Change the World…Change the Margins January 24, 2008
Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Google, Innovation, Productivity, Reform, Software, Teaching & Learning, webtools , trackbackSchools are notorious paper consumers. The number of notes, tests, worksheets, and other paper-bound artifacts of 20th Century education generated by classrooms and offices throughout elementary, middle, and high schools–not to mention college and universities–everyday is staggering and wasteful. This, in and of itself, is a sad and sorry state of affairs considering that people who are supposedly all about education ought to have the foresight and desire to reduce their dependency on printed documents. Educated people (should) understand the concept and necessity of conservation.
Far too many schools have refused to embrace the benefits of digitizing information. Educators and administrators have the tools to make printing superfluous. For example, with web-based resources such as Google Docs and Spreadsheets, ZohoWriter, ajaxWrite, gOffice, ThinkFree, and Writeboard, there are all kinds of ways to overcome the constraints of paper. If proof of work or documentation is required, students, teachers, principals, and superintendents can use innovative means to reach wide audiences. Sites such as Edublogs, Wetpaint, and Webnode make 21st Century publishing a snap.
It’s true that there are legitimate reasons for using paper. People will need to print documents. Even this need shouldn’t stymie a desire to reduce paper waste. Tamara Krinsky, an aspiring actress and writer, hit upon a brilliantly simple way to reduce paper use: change the margins on the document being printed. Krinsky has started a small, but determined campaign at her site ChangeTheMargins.com to get people–even companies like Microsoft–to change the margins on pages that just have to be printed. Imagine how much paper could be saved if everyone, schools included, would only forgo the standard 1.5 inch margin for a more economical .75 inch margin.
Ready to change the world?
Change the margins.
Comments
Jeff, Just finished watching a story on the Today show on NBC related to this topic. An elementary school canceled over 4,000 paper catalogs in one month using http://catalogchoice.org. Today has now set up a school challenge at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/22811067/ to see which school can cancel the most catalogs in the month of February. Service learning?
Thanks for the information. It is very useful to all of educational organizations. Recently I heard about a website http://www.pressmart.net which also provides similar services.
This really sounds interesting. You would think that striving to be moving into the 21st Century mind-set, we would be focusing on becoming digital learners.
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