Prairie Ridge High School wastes a tremendous amount of paper every year. Whether it’s weekly handouts, assignments, or homework, too much paper is being wasted. In class teachers have you do a small activity on a whole piece of paper and turn it in, when really the student only needed a quarter of that piece of paper. Also each classroom has a recycling bin, but yet Prairie Ridge does not recycle.
With technology advancing with computers and smartphones, the school needs to be taking advantage of that by posting more assignments via Google docs and on teachers’ web pages. That way if a student thinks a hand out is necessary to print they can choose to print it; if not they can just view it online.
People ask the question, what if students don’t have access to a computer? Every student has access to a computer, whether it’s at home, on their phone, at school, or a public library. Last year Mrs. Bland, PR’s librarian, did a technology survey in the freshman seminar classes. 98.6% of students answered yes to having a computer with internet access at home and 46.2% said yes to having a cell phone with an internet connection. There is always a way to get to a computer. If a student has a problem, then they can work it out with the teacher and get paper handouts.
Mr. Kennett loved the idea of going paper-free. He said it is easier for collaboration. By using Google Docs, teachers can give feedback to students anytime and to make sure students are going in the right direction.
High school is meant to prepare you for a future job. Most companies are going paperless and working online. Mr. Kennett who has a great amount of experience in the work field expressed, “times are changing and why not start now in high school?”
I understand that it is a big transition for teachers who have been teaching for years, but it can start small and gradually Prairie Ridge could become completely paperless. We need to start somewhere and sometime. Why not now?