Making Us More Efficient, Cost-Effective and
Time-Effective by Getting Rid of the Paper

Inevitable Efficient Serendipitous

Thirty-five years ago the consensus of computer experts was that computers would eliminate our need for the “written” word. Anything anyone would ever want to read would be available on a computer screen. Experts correctly predicted that computers would be both ubiquitous and absolutely indispensable.

Experts, though, couldn’t predict desktop publishing and the arrival of “What You See is What You Get” software. WYSIWYG, laser- and inkjet printers have allowed us to put very high quality materials on paper and we can do so easily and relatively cheaply. The concerns expressed by the “greens” and other environmentally-oriented groups were ignored as if they were talking about gasoline and SUVs.

Paper and Being Green

We need to be specific--and honest--in our environmental concerns, though. There's a difference between wasting a non-replaceable resource like petroleum on huge and inefficient cars and pickup trucks and reducing the use of paper. As we are reducing our use of paper, we are not trying to "save trees." They grow trees in East Texas for paper just as they grow wheat in Kansas to make bread. They don’t cut down California redwoods to make paper. The environmental problem with paper is how we may dispose and/or recycle it, not about wasting trees. Paper is relatively cheap, and because it is relatively cheap, we not only use a lot of it (which therefore makes it expensive!), it is relatively impractical to recycle. So most paper ends up in landfills, and we're running out of places in which to put landfills.

Reducing the Amount of Paper We Use is Inevitable

· Even though paper is a relatively cheap commodity, it is a major part of our education budget because of the quantity of it we use. It is likely to be easier to use less paper than to get more tax money.

· Computers are rapidly changing how we educate people. Very soon, a computer and Internet access will be available for every student, all day, every day. The folks who pay the bills (with our taxes) now realize that the same economies apply to both business and education.

· Because the computers are going to be readily available to those individual students, we need to use them efficiently. We can use computers to save money.

By Reducing the Volume of Paper We Use, We Become More Efficient

We have learned in the education business to use what we have available. Since my career began in the 1960s we’ve had purple duplicators and mimeographs, and now we have copying machines and printers--all of which have paper as their common denominator. We began to use computers to produce materials which we then printed on paper. Even if we had really good ideas about how to use computers to get materials to students directly, those computers weren’t available to students—but now they are.

There are numerous advantages to providing our young people materials from computer to computer using the Internet as the connection device:

Because we now have the tools with which to get materials to our students electronically, we can get those materials to them at almost no cost. There are no further duplication expenses once the originals are produced.
Computer screens are much better.
Materials can be produced using color and graphics not available to us via the copying machine.
The color and graphics are "free" to produce. Color graphics on paper are very expensive.
Materials “circulated” through the ‘Net are much more readily available to our students—papers don’t get left on the desks when students go to their next class, they aren’t abandoned in backpacks and they aren’t left on the bus or at home and they don't end up in landfills.

Converting from Paper is Serendipitous

Organization is extremely difficult to teach our young people, and organization is extremely difficult for many of us adults, also. Electronic materials are much more easily organized both by education professionals and our students.

Because students keep their work in electronic folders on the school server, they know where to find their work. Because students keep their work in electronic folders on the school server, we know where to find their work. Only the individual student and his or her teachers have access to individual folders.
A while back, a student in serious academic trouble in my class as well as a couple of others was coming in at lunch almost every day to catch up on his work. His mother and I were in regular contact by Email, and she became concerned that his grades had not improved. I was able to show her that in one two-day period at lunch, he had instead downloaded 17 pictures of automobiles. Justice was immediate. His academic devotion improved, and he belatedly earned a passing grade.

· While parents and other adults at home can’t get to their young people’s work directly as if they were searching through their backpacks, those adults know readily what their young people are doing in class, because they can go to the class website and see the materials themselves.

· Teachers don’t have piles of paper to organize. When students put their materials into the drop folder, the work is sorted and date-stamped.

· While multiple choice and similar tests are still done and graded more easily on paper, essays, short answer, and more thought-intensive work may be graded electronically—although it’s easier to grade “papers” this way only if you’re a nerd--Papers may be graded by color-coding, (for example by electronically highlighting answers), saved and returned to students’ folders for correction.

The Pieces

· Individual password access to the system

· School server—this is a computer the sole purpose of which is to save materials and make them available. Each student has his or her own folder, with its “privileges” set up so that only the student and teachers have access to that folder.

· A “drop” folder for each teacher on the server, with its “privileges” set up so that students may save work in it but may not remove the work. Only the teacher may view that work.

· School website—not simply a good public relations gimmick, the website is a free and readily available source of all kinds of information about the school.

· Internet Access—the wiring is expensive but only has to be done once.

· Computers need not be expensive, powerful or fast.

But It’s Not Perfect

· Computers go down. Networks go down. Backhoes cut cables. Software fails. Hardware isn’t compatible. Viruses infect. Children damage. The tech person is at the other school.

· We don’t want to change. We don’t have time to learn. Change is scary.

· Maintenance and upkeep are continual.

· More people are watching. This is probably inevitable, anyway. Practice grammar!