Technology and Sustainable Development

How Online Tools Can Educate

By Michelle Rogers-Estable

Abstract: Increased access and new technologies have opened up the avenues in which sustainability professionals may work with and educate the public. While new technologies are not the ultimate solution to all world problems they certainly enhance the means by which education can be disseminated. New technologies offer sustainability professionals new tools for addressing sustainability goals and agendas. Through formal and non-formal education technology is a major player in new ways that anyone may contribute to education for sustainability (ESD). Distance education (DE) technologies can include: correspondence study, video, audio, Internet, or multimedia. These can be transmitted to the learner via mail, Internet, telephone, TV, satellite, microwave, radio, fiber-optics, mobile, and other connections. In developing nations the technologies of choice are becoming mobile, satellite, TV and radio. This paper will cover these tools, with examples of implementation that others can use as models and case studies in new information and communication technology (ICT) projects.