convergence in road transport CO2 emissions in Europe. Energy economics. [Online] 99105322–.
McDonald, N. C. (2007). Active Transportation to School. Trends Among U.S. Schoolchildren, 1969-2001. American journal of preventive medicine. [Online] 32 (6), 509–516.
Popoola, S. I. et al. (2018). Smart campus: Data on energy consumption in an ICT-driven university. Data in brief. [Online] 16780–793.
Zhang, J. et al. (2021). Impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions of transportation infrastructure: China’s evidence. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption. [Online] 2100010–.
