Go digital, go green!

 It's a harsh fact but half of our college life is wasted in writing assignments and experiments.

Few weeks back, I had a visit to RGIT for promotional purpose. I felt really nice seeing a patch of green land, full of Mangrove trees, right in front of that college. But then, reality dawned upon me. How long will those trees survive there? Maximum 2 years. Read below to find out why.

In this era, when the world is going digital, we are still busy writing our assignments and experiments on paper! Just imagine guys, from first week of the college, we start writing experiments.

On an average, there are 8 experiments in each subject and there are 5-6 such subjects. Assuming 6 subjects, there will be 48 experiments to be written in all. If each experiment is of 5 pages minimum, then each student consumes 48 x 5 = 240 pages each semester!

If there are 5 departments in a college, each with 60 students in FE, SE, TE and BE, then total number of students will be 240 for each department and 240 x 5 = 1200 students for a college. Each of those 1200 students will consume 240 pages for every semester. This means, in one semester, 1200 x 240 = 2, 88, 000 pages will be utilized by one college.

After doing little research work, I came to know that one tree can produce 8333 pages. So this means, each college chops down 288000/8333 = 34.56 trees in each semester! What’s the use of this writing? In the end, all these pages are dumped in some storage room. I’m sure that this paper wastage is done in every college, be it VJTI or DJ or any other college.

Isn't this a total wastage of our natural resource? Instead of doing this, why can't we just type our assignments and send it to the respected teacher?

Every college has computer labs with MS Office embedded in it. Then why can't we utilize them? It’ll not only end up saving our time but will also reduce the effort we put in writing. For better understanding, I’ll cover the pros and cons of this advancement.

Pros:

1.     Biggest achievement will be saving of trees! Our earth has already suffered a lot. Man has exploited earth right since he started ruling this planet. If we don't act now, it'll be too late to handle.

2.     From student's point of view, we won't have to worry about losing our files anymore because they will be permanently stored on servers.

3.     Thirdly and most importantly, our basic knowledge about using MS Office will increase. I really feel sorry when I see that even after coming to engineering there are many people who still don't know how to set alignment of a page.

4.     From teacher’s point of view, it’ll be a huge relief for them. There won’t be any need for maintaining a separate register to keep track of those students who have submitted their assignments and those who haven’t. Neither they’ll have to sit for hours in front of their desks while checking the assignments nor will they have to worry about carrying a red pen always :P

Cons:

While discussing this with my friends, they said that by going digital, cases of copying assignments will increase. I just have one question for those who say this, ‘Aren't we already copying the assignments and experiments from last year's file?’

The reason for this article is that I want to create awareness among students like us that there are few things that need to be changed in our education system.

In the end I'd just say that if you'll agree with me, then please share this article. Share it on FB, Twitter and Google +. Share it everywhere and anywhere where people, especially students, can come across it and think over it.

Remember M. K. Gandhi has said “Be the change you want to see in this world”. If you are not ready to take the initiative yourself then don't expect anybody else to take it either! :)

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