Washington school district purchases learning management system

The school board in Washington, Missouri, has purchased a learning management system in its continued effort to drive education in a digital direction. 

The LMS is a version of a content management service meant to handle students' homework, teacher feedback and revisions and more. A one-year agreement was reached with the LMS provider Wednesday. 

"It's very exciting as we work our way toward a more paperless environment," Superintendent Dr. Lori VanLeer told The Missourian. "The goal is to get to a one-student, one-device learning environment. That could take five years or more, but that's our goal."

The content management service will be implemented at the start of the next school year with an emphasis on third and fourth graders. The year after, fifth and ninth graders will receive laptop carts. The board will continue to digitize the district, grade by grade, until all students have access to the LMS. 

District faculty will need to be trained as well. 

"Some teachers will be able to jump right in and use it, while others will need ongoing training and assistance, and we're prepared to do that," VanLeer said. 

Some have already implemented technological learning experiments in their classrooms, while others will need more assistance from the tiered training program. 

Washington can take a hint from nearby Union, where the city board has already made strides toward a paperless working environment. According to The Missourian, the annual labor, production and distribution cost of paper packets was $2,520. Paperless business process automation has brought the amount down to less than $100. 

"I think the paperless council has been a very good tool for our staff and elected officials," Alderman Dustin Bailey told The Missourian. "Time and paper is no longer wasted for what sometimes could be board packets well over 100 pages in length."