All participants in the current education system are loaded with paperwork. Teachers are required to maintain registers of attendance and planners for classes along with lecture notes. Students have notebooks and textbooks, exam papers, assignments, and projects. There is so much paper to file, store and remember where it has been stored. It takes only a bottle of water or a pen to leak and ruin hours of meticulous work and filing.
Paper Panic, Manic Management. Misplacing a notebook, or a page of an assignment wreaks havoc upon a student or teacher’s mental state of mind. Deadlines are missed, new filing must be undertaken: the repercussions of misplacing paper are massive. If the teacher wishes to share a reading with the class, they have to wait in line to print copies upwards of 25. Then carry the load back to class only to realise they are short of a few copies! Worse yet, be informed a day later that some children misplaced theirs. There are only so many papers one can manage. On a lighter note, the ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse is possible only when there is paper.
With the advent of online learning, new and efficient systems of managing paperwork have been developed.
Paperless perks for the teachers- recording attendance is a click-away, and:
– Meetings can be scheduled with ease for all attendees, at once. The time and date are logged into calendars of all participants. Reminders can be set to manage time schedules.
– Readings can be dragged and dropped into the class folder, accessible to every child; they can print should they wish so, and reprint should they misplace paper- the document is always stored in the folder.
– Assessments and assignments can be given online, proctored, and timed- there is no need to walk through rows for collection and distribution and no avenues for cheating. Teachers can also provide feedback on the assignment.
No bags, no books. The student has an online notebook and does not need to carry them. As books become eBooks, the need to access the library is negligible. From the comfort of their homes, students can access a wide variety of reading material. Projects are online submissions and deadlines are stringent as submission windows close automatically. Dogs can’t eat homework and ink can’t spill either.
Going paperless is not only a more efficient system of records and submissions but also disciplinary. The hassles of managing paper and the possibility of missing deadlines are heavily reduced.
