TeachPaperless

Does the idea of reducing—or even eliminating—paper from your classroom sound intriguing? The blog TeachPaperless is dedicated to helping educators with such a move, for both educational and environmental benefits.

Skeptical? The idea is not without its detractors, as evidenced in a recent post reprinting an angry blog comment that stated, in part, "Unbelievable … if you people really think that this is the successful way to the future, then your [sic] as stupid as the students that cant [sic] spell the word 'future.'" While an easy target because of the misspellings, this critic provoked a variety of interesting responses from readers about how students now relate to information and one another.

In addition to the titular topic, the blog often ventures into broader, more forward-thinking areas, as in the recent post "21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in Education by 2020." For Item 6, "Differentiated Instruction as the Sign of a Distinguished Teacher," lead blogger Shelly Blake-Plock predicts, "In ten years, the teacher who hasn't yet figured out how to use tech to personalize learning will be the teacher out of a job." Differentiated teaching as the norm? Now, that's radical.