In Part 8 I revised the outline for a new e-learning course on "Green IT Strategies", to be offered as part of the ACS Computer Professional Education Program. While I have found some online references to use in the course there appear to be few books on "Green ICT". So far I have found four. Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line (by Toby Velte) I have managed to buy a copy of. Green IT For Dummies, by Carol Baroudi, does not appear to be available until early 2009. The other two books, Green Computing and Green IT Best Practices (Jason Harris) and Green IT in Practice (Gary Hirdare) are both from 2008, but I can't find out much about them.To see how useful Velte's book was, I looked for reference to Australia.There three useful ones. The first, on page 33 says that at the time of writing (the book was published 2008-09-08), there were no government mandated rules for the management of e-waste (which is still the case). On the next page is gives a reasonable description of the Byteback program. The next reference is to CD and DVD recycling programs. This all seems reasonable enough.
But I will have to wait until I have actually read the book for a full assessment (I am writing this in the State Library of NSW). While in Sydney, I visited the Apple store and checked the Green ICT Strategies e-Learning course web site worked okay on an Apple iPhone. You obviously have to zoom in to read the text, but the web based course interface of Moodle works fine on the iPhone. This would allow students to do m-Learning. In reality you will want a larger screen to read on, but even that is possible, with the i-Phone (and i-Pod Touch having the capability of plugging in an external large screen).
Thanks for the heads-up Tom on the new Green IT books.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to note that focus on green IT seems to be on energy efficiency which is good. The leveraging power of IT and ICT to avoid emissions outside the IT/ICT sector is in my view the compelling future direction for green IT/ICT.
Cheers,
Turlough
http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/blogs/green-files
turlough.guerin wrote November 10, 2008 8:13 AM:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up Tom on the new Green IT books.
That is okay. I see you are Group Manager Environment at Telstra. Perhaps you have some Green ICT resources I could point my student to?
It is interesting to note that focus on green IT seems to be on energy efficiency ...
Yes. Materials use (and recycling) is important as well, but there is much we can do with energy saving without having to change any equipment.
ps: You and your staff are invited to the Green ICT Symposium 2008, on Friday in Canberra.