How Much is Too Much?

I am a very conservational girl. I have been reducing, reusing and recycling since I moved out of my parent’s house and into my own, in 1976. However, I have been a huge waste-er of electricity—or so I’m told. Oh I turn lights off, inside and out, and have green star appliances but I leave everything else plugged in—ALL the time. So I ask I’m I really wasting that much energy?

Question: How much energy do my plugged in but turned off appliances use in a day? *

According to the California Energy Commission, 93% of the energy used by a small radio—like the one I have in my bathroom—is consumed during the 23 hours I have it turned off. Well we will see! Luckily I have a meter on my house, and I have looked up on Google how to read it, so here’s what I plan to do:

1. Collect data on how much electricity I use in one day with everything as it is now.

2. For one day I will unplug everything unless I am actually using it.

3. Collect power usage for each 24 hour period day at 7:00pm.

4. Using cost per Kilowatt hour from electric bill, calculate consumption in kW hrs.

*Since this is spring break and I'm hoping to get on top of this project, I am going to collect data over two days. If the numbers are insignificant—as I expect them to be—I will repeat for two-one week intervals after school begins.

Technology: Highway or Roadblock in Education?

There is a declared and spoken commitment to technology at the district and at my school but, as is so often the case—in the case of technology--the application of that commitment is elusive. I have searched the district and school web sites, wandered the building to see firsthand and talked to teachers and administrators in an attempt to ferret out the techno-culture at my new teaching home.

Fundamentally, one technology is only worth the cost if it makes life easier, better, cleaner, etc. than did the previous technology. At my new school, technology is so difficult to access that it is useless. Indeed, I use on a daily bases only that which I brought with me, and even its value is diminished by my inability to interface with the school.

I learned
• For a school that has made the huge investment of installing a very expensive technology in every room, the technology is too cumbersome to use with regularity.
• Management of technology is a dictatorship not a democracy.
• The primary commitment to technology is merely the declaration that technology is important.
• The misconception persists, that technology is an answer to a problem rather than a tool used in the solution.
• If I want to change things, I’m going to have to go outside of the school to fix it.

Sounds a little hopeless, No?

read my full report at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc4mjkmb_1hftmvqdr&hl=en