BYOD and Printing, What You Should Be Doing
Why are you printing if you are BYOD teacher? Printing and writing are not connected. This is something that everyone in a BYOD program needs to be aware of.
Here are the rules you should follow and communicate to your students:
- All assignments will be posted online, not emailed.
- All students are expected to have a copy of all online materials during class time on their laptops. These materials should be downloaded to avoid any conflicts with the network.
- During timed writing assignments or quizes, students will use their laptops for reading the assignment/questions. They will then answer on paper if required, or electronically if allowed.
- In some cases the internet access will be suspended to prevent anyone from doing unauthorized research during an assignment. See #2 and follow the directive.
- If a student needs to work off of paper, they must print it at home and bring it to school. This needs to be communicate in advance to the teacher.
Here are the rules you should follow as a TEACHER:
- Allow all work to be submitted electronically, but not on email.
- Start grading electronically. It is slow only at first but once you can use the tools it is much faster.
- Audio based grading and feedback is so common that is now native to systems like TURN-IT-IN. Stop writing and start talking. It is faster and requires the student to listen and then revise. A much better process than reading red marks.
- If you must grade on paper, then print the student work after it is ALL SUBMITTED. If you are not using email this is easy. You can print the entire class at once and then start grading.
- Use online feedback, do not write on the paper. As you are reviewing work online you can make notes and comments on the work itself. When you are done reading you are done with the feedback.
- Learning to work in 2 tabs or 2 desktops(Mac) -your gradebook should be in one and the work in the other. Mark in real time.
- Save heavy printing for exams, unless your school can serve a secure exam. If they cannot it is about a 700 USD investment to be able to do this and not allow students any access outside the exam, even on their own laptops.
If you read this and would like to know what tools are needed to achieve a paperless classroom, email me directly or post a comment here. The tools are free and require
only a commitment to use and organization, they are easy to use.
You can be proficient in online marking after doing one set of documents. Printing is not going to grow, it is going to shrink. It is expensive and unfortunately heavily abused by teachers.
If your students are BYOD this means they are learning a new way of working. When they move out of your organization, the most likely scenario is that they will be working purely online and only printing if they choose to pay for it.
Universities are not only following this model, they are even moving away from normal textbooks for similar reasons. Prepare your students for the future. It is worth the initial inconvenience for them and you.
I have been paperless, at least 90% paperless, since 2005. In 2005 it was difficult, because I had to serve and manage all the technology to facilitate the process. Now it is seamless and easy for people to stop wasting time and resources on printing.
Before you reply, think about how much time is invested in printing and then in marking. If it was not more efficient, I would never have gone for it. And I did it even at the IB level where case studies exceeded 50 pages.
Tony DePrato
http://www.tonydeprato.com
tony.deprato@gmail.com
Technology in the Classroom 
