Digital opportunities for exploring nature. Digital trash.

Today, when global informatization and computerization are firmly rooted in the field of education, no school can do without modern technology. Various gadgets are designed to facilitate the teacher's work, help students receive, process and transmit information, create conditions for their search and research activities, and provide a system-activity approach.

In order for a student to correspond to the image of a modern student, it is necessary to introduce into the educational environment technical means that are interesting to the child, which will help him gain scientific knowledge through observations, measurements, experiments, experiments and research.

On February 22, 2021, within the framework of the "Entrepreneurial Teacher" project, our school hosted a lecture for teachers "Digital opportunities for studying nature. Digital waste", which was prepared and conducted for us by Veronika Plotnikova, a communication and environmental education specialist at the Department of Environmental Protection.

Environmental Board

Natural and ecological education

It is well known that environmental education is education, first of all, of morality, spirituality and intelligence.

Man and nature ... Perhaps this eternal and actual topic has never been so acute as it is today. The problem of greening the material and spiritual activity of man has become a vital necessity, one of the conditions for preserving a common home for all of us - the planet Earth.

It is especially important to focus on environmental education in the education of the younger generation. It is necessary to form a conscious perception of the natural environment in a person as early as possible, a conviction in the need for a careful attitude towards nature, a reasonable use of its wealth and natural resources.

Veronika Plotnikova said:

- about the possibilities of studying nature,

- about the Iisaku Nature Research Center Facebook page,

- about digital opportunities for studying nature (keys, games, museums),

- podcasts and more,

- video usage possibilities

Digital trash

In the second section of the lecture, Veronica told us about Digital Waste.

Every year the number of Internet and social network users increases by several hundred million people. Now more than 60% of the world's population is online, and all these 4.5 billion people are constantly generating new content. Photos, videos, documents and even banal correspondence with friends on social networks take up a lot of space in the digital space.

Much of the data generated is nothing more than digital junk. Lost data in the cloud, multiple copies of files, application cache, etc. The volume of digital garbage is constantly growing, and not only due to new users, but also due to the weighting of the information itself. The simplest example: 20 years ago, a photo weighed about 1 MB, but now the average is 3.5 MB. The growth of the blogging community, improving the quality of photo and video content, endless copying of the same text material, correspondence, stories, etc. - sooner or later the storage facilities will overflow.

"Digital trash" is unnecessary and forgotten data, duplicated copies of files; all unstructured information in cloud storage, device memory, instant messengers, photo and video services. The latter make up most of the digital junk. 

Fortunately, just like ordinary things, digital can be sorted, get rid of unnecessary, and rationally organize the storage of what makes sense and benefits.

 And just like with a regular tidy, getting rid of digital junk will allow you to stay focused, breathe easier and remind you of the many pleasant moments that you miss, endlessly flipping through your social media feed and checking your mail a hundred times a day. 

How to reduce digital junk:

1. Immediately delete files that you definitely won't need again. For example, electronic receipts or messages about promotions. 

2. Regularly carry out "cleaning" of all storages - delete unused files, applications, inactive dialogues in messengers. For this, you can use special programs. For example, CCleaner is suitable for a computer.

 3. Organize and catalog files. This also does not have to be done manually. Applications sort files by dates, geotags, you can enter your own categories and folders. Adobe Bridge, FastStone Image Viewer and Photos for macOS can do this). Applications that remove duplicate files will also be useful - AllDup, FirmTools Duplicate Photo Finder and again CCleaner. 

4. Periodically arrange digital detox - days on which the user will limit the consumption and production of any digital content. Specialized programs and applications are not needed - all you need to do is turn off all gadgets.

Many thanks to Veronika Plotnikova for an interesting and necessary lecture and we express our gratitude to the Department of Environmental Protection for the fruitful cooperation!