Schools increasingly attracted to paperless classrooms, offices
Across the country, more school districts and individual schools are seeing a benefit from a switch to paperless processes, whether that's behind the scenes or in the classroom. To that end, it should come as no surprise that many more organizations are likewise looking to make that change.
School districts and individual schools go through a lot of paper in a given year, and have to save massive amounts of it long-term. That's why the Ocala, Florida, school district is now investing heavily not only in paperless document management systems, but also bulk scanning and remote capture to handle a massive backlog of documents, according to the Ocala Star Banner.
In all, the school district has 9.4 million individual pieces of paper to scan, filed away in 4,700 different boxes and stored at 55 different locations, the report said. But the district has a plan to go almost totally paperless within the next several months, but not before the end of the calendar year. The hope is that this effort will not only save money, but also increase efficiency for school officials, teachers, parents and students alike.
A classroom-based effort
Meanwhile, in Texas, the Ector County Independent School District recently transitioned all classrooms to a mostly paperless education system operated by Google, according to the Odessa American. After a bit of training and a trial run at some of the district's high schools, the platform is ready for a wider rollout, and district officials say the benefits are clear for teachers and students: There are no lost papers and fewer missed assignments because everyone knows what's due and what's been passed in already.
In addition, the platform also makes scheduling easier across departments, and ensures no one who needs specific information ever goes without.
"If you just want a general survey on, for example, setting up times for meetings, you can put that on there, then they can select what time they want to meet. You can use that form for anything," ECISD Director of Instructional Technology Renee Jones told the newspaper.
The more school districts can do to adopt document management systems and set up effective workflows, the better off all involved will be.
