I remember my freshman year here at the university. The first week of each semester I would be inundated with multiple packets of paper for each course I was enrolled in, these were the distribution of the class syllabi and projects for the semester. It was nice to have everything laid out in front of me so that I could integrate the information into my own calendar and plan accordingly.
My junior year the campus had shifted towards a greener idea with regards to distribution of paper. The syllabi for courses were no longer to be printed out, but instead made available on course websites. This was fine, I still had access to the syllabus whenever I wanted and I could still easily integrate due dates into my schedule. I felt better about taking a step to a greener campus.
I am now in my senior year and courses are still distributing syllabi by email or course website, but the thing that bugs me is homework submission. Shouldn't we take the next step to a greener campus? I am going to take a look at our education courses in specific for this discussion. All education courses that I have enrolled in and am currently enrolled in have a Moodle or Compass website to supplement the course and distribution of materials, which is great so that professors/TAs do not need to print and hand out during class. My gripe is that I need to print out my assignments (which can be in the range of 3-15 pages long) and turn in to my teachers.
What is the point of printing out our assignments if we have Moodle or Compass, both which support document submission. Our teachers need to embrace the technology they are trying to teach us to use in their own courses. They should be willing to allow us to upload our assignments to these sites and be able to use a commenting tool in a word processor or in a PDF viewer (because really, they only comment in margins anyway). This would be a great next step to a greener campus here in our own education department.
One of my C&I professors is already embracing assignment submission on Moodle. The first year of my secondary education program my professor had us print out our assignments to bring to class to talk about them as well as upload them to our Moodle page under an assignment post. It turned out that we didn't get around to talking about our assignments the majority of the time, so now we do not bring printed assignments to class anymore, but he encourages us to bring our laptops in order to see a digital version if we are to discuss it. My professor chooses to disseminate assignment grades via email and not through the Moodle grading system, but this is a step in the right direction. If my other education courses this semester supported Moodle/Compass uploading, I would have saved 35 pieces of paper + ink so far.
A question: How do you feel about becoming a paperless course? What would this mean in terms of planning and grading?
As for college courses, there really is no reason for students to receive paper copies. There are computer labs everywhere to provide easy access to any course materials and if students prefer hard copies, they can also print it right there in the library! If something is needed in class, the teacher can encourage students to bring a lap top, have a few hard copies, or encourage the students without lap tops to look on to their neighbors screens.
ReplyDeleteAs for grading, I've had teachers say that they want hard copies because they cannot grade an emailed document. I've also had teachers that add their comments right in on the word doc and send their feedback back to us. SO, it is possible to grade on the computer and really isn't that much more difficult if one is willing to try it out. Plus, teachers wouldn't have to lug a ton of papers home to grade.
I think this also applies to readings, the teacher can put the reading up on whatever website the class uses and the students can either read it on their computer or those who prefer hard copies can print them at their own will.