Going Paperless or Not?

February 26, 2013 | 1 Comment

Yesterday I posted an article about going paperless. I want to give a comparison between two classes in which one of them was 100% with paper and the other 100% paperless.

100% PAPER	100% PAPERLESS
There were duplicate or wrong answers. That caused a significant paper waste.	Duplicate or wrong answers were not a problem. With erase button every student was able to restart their work without wasting any material.
No tech. skills.	Students improved their computer skills.
Students could see other’s works on the board but they couldn’t take it from the board to examine since other students were also looking at it.	They were able to see who did what on their screen and they could examine other’s works by copying them to their computer.
Monitoring the groups was easy since I could see what they were doing.	I was not able to monitor each group’s work on my computer screen so I had to hang around.
Students created 3D models with their materials so they were able to test their answers easily.	Some of them searched videos demonstrating the nets of a cube in 3D. Some students suggested that it would be perfect if they had a 3D modeling software.
They had discussions in front of the board to find the missing answers. They were highly interactive.	The discussions among the groups were limited.
They demonstrated and justified their nets to the whole class by forming a cube.	They tried to demonstrate and justify their nets to the whole class but since they didn’t have a 3D model it was a little bit hard. Some used the internet videos.
Some students enjoyed hands-on-activity where they used scissors, color pens and paper but some found it childish.	Some students were very happy to use digital tools but some said they’d prefer scissors, pens and paper.

You can go over every row in this document but I think the last one gives the main idea that going 100% paperless is not a practical idea. It has benefits but also has losses.

1 Comment so far

Erica on February 26, 2013 21:36 Reply
Emre, I love this comparison and your conclusion. I think it’s important to give students choice. As paperless as I have become, there are still some documents I print out, write on and highlight. Yes, there’s an app for that, but sometimes I need and want the paper version. I think our students sometimes want the same autonomy over their own learning.