Trying to go Paperless

How do you take an Outreach science program and go paperless? This is the question I'm trying to answer. Classroom teachers have that advantage of knowing and controlling the assets their students have access to: PDAs, computers, programs, etc that can help them go paperless. Though budgets may be tight, when you can get those assets into the classroom and use them right, everyone benefits. But, when I go out to some of the more rural schools, I may be faced with classrooms where finding a sharpened pencil is a challenge, let alone having a computer each student can enter their data on.

If my programs were just a hands-on science experience, I could totally do it. My big challenge comes from the state: required work samples for all students grades 3-high school. They need to write out an entire scientific experiment, from question and hypothesis to data analysis and conclusion. Not a small task by any means, and certainly not one that can be done without paper.

I can still cut down though. Teachers used to receive a binder of information (additional lessons, background on the Science Inquiry Cycle, scoring guides, ideas for designing their own lesson) that they may or may not use. This year, they'll start receiving a CD with the same information that they may or may not use. (Personal goal: be able to dress up the CD so it's more than just a bunch of files).

On my side, instead of a dozen notebooks full of random notes, I'm now fully engulfed in using Evernote to carry my information and Toodledo to keep my to-do lists in order. Notes from meetings are typed, not hand written; websites I may need to find again are bookmarked (thanks to Foxmarks); I go nowhere without laptop and iPhone.

There are times my hand twitches and makes me feel like I can't focus without drawing out my plan for the day. But I take a deep breath, open up OmniGraffle and draw a flowchart of my ideas. I've upgraded my Toodledo to a Pro account so I can track subtasks and watch progress get made toward goals I've set, but it still didn't do the visual flowchart of ideas for me. OmniGraffle picked up that piece. And the only thing on my Christmas wish list at this point is a graphic pad (though a Kindle wouldn't be bad either). That should help me make that last push to just being done with paper, at least on a personal level.

Now, to implement as many ideas as I can for doing it at work too.