John S. Burke Catholic High School will be paperless

Students at John S. Burke Catholic High School will soon be receiving tablets as part of a recent effort to go digital.

"I'd heard about the benefits of doing so from our board, so we started visiting other schools that had made this transition and got the low-down on how this works," Principal John Dolan said. "It's amazing how fast we got it up and running."

The effort began three months ago at the behest of the school's board, who had been pushing for paperless classrooms, according to The Times-Herald Record. The administration got moving quickly due to a June 1 deadline for ordering textbooks, and now the school is well on its way to providing all students with tablets by the time school starts up again in the fall.

While the school did encounter some hurdles – many educational document management systems are college-oriented – the faculty and students are looking forward to the transition. Many students noted the difference between the approximately 30 pounds of text books they're used to carrying and tablets that weigh in at less than a pound.

The system will be cloud-based, so that if the tablet is lost or broken a content management system will be accessible online from any other device, ensuring students' work is never lost. Nearby schools have begun similar shifts to paperless classrooms. Both Middletown High School and Chester Academy have begun using tablets, while schools in neighboring districts such as Eldred have begun testing the devices.

Paperless classrooms have a number of benefits According to Scholastic.com, a major plus will be the establishment of a conservationist mindset in students. Students who grow up using tablets instead of wasting paper will be better conditioned to care for the planet in the future. Additionally this will introduce students to technologies used daily by businesses, which will give them a leg up when competing for jobs with students less in tune with technologies utilized by companies seeking to hire.

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