Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

The Becta Self Review Framework, Element 1 (Leadership and Management) requires the school to review the sustainability of ICT provision. Levels 1 and 2 asks whether your ICT strategy addresses and plans for sustainability including ‘environmental’ aspects. Now most schools I visit who are undertaking the self-review don’t think too hard about how their ICT provision is environmentally friendly, although one school I recently supported take sustainability seriously.

Sustainability in ICT terms can be complex with different PC manufacturers promoting their green credentials but hardware is not the only controversy. Heap Media claim that black pixels on screen take less energy than white, and therefore set up Blackie. Blackie is a black screen interface to Google and at the time of writing claims to have saved 5.5 million watt hours since its inception. 2002 research shows that the power used to display white or black pixels on LCD monitors is indistinguishable, but this is not true of old style CRT monitors. But what about online software and Web 2.0 technologies? An interesting but contested claim by Nick Carr states that each active ‘avatar’ in Second Life used as much electricity as the average person living in Brazil or 1.17 tons of CO2 - the equivalent of driving an SUV around 2,300 miles.

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