Save a tree use your laptop: UNC makes paperless education possible - we just need to get on board

We have the ability to go paperless in the classroom. But students still rely on paper for most of their assignments class readings and exams.

Our attachment to paper needs to end.

UNC allows each full-time student $40 of printing money a semester. That's 800 sheets per student per semester. And with 17700 undergraduates on campus that's about 28320000 sheets of paper a year for undergraduate printing money.

That's a staggering amount of paper and it's a waste.

Between Blackboard and the Carolina Computing Initiative UNC has the tools to go almost completely paperless.

UNC requires laptops because they give students access to online resources and enhance the learning process.

Students paid for their laptops — in some cases the University paid — with the understanding that their laptops would be fundamental to a UNC education.

But our laptops function more like glorified typewriters rather than a new medium for the learning process. And that needs to change.

Change will start with professors and teaching assistants. They may not enjoy reading and correcting from their computer screen but they can adjust.

Short assignments should be submitted online via Blackboard or e-mail.

Tests should be taken through Securexam — a program that allows students to take exams on their laptops.

And students should bring their laptops to class to access shorter class readings which professors and TAs should post on Blackboard.

But very few classes do all if any of the above.

Students must adjust as well. Some students might not enjoy reading off their computer screens. But those students need to get over it. Computers are integral to our lives.

We have an opportunity to fully integrate technology and education. But we're straddling a paper world and an electronic world. We're already paying for the electronic resources so let's ditch the paper.