Paper: A printing horror story

My printing horror stories started in one of my introductory biology courses. The professor, who shall go unnamed, strongly recommended students have the class PowerPoint slides in during lecture. There was one catch, however. Laptops were not allowed in lecture for fear that AIM, Facebook and the rest of the Internet would distract students.

Therefore, our only option was to print out 40 or more slides three days a week. Of course, like most of my classmates, I economized by formatting each page to hold four to six slides and printing on both sides. But it still amounted to copious amounts of paper and ink after a while. I was pretty sure that I killed an entire forest of baby trees by the end of the semester.

For a university that prides itself on being "green," I think it's impractical to still have classes with students and instructors printing out ream after ream of paper when today's technology allows us to be relatively "paperless." Several government agencies, such as the U.S. Treasury and various local governments, are in the process of or have already eliminated printing. With the advent of netbooks, iPads and Kindle, it's much easier for people to create, read and share documents digitally.

The university's own ELMS system is a prominent example of how technology can be used to transfer information via the Internet. Instructors no longer have to print out syllabi and other documents for their classes — which is great for them since they can save time and money, and even help the environment while they're at it. But, it is a little counter-productive and perhaps selfish for instructors to upload documents online and enact a laptop ban during lecture.

It's true that paper, ink and a printer don't cost a lot today for the average student. However, consider how much material each student uses up each semester around the campus. How much of that can be saved? Is printing exorbitant amounts of paper necessary or even practical today?

It's probably also true that students get distracted when a laptop is in front of them during lecture. But, enacting a laptop ban puts students who want to use technology to benefit their learning experience at a disadvantage as well. Yes, many academic generations before us survived on pen and paper before laptops, but I think our generation has had much more practice typing than writing. We have adapted our fingers to the QWERTY keys. We are the original creators and sufferers of "texting tendonitis."

When a professor flies through his or her lecture, it's much easier for students to catch up nowadays with a keyboard and a Word document as opposed to a pencil and a notebook.

There are already tools in place in the public domain and right here at our university that can help us eliminate printed paper usage. If the university wants to save money, if the university wants to be more environmentally friendly, if students want to save on personal printing costs, if students want more freedom to utilize technological tools in the classroom — well, then why not start making the switch to paperless?

Angelina She is a sophomore physiology and neurobiology major. She can be reached at she at umdbk dot com.