Teacher's Corner: Going Paperless (Or at Least Less-Paper)

Teacher's Corner: Going Paperless (Or at Least Less-Paper)

by | Aug 18, 2012 | Teacher's Corner, Uncategorized

Earlier this year Teresa Sullivan, President of the University of Virginia, was forced to resign because some on the school’s board felt she hadn’t capitalized on the online learning market.  Whether or not her dismal was justified (she was reinstated only 2 weeks later), it’s not uncommon for the education industry at all levels to be behind the curve on innovations in technology.  It seems that even when schools take a brave step towards engaging technology, they can be ineffective at accomplishing their main objectives.  An example of this is the constant monitoring and blocking schools attempt to do to deter students from misusing their access to the internet.  Of course some form of monitoring is acceptable and needed, but it seems that most of the time the only people schools effectively ban from Facebook are the teachers. Hopefully by now the conversations in your school has shifted from what technology should we allow in the classroom, to how can we use technology to reach our communities better.  Over the past few years I’ve been experimenting with using a class website to distribute materials, keep students informed on class assignments, and among many other things to give parents a window into the classroom.  Rejuvenated by the summer and a late start to the year because of monsoon flooding, I took sometime to update my weebly.com based class website (take a peek if your curious). In addition to adding various calendars and schoology.com for online grade reporting, I’ve tried to use the website to give students better access to materials that I’d generally print for the classroom.  I’ve wanted to...