DeforestACTION- Live Event

DeforestACTION is a project created and owned by young people from around the world. It is supported by a number of industry and NGO partners who strongly believe that old models of reform are not working and young people deserve the chance to have a say in the condition of the planet they are going to inherit. It is also a project to ensure schools have real examples of 21st Century Learning. The teacher resources, guides, virtual classrooms and collaborative spaces help young people to quickly work in international project groups, tackling complex projects, while developing hope, confidence, civic and global responsibility and creativity. To join this fantastic global movement and to find out more information visit http://dfa.tigweb.org/about/.

Take a closer look with your student soon….

On March 28th, join us for an exciting DeforestACTION live event! We will take you deep into the heart the Borneo jungle to connect with orangutans, hear from Dr. Willie Smits and the Eco Warriors about the work they are doing with the Masarang Foundation, and speak with other youth and schools around the world taking action to stop deforestation.

Register now: www.tigurl.org/march2012

How does this project actually monitor deforestation?

DeforestACTION is a key exemplar of student directed problem based learning focusing on real world challenges. Student directed learning derives from the notion that when students are connected through technology and empowered to build activities in their own way, the learning experience extends far beyond the four walls of a classroom.

Under this strategy, the 'classroom' becomes millions of students and schools interacting online with world-class experts in the field, sharing ideas with eco-warriors on the ground, and collaborating with people around the TIGed virtual classroom platform on how to solve global environmental problems.

One element of the project is Earth Watchers software. Earth Watchers is a ground breaking new software tool to enable young people across the planet to monitor the forests and provide usable intelligence to stop deforestation. It provides a new approach for education by actually involving the students directly in the conservation effort by allowing them to monitor real data and to go beyond tokenistic project / lectures to have a hands on impact.

Over 75% of deforestation in Indonesia is illegal, and the difficulty in locating and identifying illegal deforestation is a major part of the problem. Through Earth Watchers, young people across the planet can expose the illegal deforestation early, allowing local authorities to step in and halt it. This new transparency and global awareness is made possible by technology developed by Geodan inc from The Netherlands.

Here's how it works.

• Each student is allocated a piece of land to monitor (hexagonal 1.6km²)
• Each week a new image is provided by radar satellite data providers allowing students to compare images and look for changes / disturbances.

• Students can report disturbances from within Earth Watchers and collaborate with their neighbours, who hold the land around their hexagon, to explore whether or not the disturbance is related illegal activity.
• Intelligence is sent directly back to the data center, and illegal activity is reported an investigated in partnership with local authorities.

Tune into the webcast on March 28th and get involved folks!