Comments on: The Almost Paperless Classroom

By: Mark Hofer

Mark Hofer — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:18:36 +0000

Great idea on the TPACK game, Karen. It goes to show you that it really takes some creativity how to do things a little differently. This goes to Kim’s comment above re: the need for PD.

In a faculty focus group recently the very issue you discuss came up. One faculty member argued that there are times when you might need a piece of paper (or three) to assist the learning process. My initial instinct was to bristle a little at this. But then I realized he had a really good point. In educational settings, sustainability may need to take a back seat to student learning. This doesn’t mean that we can’t strive for a more paperless (smile) classroom, but I think it does suggest that we need to go digital mindfully. It should be an interesting and ongoing dialogue to try to find that balance between sustainability and what we need to provide for our students. Thanks for thoughtful post.

By: sljoin

sljoin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:10:14 +0000

In the Project HOPE office here at W&M we are planning for our annual conference and this year we have decided to put all of the resources and handouts from presenters on a flash drive. Each attendee will then receive the flash drive when they check-in at registration and will instantly have a digital copy of all handouts. I am sure that there will be some that will go right home or back to their school divisions and print everything out…they just like to have the paper and touch the handouts. However, I think many will be appreciative of not having to lug all of that paper around and back to their respective schools. I agree that paperless is a worthy goal and one that can be accomplished over time. I just think that it will take some longer than others to make that switch!

By: Kimberley Chandler

Kimberley Chandler — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:28:15 +0000

I serve on the “Greening the SOE” Committee (along with Steve Coxon and Mark Hofer). We recently held focus groups with faculty, students, and staff to gather their input about how to work, teach, and learn sustainably in the new building. As you might imagine, paper use was a major area of concern. Faculty and students have already started to make a transition to using less paper. One area where this is still difficult relates to professional development and the work of various centers in conducting conferences. When teachers register for a conference, they often expect to get printed handouts; in a conference we ran two weeks ago, one of the common negative comments on the evaluation forms concerned the lack of handouts from certain presenters. I think that the paperless classroom is a worthy goal, but the changes will take place more slowly in some contexts than in others.

By: saland

saland — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:21:26 +0000

Thanks for the paper guide in class this week. It really helped me get on board with Scratch.

See you in Second Life soon.