Improving Environmental Health: Advantages of an interactive web-base training

There are about 131 public school buildings in the city of Boston. Majority of these school buildings are managed by on-site staffs who identify and report any need for repair, maintenance and remediation to the Facility Management Department. The department works closely with staff, parents, teachers and students to assure a healthy school environment. There has been a productive collaboration with partner agencies that has resulted in identifying resources to create a new tool in addressing environmental health issues in schools. The Department conducts monthly assessment of all school buildings, assists with formations of school-base environmental committees to increase communication among those at schools and parents, and provides important educational opportunities to those in charge of school buildings. The main goal of these educational opportunities and trainings are moving toward building healthy school environment and to limit presence of environmental factors with possible adverse health effects. In an attempt to drastically decrease exposure to pest allergens, the department in partnership with public health professionals has employed a new electronic technology to produce training materials. The training method increases staffs' participation and lowers its cost. The method uses green screen technology to provide a multi-media method to share the important information and to encourage the best practice models of the Integrated Pest Management [IPM]. This paper will explain advantages of using the training technology, its acceptance among participants, any increase in level of participants' knowledge, as well as assessing any improvement in implementation of IPM in school buildings in Boston.