In times of severe economic difficulty, when government cuts are so rife that even education is being affected, schools nationwide have to address their individual budget and look for ways to cut spending without cutting corners. One way to achieve this can certainly be a further integration of electronic media in the day-to-day classroom management, which will not only prove more cost efficient, but will also redistribute vital time the teacher never thought was possible to find. As we already know, electronic media and ICT can innovate and stimulate, but it can even make a considerable contribution to a healthier-looking balance sheet, and significantly more efficient time management.
If calculated over an academic year, the printing and photocopying costs for handouts and worksheets for the average class would be considerable to say the least; not to mention the cost of wastage. The utopian concept of a paperless office has been touted about by many an office manager, but in truth rarely achieved. But certainly, with regards to schools and classroom management, the wave of new media tools has made such an efficient ideal a lot more conceivable. If a child’s homework task were to be assigned electronically as opposed to a photocopied or printed worksheet, then the costs of producing resources and tasks would be immediately reduced. The worksheet would not be printed, photocopied, defaced or lost, and so the school would reduce spending on daily task and homework assignments alone. In addition, the time the teacher would save via this system as an alternative to selecting, preparing, copying and distributing the resources would be significant, and undoubtedly the teacher would see such organizational benefits almost instantly.
Likewise with the purchasing of homework diaries, workbooks and textbooks: Teachers can set and send homework electronically in a shared classroom environment located on the website, accessible to staff, parents and pupils, and the interested parties can make their suitable contributions from there, cost free - whilst USB memory pens can begin to lighten the load of heaving schoolbags and classroom shelves of textbooks. Resources can be ordered, organised and distributed digitally, making for cleaner, lighter, quicker, more efficient and cheaper information management all round.
Schools ultimately would spend much less money on stationery, printers and photocopiers, and everything could be managed centrally and electronically -even file and record management. Any additional funding could then contribute to helping staff and pupils come to terms with the digital revolution and the wave of new media tools which are in existence and at our disposal: making things easier, more interesting and significantly cheaper. Schools could bring their budget into line, making a significant saving on resources, whilst making for a cleaner environment, as teachers enjoy the benefits of finding some extra time to do the tasks they never thought were possible.
As personal and laptop computers become about as common a household item as a television or washing machine, we must accept that a large proportion of children have these resources at their disposal at home: the potential is there, we just have to facilitate it and make it a reality.
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