Paperless classroom – virtual exercise book using Google docs

Remember the paperless office from 20 years ago… We ain’t there yet, and certainly not in schools. I am currently experimenting with a paperless Year 9 classroom. This has been made possible by the use of Google docs and Teacher dashboard and necessitated with the advent of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Each student has an “exercise book” created as a Google document and shares this with their parents. The salient features of this approach include;

•  I can see and comment on their exercise book.
• Their parents/caregivers can see and comment (not write) on their exercise books.
• Students can link to other online information from their exercise books (hub approach). Even a PowerPoint can be uploaded and linked via Google Drive.
• Paper based resources/anything can be photographed and inserted in “exercise book” including teacher notes on a whiteboard.
• Parents and teachers can exchange comments/notes via the “exercise books”.
• Homework can be recorded in their exercise books … with parent oversight for some students
• Students never lose their exercise book – in fact they can go back to previous versions.
• They actually have a record of learning that students, parents and teachers can see.
• Students can take pride in their “books” with titles, pictures and other decorations.
• To get them started I can copy (automated process) a template to each of their folders and also specify their name is included in the document name.