Energy Project Sideshow

My energy project is about PHSgeek, a program I have started at Pacific High School this fall. We accept donations of old computers, and students learn to refurbish them by installing the Ubuntu Linux operating system and a suite of open source software. The project is causing students and a number of adults to rethink the role of technology and school in everyone's lives. For some students, the concept that any program we use in the project at school is fully available to them at home is eye-opening. Students who have not done homework in years have started to do "school work" at home because technological barriers have been taken down, and school and computers have been made fun again.

The project and slideshow presentation focus on the environmental benefits of this project. The spreadsheet that I made for the project examines the impact of scaling up the PHSgeek project, examining the amount of hazardous materials that can be removed from the waste stream or disposed of properly. The project could expand by processing a higher volume of computers, or by serving as a model program that other schools can replicate.

The presentation includes one feature I feel all slideshows should have a website-style navigation system. This is simple to implement, and breaks the presenter out of the linear-presentation mode that slideshows tend pull people into. For example, it is easy for a presenter to respond to questions if there is a navigation system on-screen that does not require a right click menu to access, and it is easier for audience members to see the overall structure of the presentation.

I have had some trouble getting the slideshow and spreadsheet posted with proper formatting online, so I will sort that out shortly and post the links. The spreadsheet should now be visible, but you will probably need to play with the zoom buttons on the right side of Google's pdf viewer. The slideshow is also visible now, although the navigation bar at the bottom does not work in Google's pdf viewer. If you want to see how the navigation bar works, you can download the pdf file and the links should work.