A government school in the heart of rural Eastern Cape is showing its big-city cousins across the country how to save energy, reduce carbon emissions and improve the quality of learning through the use of technology.
One of the first schools in South Africa to achieve eco-school status, the Byletts Combined School in Cintsa village, near East London, is at the centre of a rural computing initiative, which has seen it undertake a number of projects related to energy consumption and environmental education.
By calculating the energy consumption of information and communication technology (ICT) in the school and the impact these have on the environment, Byletts learners have planted enough indigenous trees to make the school lab totally carbon-neutral, while still accessing the modern technologies that will equip these rural learners with the skills to cope in the modern world of business.
In 2006 the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa launched the Eskom Energy and Sustainability programme at Byletts. The programme was a resounding success on many levels, says Phillip Wilkinson from Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa.
Yolanda Peters, ICT facilitator at Byletts, said the project not only encouraged cross-curricular teaching, but it engaged teachers from different learning areas and addressed the issues of carbon emissions and climate change.
“It also provided the impetus to integrate the school’s Dell Foundation and Microsoft-sponsored computer laboratory across learning areas, including natural sciences and mathematics. This ‘real-world’ learning has been extremely valuable,” said Peters.
The project kicked off by having learners audit the amount of electricity used by the school over a typical week and using this information to calculate the environmental impact of their ICT programmes and the additional costs to the school.
They could then forecast how much electricity the computer lab was using over the course of a typical year. Based on these figures, learners were able to calculate the amount of carbon emissions the school lab was responsible for, what impact the lab had on the electricity bill and how much carbon they would need to mitigate.
To bring the learning programme into technology lessons, a “carbon calculator” audit programme was developed that allowed learners to input their audit findings directly into their computers. This tool was then used to make all relevant calculations and projections.
Having worked out their carbon emission levels, the learners then planted enough indigenous trees on the school grounds to “soak up” the carbon produced in the course of a typical school year.
Byletts plans to contribute further to the development of employability skills by deploying Microsoft’s Digital Literacy Curriculum, and has plans to offer the MS IT Academy programme.
“As we become an increasingly connected society, integrating technology into education is a crucial component of the future for rural communities and their economies,” said Microsoft South Africa’s Reza Bardien.
“Many more affluent schools can learn from the way that Byletts uses technology to enable its learners to participate and compete in today’s growing digital economy in an environmentally responsible way.”
The winners of this year’s Innovative Teacher Awards will be announced on August 21. The winners will attend the Worldwide Innovative Teacher Awards in Bangkok, Thailand, in October 2008. For more information visit www.schools.za/itf