Learning and Leading - February 2011

READERSrespond

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POLL RESULTS

Should Schools Go Paperless?

Respondents were split down the middle about whether schools— and students—are ready to do away with paper and go all digital.

It’s a Win-Win

Schools are in the position to create universally designed learning environments where all students would have access to the curriculum and where 1: 1 devices with built-in readers and tools would deliver information. Going paperless and establishing an all-digital environment could deliver personalized learning, level the playing field for the diverse learner, and create a green school, all at one time. Let’s do it!

Kathleen McClaskey Education Technology Consultant Amherst, New Hampshire

First Things First

The school I’m at does not even have the budget to keep a good stock of paper, let alone buy the expensive technology it takes to replace it. In elementary schools, we cannot expect students to each have their own computers, and if they do, they have not developed a sense of responsibility to take care of it. We should be asking how we can get people to understand that schools are important enough to pass a levy to buy basic necessities.

Angela Broz Preservice Teacher Bowling Green, Ohio

Cover All Bases

Learning involves a combination of tools. It is not just one or the other. We prepare the students for the world outside the classroom. They need to know all aspects of communication.

Nell Moore Mendenhall, Mississippi Comment on ISTE’s Facebook page

Leave the 19th Century Behind

Paper products are a 19th century holdback and should be phased out as quickly as possible. There is no reason to continue to hang on to physical paper when digital paper does everything actual paper does and more. Artists, authors, musicians, photographers, and many others have made the shift. It’s about time we did the same thing in our schools.

Charles Dinsfriend Director of Information Technologies Woodburn, Oregon

Keep History Alive

Turning oral language into written form is an ancient practice, much older than the invention of papyrus by the Egyptians. Eliminating paper from the options available to students would mean denying part of our history as communicators.

Mara Linaberger, EdD Curriculum Specialist Coal Center, Pennsylvania

Focus on What’s Most Important

If paper were out of the equation, potentially a tablet computer could turn our handwriting into printed text (and that would be an improvement over my handwriting). Or we’d see kids focusing more on typing skills. I understand that there is a perceived art to the handwriting process, but that art is not what gets valued in our schools, nor should it. Rather, we want students to produce well-written arguments and thoughts.

Sean Lancaster Associate Professor Grand Rapids, Michigan

Yes 51%

No 49%

Calculators Can’t Do It All

Today in the math classes that I taught, I was working with graphing inequalities by hand. Having my students explore this concept and not just looking at a calculator involved them working with graph paper, plotting points, and looking at feasible points and regions. You need technology in math, but you still need to know how to plug and chug your way through a math problem by hand.

Paula Wargo Preservice Teacher Bowling Green, Ohio

Waste Not

The objective should not be to entirely replace a tried and proven medium for teaching and learning, but to reduce the wasteful and irresponsible use of it. Schools can reduce paper use by inviting parents to opt in to receiving digital communication instead of printed work. Teachers can be better trained in the usefulness of digital communication. Publishers can print smaller books linked to digital resources. Worksheets or handouts can be reused instead of reprinted.