Should Schools Go Paperless?

Ok,
It's very interesting that I saw this topic because as I was listening to the radio today, the news reporter spoke of how the Social Security Administration is looking into being completely paperless by the end of the year.  So, naturally, when I saw this article on the ISTE site, I was immediately drawn to it.

This article showed 2 point of views on schools going paperless.  I've attached the link below (for those of you who are itching to read the entire article), but I will also write a summary based on what each person said.

First, we begin with the guy who says "Absolutely! Yes!"  His name is Vernon Smith and he had several good points that I will document below.

• He's coming from a "green" point of view.  Paperless meeting/classroom instruction, etc are made simple with email, projectors, interactive whiteboards, etc.
• Less paper would reduce the need for custodians to haul away littered paper in hallways, classrooms, trash cans, etc.
• Paperless options SAVE MONEY! Reduce the cost of ink, toner, paper, electricity, maintenance of machines.  Schools can put these funds into classroom technologies.
• Kids won't have to haul around huge book bags that are heavy-laden with paper.
• Digitized textbooks are easily distributed, more portable and require less management.

The other point of view was from the fairer sex, a woman named Elayne Evans.  She adamantly said, "No!" to schools going paperless.  Some of her points were:

• Handwriting is important.  Learning to write the alphabet by hand and practicing with pen and paper are VITAL components of foundational literacy.
• If students read/write exclusively on computers, they will rely heavily on spell check and this will affect student literacy.
• Cloud computing and mobile devices have caused increased power consumption, so going paperless isn't necessarily the greenest option.
• If schools have tight budgets, it may not be wise to invest in purchasing personal computers.  This is because new models frequently come out and this renders thousands of dollars of property useless.

Both Mr. Smith and Ms. Evans conceded that there needed to be a healthy balance because although they had opposing views of schools going paperless, both did agree that certain parts of having paper was useful.  For example, Vernon Smith said that color paper and construction paper would constantly be useful.

I encourage you to read the article below.  It was quite good.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. 
http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201102?pg=8&pm=2&fs=1#pg8