Deforestation

Deforestation

There have been so many discussions on the effects of deforestation in our environment. These effects range from alarming to catastrophic. We have read newspaper headlines that show the wreckage that natural disasters have done. Flashfloods have not only damaged millions of properties all over the globe but it has also collected lives. Landslides have done the same. These two are the results of nature's balance that has been disturbed.
Deforestation is the act of converting patches of forests to become areas of residence or industry. More and more businessmen are pushing through forests to obtain more land. Environment is sacrificed in exchange for profit. And this is a highly disturbing fact. Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

Currently, forests cover approximately one fifth of the world's land. Forests provide us with many products we use in our everyday lives. They also provide for us in other ways such from helping stop soil erosion to providing us with medical drugs, dyes and fabrics. Humanity depends on the survival of a healthy ecosystem and deforestation is causing many social, economic and ecological problems.

3.7% —or about 312,000 hectares—of United Arab Emirates is forested. Of this, none is classified as primary forest, the most biodiversity form of forest.
Change in Forest Cover: Between 1990 and 2000, United Arab Emirates gained an average of 6,500 hectares of forest per year. The amounts to an average annual reforestation rate of 2.65%. Between 2000 and 2005, the rate of forest change decreased by 95.1% to 0.13% per annum. In total, between 1990 and 2005, United Arab Emirates gained 27.4% of its forest cover, or around 67,000 hectares. Measuring the total rate of habitat conversion (defined as change in forest area plus change in woodland area minus net plantation expansion) for the 1990-2005 intervals, United Arab Emirates gained 0.0% of its forest and woodland habitat.
Biodiversity and Protected Areas: United Arab Emirates has some 339 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 0.0% are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 5.0% are threatened. 0.0% of United Arab Emirates is protected under IUCN categories I-V.

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/archive/United_Arab_Emirates.htm

The main reason for climate change and deforestation is the increasing consumption of fossil fuels and high energy demand. In the rural areas, people resort to cutting trees to meet their energy needs for heating and cooking purposes. The presentation centered on a project implemented by an Iranian community. The execution of this project was a valuable experience to show how we can bring local communities together to cooperate and find solutions to stop, or at least reduce, the negative consequences of these problems. Renewable energy introduced in two villages helped reduce the loss of flora and fauna in the forest areas in Sari forest, in the Yakh- kesh region, near the Caspian Sea. The forest is faced with the threat of deforestation due to the cutting of trees and illegal wood smuggling by people eager to meet their heating and cooking energy needs. This led to the loss of flora and fauna. Among the different types of renewable energy, biogas was the most feasible. Biogas is combustible gas used for cooking in agricultural communities. Composed of methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen supplied, biogas is produced by fermenting animal, plant or human waste in the absence of oxygen — an anaerobic process. Abdul Kader, Binsal.

 (October,3, 2010). The main reason for climate change and deforestation. Gulf News, pp. 13,14.

Reflection

This course was interesting because I learnt some good skills in English. It is the first time I wrote one thousand words and wrote a report with a bibliography and references. Before I was afraid of writing 500 words and now I can write more than one thousand. Also I learnt how I can make the summary. I learned how we can work in a group and share with my group. All these skills which I learn in this course will helps me improve my English. Also it help my how I can write a complete report without copy or paste, so now I can writing any word I need ; before I was afraid if my teacher told me to write any exercises but now I like to write anything. That is all for now; if I learn any new skills I will write in my blogger.

 

Education in Technology

Education in Technology

Technology is all about computers, telecommunication, and software. I guess students know they understand the communication and are having fun with the technology and how it entered the life and made it easier.

Using technology in schools has a great impact for students and teachers, to show the students how great it is to use technology in the schools and colleges, and how useful it is. The teacher should know how to use technology in class. But only 20% of teachers use technology several times a week and half of teacher don’t use technology (Foltos , 1999) . Technology is not only entertainment we can use it in a lot of educational ways like power points, moviemaker, talk about the trip they did by using music, animation, and whatever we like to make fun. They can teach online, send emails, attach with the students, finish what was left from the work and send their marks too. In Brazil the government has bought 150,000 laptops to deploy in 350 schools because they try to develop the education (Technology impacts on, 2010). As we can see this is the technology century where people use electronics everywhere ; it became part of our daily life and it became part of us like our soul or one of our familiy.

However, students may use their laptops during the class by playing, chatting and checking other websites. The teacher must try not to let anything disrupt their studies while they are using their laptops. They must make the class more fun and  do some fun work by teaching the lesson in a special way so their minds can be caught up with the teacher. It is easy also for the students to copy and paste their work, use spell check and thesauruses in the writing processors.

With technology, students are also given advantages in learning how to read (Neibauer, 2010). Reading program techniques help the young students in their reading skills. In addition, not all the students are the same; some may learn from the theory but the rest they learn by practice. The technology is now in our blood and we can’t live without it, like BlackBerrys, I phones, I pads and other kinds of technology which are movable and can be used anywhere and anytime. Students also can feel free that they can hang out with their friends and do their homework too.

The achievement of technology allows teachers to use different instructions of teaching since the technology came in the class and they reach to what they really like and are very patient in their work . Therefore, education is the most important role in the life as you know and we were educated since we were born. In the past teachers used to teach by using the whiteboard and they used their mouths a lot like lecturing and talking without stopping; it was driving the students crazy.

But now when they include the technology the students became more active in their learning. The teacher is no longer the center of attention. They play the role of aguide information and not of an information resource. Technology in the classroom allows the students to be more active with teachers and communicate more and it doesn’t feel sleepy any more. However, having active students in the class is better and they might understand the lesson easily and it can be stored in their minds. This gives the students a higher confidence level. As I write my essay about this topic with a great interest I realize that technology has a big role in education. The study showed that the teachers have enough time to prepare greatly and improve many aspects of the classroom, such as teaching a summary about the concept or the chapter and solve the problems as well as basic skills, independent work, teamwork and less teacher lecture with more student-centered classrooms.

To conclude I would like to say, “ Can Technology help students be better learners?” Well, the scientists craned out research and they believe that technology has helped most of the students and their marks became higher and there is growing evidence that test scores might be improved if technology is used by the student. Also the schools firmly believe that the technology was successful and helped the teachers and the students .

Bibliography

Neibauer, Michael . (2010, December 6).

 At one d.c. school, ipads for everybody. Retrieved from

http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/blogger.html

Technology impacts on education .

 (2010, February 10). Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8508040.stm