I tried going fully paperless for grading and totally regretted it

Last semester I decided to ditch my paper gradebook and do everything on a tablet. I thought it would save time and help me keep things organized. But after three weeks I found myself printing out class lists again and using a red pen to mark grades. The tablet kept dying during parent conferences and I missed being able to flip pages quickly in a meeting. What I learned is that the physical act of writing helps me remember each kid's progress way better. I still use a computer for big spreadsheets, but nothing beats my paper gradebook for daily work. Has anyone else tried going digital for something and then switched back to the old way?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley_hart14d ago

I tried going fully paperless with my freelancing invoices and scheduling last year using Trello and a calendar app. Three weeks in, I was back to keeping a simple spiral notebook on my desk for daily tasks and hourly logging. The worst part was when my tablet crashed right before a client meeting (luckily I had printed notes in my bag, that saved me). I realized I remember details way better when I physically write them down, like a payment due date or a color hex code I'm tweaking. Big quarterly reports I still do in spreadsheets, but for the day to day grind, nothing beats paper for me.

angela_park14d ago

oh man this is so relatable. my friend @wesley_hart tried the same thing with an app for tracking her freelance hours and it backfired when the app glitched and she lost a whole week of billing data. had to go back to her handwritten log and she never looked back. paper just works better for that kind of stuff somehow.