Raleigh teacher goes paperless in wireless world

Raleigh, N.C. — Every month, teachers at Wakefield High School get thousands of pages of paper for their classrooms. Most of the paper ends up in a recycling bin, which adds up to about 4 million sheets a year.

However, Phil Vice is one teacher who isn’t adding to that usage. His computer engineering class is virtually paperless.

Vice's students take quizzes online, and their worksheets and handouts are online, too, taking the place of textbooks.

WATCH VIDEO
Raleigh teacher goes paperless

“It has made me a very organized individual,” he said.

Students log in each day and see the work they need to complete and when it's due. They can do the work at school or at home.

“I like the fact that we do almost everything on the computer compared to some of my other classes, like AP (statistics),” said student Carl Piland. “We have to print everything off the computer. We haven’t even taken midterms yet, and my binder is already full from that class.”

Student Justin Duncan said he feels very comfortable using a computer because he is part of a technology-friendly generation.

“Having everything online and stuff like that for our age helps us to really be able to perform stuff like this … better than (on) paper,” he said.

Vice says he uses paper only for tests.

The content for his class comes from a non-profit organization based in Raleigh called The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning, and it costs the school $600 a year. The company shares the content using free open-source software called Moodle.