Simple efficiency measures in schools' use of technology are often all that's needed to save energy, resources and the environment.

It is very very frustrating working in schools at times.  If we are talking about a green ICT agenda or dare I even say a green or environmental policy for a school then we would take  a massive leap forward by just making the school or Head Teacher responsible for their financial budgets.  To often these budgets are largely determined by what you spend and little focus or local government transparency is given to what the school should actually be spending!  A little more emphasis on budgets in-line with the private sectors way of thinking would be a big step forward.

Of course technology is great but the flip side of this is the misuse of it.  Only the other night I was undertaking some remote support on a clients laptop and I notice the support console indicating that a school pc used by the management team had been left on.  I duly logged in and shut it down.  I DREAD TO THINK how many pc's are left on like this in schools - in some case whole ICT suites probably.

This is an interesting article from the Guardian by Julie Nightingale, in which:

Tom Barrett has produced this wonderful Google Docs slideshow outlining, as the title suggests, 42 interesting ways to use your interactive whiteboard. While the presentation is geared towards the SMART Board the same principals / techniques and ideas could be applied to other types of whiteboard.

Please click here to access the slides.

Copyright Holder: Tom Barrett

Data logging is the recording of information over a period of time. It can be carried out manually by making observations and then writing them down or electronically with a data logger. The former method requires the user to be there, observing the results and recording them. This can limit the data that can be collected and may prove to be inconvenient or even impossible.

An electronic data logger is a box of electronics that can be connected to the computer and into which sensors and other accessories can be plugged. It can record data far more quickly and for a longer period of time than by hand. LogIT Explorer can be left to run whilst collecting data, freeing the user to concentrate on other things. Once the data has been collected the user can automatically generate graphs allowing them to concentrate on other aspects of the experiment they are conducting.

LogIT Explorer is also able to collect data independently of the computer, then later the data can be read by the computer for analysis. This is also known as remote data logging which is explored later in this guide.