I’ve been hearing about the “paperless” office (and, by extension, paperless school) for nearly 40 years. Doug even talks about it in his recent The Next Big Thing(s) post.
To which I say, HA!
Here’s the reality: we’re using more paper. Vast quantities of more.
Students do react differently to paper assignments, at least in my district. There is a sense of responsibility that isn’t there when the assignment is purely digital. But, I believe the cause is more of a “this is how we’ve always done it”. For the most part, students are conditioned to receive assignments and supplemental materials as physical copies. It’s the only thing they’ve every known.
Google announced last week that it is shutting down the goo.gl URL shortening service. A URL shortening services is an online service that takes long, unwieldy addresses and creates a new, shorter address that it is easier to share. I’ve covered the Chrome extension before, which made it very easy to use. The timeline for…
But now, machines are also grading students’ essays. Computers are scoring long form answers on anything from the fall of the Roman Empire, to the pros and cons of government regulations. Developers of so-called “robo-graders” say they understand why many students and teachers would be skeptical of the idea. But they insist, with computers…
As educators, we have so many tasks to handle each and every school day. Student absences, assessments, phone calls, meetings — these can pile up on our plates. Classroom management is often considered one of the tasks we need to take on. While this is true to some extent, perhaps we can take some of…
In many cases, there seems to be a tendency to water down expectations when it comes to integrating technology. During a recent presentation on digital pedagogy for deeper learning I asked attendees to discuss then share out on TodaysMeet how they were effectively integrating technology in their classroom, school, or district. There was an emphasis…
Toe-curling public addresses, frosty receptions and baying crowds have been filling our screens on what feels like a daily basis – and we can only expect more of the same. It might not be on the world stage, but every day people at work face tough crowds and awkward addresses of their own – be…
Four years ago, Chris Nagele did what many other technology executives have done before — he moved his team into an open concept office. His staff had been exclusively working from home, but he wanted everyone to be together, to bond and collaborate more easily. It quickly became clear, though, that Nagele had made a…
