All Electronic

I decided to change my behavior for the SBC. I did not feel like making the switch from plastic water bottles to reusable water bottles was a good change for me because I do that practically everyday already. The point of this is to make you think and see how changes you make, that at first may be difficult, but can have an impact in the future.

While I was considering a different behavior I thought about what I have changed this year in general. At the beginning on the year I hand wrote all my notes. This is necessary for subjects like Calculus but this semester I’m just taking a variation of science courses. Soon after this semester began I started bringing my laptop to classes and typing up notes instead of hand writing. I found this easier for me because I could type quicker and focus more on what the professor was saying rather than rushing to get the powerpoint slides down. Now I type my notes in class. I use my computer for most assignments. It’s just easier now for me to work this way.

I use the Marquis basement printer like my life depends on it. I usually have to print something every night or every other night. It’s a love-hate relationship. When it works, great! That’s not always the case though- usually it’s out of ink, or toner, or paper, or a combination of the two. It would be so much easier to just go paperless, I thought, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

I’m going paperless. No more printing out readings and/or assignments- I’m completely capable of reading them on my computer. No more using paper to make my daily lists- I have a the “Stickies” application on my macbook for that. It’s going to be a transition not printing pages upon page will both save paper and save frustration with the printer in Marquis.

Chemistry in the exception- the powerpoints are posted on Moodle before class and it’s more efficient to print those out and take notes directly on the powerpoint. I also have Mastering Chemistry and need to write those problems out to solve them. My other three courses, Biology, Geology and Environment I can do all my work on my computer.

It’s not just the saving paper that is emphasized. Computers are being used more everyday by people and the world is slowly transitioning to becoming electronic. Believe it or not it’s where the world and the web is going. So let’s talk about making the transition to electronics. There are many benefits to electronic text. People enjoy e-texts because it is “modifiable; as any writer who uses a word processor knows, electronic yet can be easily modified;… enhanceable, electronic text can also be embedded with various types of text enhancements designed to support readers’ comprehension or extend their learning;… programmable, because electronic text is presented on a computer it can be programmed to respond to reader interactions and learning needs;… linkable, any chuck of electronic text can be linked to any other chuck, allowing nonlinear movement through an electronic text document;… searchable, readers of electronic text can search documents for all occurrences of a specific word or phrase;… collapsible, electronic text can be collapsed and hidden from view until needed;… [and] collaborative, electronic text can be networked in ways that enable writers to work collaboratively on the same document, sometimes even at the same time.” (Anderson-Imnan, 1998). This article, written almost twenty years ago covers the benefits of electronic resources people enjoy today. Over the past twenty years computer capability has increases immensely and can do things that humans did not even image them doing. As stated at the beginning of this article, computers were made to help with computations and no one thought they were be used for text and communication.

Transitioning to all electronic is a part of where this world is going. Back to the environmental beneficial part of this- computers use electricity and energy, yes, but they have energy saving capability. I do not know the exact trade off between energy consumption of the average computer and the cost it takes to recycle and process paper; I assume both the electronic companies are trying to reduce the energy computers consume but also recycling facilities are working to decrease their processing cost and increase their products.

By reducing my paper use, I am more organized- it’s a little hard to loose documents on your desktop- and I not wasting paper at school. Using the pens I use, I would on average take 3-4 pages of notes in each class. The amount of paper adds up and at the end of the year, it’s a pretty big stack. Most of the time, old notes get tossed in the recycle bin, or for a lot of people in the world, the trash. By switching to electronic typing and being paperless, I’m eliminating the deposal of paper at the end of the year.