Could Your School Go Paperless?

Why Should a School Go Paperless?

Going paperless on the classroom level is difficult and ultimately in the best cases it is never truly paper-free.  There are always tasks that are just better suited to paper than to tablets (drafts, quick notes, a brainstorm, a group poster ).  Going paperless on a school level can be equally challenging, but on a different scale with some significantly different considerations.
If you want your school to go paperless, it is best to approach this project as a long term one, and begin by examining your motives for going paperless.  Keep in mind that going paperless may transform more problems than it solves.  In my discussions I have heard 3 main reasons for going paperless:

1. The Environment -Schools use an UNREAL amount of paper.  
2. The Economy -Copies are cheap individually, but really expensive when you add them up.
3. Because We Can-Tech is finally at a place it is possible.  This often hides the assumption that paperless is better in all cases.  I like to name this assumption early in the process so we can keep an eye on it. 

Can a Whole School Go Paperless? 

Even at the start of the process I would recommend approaching this task as "How can my school be more mindful about the paper we are using?"  Keep you goals clear and focused on the needs of your community.  I know at my school we have parents that don't read email and other parents who don't look at the web site and others who have a really hard time returning a piece of paper sent home for a signature.  No one system will serve all of the school's needs.  My question is simple,  is there a better way than sending giant mailers and manually collecting back hundreds of forms and manually entering that data in the school's system?

Where do you start?

Change is hard and if you want a school community to change their procedures you have to make a good argument for why, and you have to be prepared to help the community adjust to the new procedures.  If the school is going to launch an app be ready to hold an app class.  If you are redesigning the web site, hold a launch party and teach people how to use the web site.  Before you begin dreaming about solutions, your first step is to get to know your current situation.

Conduct an audit

Find out how many copies your school made last year.  If possible get separate numbers for classroom and non-classroom functions.  If the problem is that teacher are running off too many worksheets, don't try to solve it by creating online versions of your permission slips for off campus trips.  In your audit be sure to include numbers for print jobs you send off campus.  Also include mailing costs, and some evidence about the number of person hours spent entering data collected on paper and returned to the school.

Assess

Dig deep and discover what isn't working. Are there forms that are not being returned?  Do you have incomplete emergency information files?  Is it difficult to share information with other schools? Do internal memos get read and responded to?  We use paper to communicate, so look at each of these acts of communication and see which are working and which are eating up your resources chasing down forms or entering in data.

Plan

Once you find your problem areas, create a plan and test it out with the key stakeholders.  Keep them involved in the process and as you identify areas you can improve, have the key stake holders help shape the solution.  A little committee work can create much-needed supporters during the full scale roll-out.  Design you plan in phases, try not to change everything at the same time.  Plan to roll out and assess each piece of the plan as you go.

Implement

Don't make this an all or nothing process, roll out each piece and assess as you go.  Create one piece of your workflow at a time with an eye toward integration of all the pieces at the end.  If one of the pieces doesn't work, redesign and try again.  Work with your staff to prepare them for a transition period and listen to their feedback as you go.  None of the new systems will work without the staff's buy-in and endorsement.

Audit

Set a time frame to conduct follow up audits of paper consumption and workflow success.  Do this regularly as you roll out new pieces of the plan.  Post the audit results to everyone can see the difference they are making by working differently.  Maybe even have the trees on campus write thank you cards to your staff.

Some Logical steps in developing a paperless school

• Buy scanners or multifunction machines instead of printers.
• Upgrade your wireless network to support more devices
• Evaluate you school website, could it better support a paperless mission?
• Invest in secure storage, either on your school server or using a cloud storage company.  Make sure this meets the standards for keeping confidential student information secure.

Share your Journey

Have someone on staff record you paperless quest and share it with the broader educational community.  So many schools are trying to solve the same problems in isolation, even sharing frustrations can help others chart a more clear path.