Have you noticed a significant reduction in paperwork as a classroom teacher using technology in the classroom?
Hi Lily,
Yes and no. It really depends on the classroom teacher and their ability level of incorporating technology into their lessons. Paper is still used even within 5th grade one-to-one classrooms. But if we went paperless just think of all the ways the money saved could be used to assist with instruction.
We still use a lot of paper for homework. I look forward to the time when students can use their laptops for homework.
Do you feel that using Moodle in your classroom with your students would help them do their homework electronically? Are students able to email their assignments?
Yes. I started this year assigning homework on united streaming and vmath. And I'm surprised at the results I have received. I would say 85% of students would complete assignments on time and the rest would eventually after my follow ups.
I can only imagine what can be done with Moodle. A teacher would of course implement the assignments in class so that students become accustomed to using moodle. The novelty of using technology for homework is motivating in itself. The district hot spots available to students and after school hours can also increase the effectiveness.
I am becoming very familiar with Moodle and I do think that with proper expectations and organization teachers will succeed at having students submit homework.
There will be your "no matter what you do" students who won't do homework but that would just be a teacher admin followup.
I agree with Ms. Card. I have also started giving homework online this year and have seen a greater number of students complete the homework then I had with paper pencil assignments. One change that I made to my homework to take into account students who do not have access to the internet at home was to assign weekly homework (given Monday and due on Friday) instead of daily homework to allow for flexibility in finding a computer with internet.
I am very excited about being able to become more of a paperless classroom through the use of sites like moodle. Although, I am still hesitant about going completely paperless because I feel paper pencil assignments still have some real value.
It will be great when students are able to use their laptops for homework instead of paper! My daughter is in HS and she does some of her homework via flashdrives and internet. It is pretty cool.
We send home weekly homework packets and continue to print hard copies of graphic organizers, etc. It will be nice when all students can access the internet from home and can complete homework on line.
The literature points out that the most effecitve strategy is to integrate both face to face and online technology. as we move closer to that ideal, it is logical that paperwork would be reduced. Currently I have not seen a significant decrease in paperwork and so the assumption is that technology needs to be ramped up
I haven't seen much reduction in paperwork, yet, but we have only had our computers for a few weeks. I have asked the students in math, reading, writing, and science to use their computers for online journals. This replaces the journals/notebooks we used last semester. Our only issue so far is a problem with saving, but our building coach is helping us solve that issue.
The paperwork reduction seems to be inevitable although it may not be occurring yet. I'd like to respond to Ray's comment regarding the most effective strategy involves integrating both face to face and online instruction. The research does support this and this seems to be the next step in our evolution as a district and throughout education. The notion that computers and on line instruction will replace or be more effective than teacher guided instruction has thus far not been borne out by any data with which I am familiar. I am curious as to how folks picture this next step in education.
Lily I can only speak for me as I use very little paper when communicating with teachers.
I am a music teacher, I use very little paper always have. But Since BT I have seen more boxes of printer paper go through our school I think that ever. Is it possible to go "textbookless" and "paperless" all at once? I am curious how they can make those claims about cutting paper comsumption. Don't get me started on teacher absences and saving the district money there,,,I am too old and I remember the way it was when different people used to run this state.
Thank you Rob for speaking to the elephant in the room. Some of the reduced cost in the study refers to replacing new textbook cost with technology. Do you remember the last time there were new textbooks in the elementary schools? The only curriculum with a resource book is reading.The subjects of math, social studies, writing, and science have not had resource books in years. The idea of recovering textbook cost doesn't work at the elementary level.
At my school, there has not been a reduction in paperwork at all. Teachers are still getting use to using the lap tops, but we need more training. Our students need email accounts so more programs can be used. Our students also need internet at home so the teachers can assign homework electronically. Therefore, teachers are still using paper . I'm hoping that next year all the teachers will have a moodle course and all our students will have internet at home!
Good point Sandra. Once teachers get comfortable with Moodle I think we will begin to see reduction in paper. Moodle will help with assignments, homework, and tests. I’m sure there are other ways that we can reduce paper but we need training or at least ideas how to use less paper.
I have not seen any reduction in paper in my classroom or in the classroom's of my teamates. With laptops in my room, the curriculum/textbooks we use require supplemental worksheets for students. Not to mention BT, requires constant copies. If we could generate or find some program that allows us to send the DFA's out electronically and quickly get responses. Something similiar to what i used at the University....D2L. To save paper, an online curriculum is something we should into. Something that already has all the standards (state & tech) combined.
In some areas yes. For example, instead of doing centers with paper pencil activities the students work on their computers. The students do centers 4 days a week, so this has saved a significant amount of paper.
In other areas such as assessments and homework the paper usage is the same. I would like to assign students homework activities on their laptops, but many of the students do not have Internet access which makes this difficult. Assessments are done often, and we use a lot of paper on them. I hope putting these assessments online is something that will be done in the near future.
I have noticed that we do not have to look around for as many worksheets as before for the students to practice. Our 5th grade team has found many websites that allow the student to practice the objectives we have been teaching. I am not fighting with our copier machine and hoping it works every time I go to the copy room because I know that if we need to we could use the laptops for similar practice.
Personally I don't believe that this year will be the year that we see the reduction in paper cost. The introduction of Moodle to the teachers is when we will see changes in paper cost for classroom assignments. As the students will be able to do more assignments and exams online. The other thing to remember is that in elementary we will always see a need for a paper/copier budget as our students range so drastically in age. 5th grade in class paper assignments is what will be reduced, and where the change will be seen. Teachers will still have to create and copy homework for all grade levels as many students homes are not set up with Internet access.
Yes. I have made fewer copies this year while implementing more technology lessons. Looking forward to students submitting their work online and maintaining a digital notebook in lieu of paper.
I have scanned and uploaded info and forms to my website that I would normally copy and distribute. Like the fact that it is difficult for a digital copy to be lost, misplaced or eaten by the family dog.
Not sure we will see the reduction this year as teachers are just beginning to integrate the technology at the fifth grade level and some just got the laptops.
I still provide students' copies when I demo lessons. Maybe in the next few years with training and more accessble technology at all levels in elementary we will realize the reduction in costs.
We won't see the savings for adoptions though, we don't adopt textbooks.
I have not seen a great reduction in paperwork so far, but we are a Phase II school and have only had our laptops a few weeks. One of the things we've done to reduce paper is ask our students to use MS word to create online journals. This program also offers a variety of online graphic organizers to replace paper copies.
As we move ahead and implement more technology, the amount of paperwork should go down.
Hi Theresa,
You are right about the paper consumed for the education of our students. However, teachers are still required to do too much paperwork. I sincerely hope that this can be steamlined for you in the near future. Your time as educators is far too valuable to our children.
I can definitely see a reduction in paperwork and this is at the 4th grade level which does not have laptops available. I am finishing up the year with the 2 boxes of paper given to me at the beginning of the year still intact. I can foresee less usage if we are fortunate enough to get a computer cart for every classroom in the coming years.
It would be nice to reduce paper and pencil but our students still have to take a pen and pencil test at the end of each year. Our student will not be allowed to type, google, prezi, animoto their way out of the standardized tests and to practice them requires some paper. Benchmarks alone in our district uses an astronimical amount of paper. Are we going to go paperless with that?
I was so into the technology implementation that i completely forgot about the benchmarks and AIMS. We might not be able to change the way AIMS is given, but may be IT can create something for those benchmark it is something we simply need to bring up constantly until they simple start to listen.