How green is your classroom? Have you ever stopped to wonder exactly how much paper is used in your classroom? Maybe it is time to consider turning more of your hard copy documents into a digital format.

Documents in digital form have a whole lot more to offer than those that are bound to paper. Here are some of the benefits to going digital.

• More easily edited
• Offer better readability,
• Stored in a more compact nature,
• Easier to send and receive,
• Able to be read aloud by text readers
• Size of font can be changed for visual disabilities

The list could go on and on. The problem is managing them. So here are some tips.

Create an online sharing space for your documents. A teacher webpage or blog make for easy reference of material that isn’t necesarily needed as hard copy. Wikspaces, and Edublogs offer free online sites that could easily manage the uploading and downloading of documents.

Podcasting and Vodcasting are a good way to catch up the absent student. Rather than making the student copy the notes from another student, students could simply subscribe to a podcast of recorded lectures, or vodcast of presentations.  You can find a list of free hosting and tools here.

Have students email tests, quizzes, assignments, papers. This would make a huge cut in paper use! You could even set up a folder in your email client of choice and edit the rules to send all files with a certain subject line to it. You could even set up special folders per assignment or class and have an excellent filing system to boot.

Having students turn in digital work can sometimes create difficulty if they use obscure programs, but if you use ZamZar.com’s free file conversion utility, you can have the document converted and emailed back to you.

Digital student work is also more easily checked for plagiarism. Articlechecker.com will scan documents that you feel might be borrowed.

Other ideas for cutting the waste? Let us know in the comments.