PAPERLESS CLASSROOMS

From forest fires in the Amazon to the mass amounts of trash floating in our oceans, it is no surprise that environmental concerns are one of today’s norms. Trees provide many benefits for the environment like the reduction of erosion, production of oxygen and the storage of carbon dioxide. Because trees make paper, millions have been cut down in order to fuel the insatiable paper supply needed for schools. As a result of the current environmental concerns, many schools and classes have moved to a more digital solution.
Many classrooms have gone digital through the use of Google Classroom and other Google applications. However, they have their own set of issues. Many teachers have been known to assign homework last minute. Students are put into a “fight or flight” response, so they can choose to either cram in this last minute homework and risk the possibility of staying up late or enjoy the rest of their afternoon and get a good amount of sleep while failing the assignment. Senior Julien Morgan said, “I have skipped out on homework because it was assigned last minute.” This could have been avoided if the teacher had assigned the homework in person during the previous class. Teachers should give at least two days for their students to complete their homework, if they felt it was absolutely necessary to assign something with no warning via Google Classroom. Also, not all students have twenty-four-seven access to electronic devices due to economic and parental conditions that arise in a diverse school.
There are also many classes that have not reduced the use of paper or use paper almost exclusively. A huge example is math classes, which are unavoidable because students are required to show work and cheating would be difficult to detect on computers. Scantron tests are also used in many classes and tests in general use paper as well. Although many of our classrooms use paper, there are systems of recycling that are in place at school in order to give used paper new life and save many trees.
The aim of paperless classrooms is to go paper-free in order to increase efficiency, and to also save the environment. The implementation of technology to reduce the use of paper may seem like a satisfactory solution, but may create more problems than solutions for students.