Web Tools For Helping To Go Green
Going Green has become a very popular concept in recent years. There has been a growing awareness of the need to conserve our fossil fuels, find alternative energy sources and to reduce, reuse and recycle. And rightfully so, as the population of the earth has been growing dramatically and life spans increasing with each generation. Statistics are that the population of Earth has doubled since the presidency of John Kennedy!
Without ways to control waste in land fills, pollution of land,air and water and the depletion of natural resources Earth may face a dismal future. And while there are programs galore to help in conserving resources and energy the answers to many future conservation problems may need to be addressed through technology. Fortunately business is booming in the technology world. While some complain that technology moves too fast, causes our children not to be imaginative anymore and is replacing some of our jobs, technology can help save the planet. The key is to manage technology and not let technology manage. Following are just a few web tools that can help in the conservation of resources. The development of these types of tools will hopefully be the wave of the future.
Glogsters
Be creative and express your ideas by mixing up multimedia elements and sharing them with friends and colleagues with Glogsters and GlostersEDU. Glogsters are on-line digital posters that can help reduce the amount of poster board and other presentation material in the classroom and the office.
Glogs are created with an easy to understand drag and drop interface. It is appropriate for all ages and learning styles making it a favorite tool in any classroom. Users can create a "poster" or web page containing multimedia elements that include text, audio/video, graphics/drawings, images and data. Tools on Glogster allow you to rotate, resize, add effects and animation. Share your glogs with friends and colleagues on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Even enter Glogster contests sponsored by favorite celebrities and brands.
Educators have used Glogsters successfully with students as young as four to create curriculum based projects. They can then be shared with parents, other educators and administrators. Unlike traditional poster boards and cardboard display boards Glogsters use no paper products. They can be preserved and shared forever. There will be no clutter to throw away when packing up the classroom at the end of the year. A great way to go green!
Sign up for Glogsters in about 10 seconds. Best of all it is absolutely free for a personal account.Educators can sign up for varying levels of accounts starting at $29.95 per year for up to 50 students, or a whole District or Consortium can purchase accounts for larger student populations.
Teachers can share student work by embedding Glogs in a blog or webpage using the innovative presentation capabilities. Create a virtual classroom by registering a teacher administered account. Generate student accounts with safe log-ins and passwords. Teachers have direct access through the dashboard.
WebEx
Companies and corporations can meet,sell, train and support with WebEx Cisco software. Five million people are currently conducting meetings from one-on-one to webinars and even events for 5,000 people. This is good news for the planet, reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution. Help reduce CO emissions and save company money by reducing travel and hotel costs.
Click Go Green on the WebEx home page for a handy calculator that calculates pounds of carbon dioxide emitted.Enter number of employees, origin and destination, mode of transportation and year per travel. For example, WebEx web conferencing can save 2,690 pounds of carbon dioxide rather than flying from New York to London.
WebEx conferencing allows participants to do almost anything face to face through high definition and high quality video. WebEx allows you to stream live webcam video in meetings. All the equipment needed is a computer or wireless device with an internet connection; even join a meeting with a Smart Phone.
Meetings can be recorded and replayed creating a review for efficiency. Share with colleagues and no one misses anything. Leading company testimonials reveal great satisfaction in money saved in travel costs by using WebEx. This translates into the saving of fossil fuel and the reduction of air pollution.
Every meeting conducted over the Cisco Collaboration Cloud is highly secure. Meeting password protectors control who attends and ensures safety of data. The software is uncomplicated, simple to use with no hardware to install and no software maintenance is required. It works on all platforms and upgrades are automatic.
WebEx is surprising economical. Just sign up at the WebEx official website to try it free for up to 25 people for 14 days. Then enjoy meetings for up to eight people for only $19 per month. Explore event center, training center and tech support center levels by contacting customer service.
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Prezi
Prezi is a web tool that can also reduce the paper products used in traditional presentations. Create, show and share presentations around the world. Visit the Prezi website to watch very thorough tutorial videos that explain how to create Prezi presentations. The most important tips are located on "cheat sheets" below the videos. Then sign in and choose a template to begin a Prezi. The canvas opens a bubble menu with categories: write-colors-frame-path-insert and show. Use the write bubble to enter text and the insert bubble for inserting shapes,downloaded images and videos.The color bubble has lots of great colors and fonts to work with. Sequence images using the path bubble. Use the zoom in and zoom out side bar to emphasis key ideas in the presentation. The frame bubble helps categorize items for a smoother flowing presentation. Refine presentations for an uncluttered look by using layering- right click and copy, paste,hide, bring forward or back.
Prezi offers three different pricing levels. Create and present Prezis on line and download to present off line with Public for free! One hundred MGs of storage is allowed with Public. The Enjoy and Pro levels are free for the first 30 days. Go private with both when desired. Enjoy provides 500 MB and Pro gives 2000 MB. Work off-line with a Prezi Pro license. The price of Enjoy is $59 per year and the price of Pro is $159 per year.
Using Technology to Clean Up After Technology
These few tools are just a cross section of how technology can help reduce the use of many natural resources. The industrial era was the technology that created much pollution on the planet. It will be great if technology also helps to clean it up.
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Comments
Useful and interesting, a very "green" hub, lol. You did a great job. Now if I could only turn on the faucet and get a clean glass of water, I think they took green too far when we have to drink our own waste and although many deny it I have seen the plant near me and also read they cannot remove testosterone which is in birth control women take is the only thing. (I need an icon for rolling my eyes here) If they had only kept the waste going into the ground to clean and recycle itself and all that moisture allowed back into the atmosphere instead of a big nasty soup with chemicals we would be much better off there. This is good though to save in anyway and cutting pollutants I am all for.
thanks truthfornow. Now if we can just recycle our trash from food and everyday living.That is another story. It's easy to eliminate paper waste with these websites.Can, bottles, etc. from the kitchen are the hardest to deal with and will take more than a web site.
You are so right Pollyannalana. But politicians (some) deny that there is any problem. Global warming, they say, is just made up by the liberals. Sad and scary! Thanks for stopping by to comment!
Great recycle tips with these websites. By eliminating more paper products it's a good start for a greener planet. Well done!
Thanks.
Right, SanneL, and the more people that use, the better.WebEx and other technology saves fuel and reduces air pollution. Even Faxes help, eliminating fuel used by couriers that drive!Technology can be a huge piece in going green. Thanks for commenting!
A nice collection of tools, none of which I knew about. I'm going to have fun trying them. Voting this Up and Interesting.
Thanks alocsin. I hope you find something helpful to you!
This is a great hub filled with good ideas! We really need to address this issue on a large scale.
Voted Up
Thanks Curiad! Technology is here to stay! Let's let it work for us to ensure the health of the Planet!
Hello Rebecca,
This hub has some useful and interesting projects for teachers and students to try out.
Technology is not going away anytime soon, so we need to embrace it and adapt to them to our needs.
Great work Rebecca. Voted up
Nice hub here I like the Going green concept, but I don't have the finances to pay for any online web locations, I'm already trying to maintain all of my domains I own, plus survive in such a unforgiving economy, and so I'll pass for now on the paid programs.
Thanks though for the useful links and info here, maybe in the future if I earn enough here, and elsewhere they may come of use to me. Nice hub voted up.
I am very flattered by your comment. I agree! We will have to put technology to work for us in every aspect of living! Thanks for stopping by, Molometer. It is always great to hear from you!
Thanks CloudExplorer. After delving into several "free" programs I have found that there are some who truly are free (maybe on a limited basis) and those that only give free trials. Your comment will encourage me to look out for the best deals and report on them.
Great programs which need to be shown to teachers and people in business. In the business circle I can and will help.
As a child I learned to value nature. Most of my childhood was spent up close and personal with mother natures gifts. Reduce, reuse, recycle has been a way of life for me. It was necessary in the forest and I have carried those lessons throughout my life.
Voted up interesting and SHARING on one of the corporate fan pages.
truthfornow 3 months ago
You have some great ideas here. I love the picture you used. We all use far too many paper products and getting more high tech is a good way to go green.