[Olpc-open] Getting paper out of schools.

[Tom Potts]

On Friday 12 September 2008 19:36, joanna burgess wrote:
> Hi. I'm weighing in on this as a classroom teacher...one of the major
> problems with getting rid of paper is the lack of other resources and
>  knowledge of open source ed programs like Moodle that would significantly
> reduce the number of copies made, and yes...the reliance on software that
> is paper based. Teachers have so little time during the day and those not
> comfortable with trying new formats tend to stick to what they know, even
> if it turns out to me more difficult/expensive in the long run. We're
> definitely aware of the waste (and the horrid piles of paper everywhere)
> and I often think of all the other things that could be purchased for the
> kids if we didn't have to spend so much money on ink and cartridges.
> -Joanna
There seem to be great efforts to 'own' everything where possible. Is 
proprietise a real word?
Using creative commons and bluefish it should be possible - in theory - to get 
the whole of the UK governments continuously moving curriculum on line in a 
year - if every time you prepare a lesson you do it in relatively unformatted 
html under creative commons and release it into the wild.
Once this info is out there and any teacher (or indeed pupil/parent) can 
access it to create their own lesson - derivative so must be under creative 
commons then any new curriculum can rapidly be put together.
Within two or three years it will become apparent to those 'educational 
advisors' that they cannot sell new books every time they jink the curriculum 
and will thus have to go and parasitise some other part of government.
Tom

>
> On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 2:07 PM, Tom Potts 
<tompotts at itsosbroadband.co.uk>wrote:
> > Wendy,
> >  The hardest thing about getting paper out of schools is most of the
> > software
> > they use is 'paper' based. Office, PDF's etc are all 'paper based' - say
> > A4 which is exactly the wrong way to fit on your computer screen so you
> > have to
> > print it!
> > Until people can be taught not to use 'paper' based formats things will
> > always
> > be printed - a bit of a vicious circle.
> > The answer is of course is html
> > a few ramblings at this link here
> > http://www.100297.itsosbroadband.co.uk/Paperless/The_Paperless_Office.htm
> >l
> >
> > Tom
> >
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