Ryan+Tozier+E-waste-+The+Digital+Dark+Side


 * [|E-Waste: The Digital Dark Side] - [] **

The this curriculum was developed by Ann Fontanella, an instructor at the City College of San Francisco, for the KQED Education Network.

The KQED Education Network mission is “KQED serves the people of Northern California with a community-supported alternative to commercial media. We provide citizens with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions; convene community dialogue; bring the arts to everyone; and engage audiences to share their stories. We help students and teachers thrive in 21st century classrooms, and take people of all ages on journeys of exploration—exposing them to new people, places and ideas.” []

 The mission of the this organization is to engage educators and provide high-quality learning objects, like videos, and interactive tools. To provide train educators to use education media tools in learning environments through in-depth professional development opportunities.

 This curriculum aims to teach students of the existence of e-waste and its effects on global communities as well as the socioeconomic factors and consumer choices that contribute the problem.

 I think that this curriculum covers the proper materials in order to achieve the desired learning outcome. Unfortunately, the curriculum is fairly dry and doesn’t provide any real chances for students be interested in the E-waste problem. This curriculum teaches use 3 of the most used methods in schools: videos, lecture, and worksheets. Because of this, I feel that students’ interest will fail and they will not meet the desired learning outcomes as they simply go through the motions of what their teachers want to see.

 This curriculum helps students understand how their own health and wellbeing are influenced by E-waste. It is teaches them their own actions have an array of effects and can contribute to the problem. One of the topics covered is the problems with regulations of the government that allow much of our E-waste to be shipped to China, which help students understand some of the different levels of the government in both a national and international scale. It also shows the vulnerability of some populations and regions to these types of problems, by explain that poor regions of China buy the E-waste to sell for precious metals while being mostly ignorant of the dangers.

 One of the best topics that could be layered into this curriculum would be the potential for change EcoEd literacy goal, which would help students understand what they can do to reduce their contribution to the problem. It could be done by explaining better practices to E-waste disposal, and different practices that product less E-waste.