How to cut back on Printing
Printing costs are increasingly taking more of the schools technology budget and so this post will address how to cut back on printing. Less money towards printing costs means more money for technology in the classroom. Always ask "Do I really need to print this?" What are some options?
1. Save documents in your folder and refer to them as you need to.
2. Save documents on your desktop for easy access. I save phone directories on my desktop and open them up everyday. When I need to call someone, the number is right there. When the directory changes, I save the new one over the old one and I have the most current copy.
3. Use print preview to make sure you are printing what you think you are printing.
4. Check to see what printer you are printing to. You should not have to hit print twice. If you are hitting print twice you are printing twice.
5. Adjust the margins and font to fit on one page.
6. Print your document as a draft to save ink.
7. Share documents using google docs.
8. Use Wikis to collaborate.
9. If you must print a power point, print handouts 3 to 6 slides per page.
10. If possible, email grades, reports, etc. to students and parents rather than printing them out. 11. Archive those emails instead of printing them out.
12. Post handouts on Teacher Web or Moodle so students can print them out if they
lose them.
13. Use Print Shop.
14. Use the copier.
If every staff member were to cut back printing 1 page per day, that would save 266 pages per day, 49,742 pages per year. That is 8 toner cartridges per year we would not have to buy. The savings would be $2400.00 per year or 3 document cameras and 1 airliner or 4 laptops. If some of you cut back 2 pages per day, that would start to add up.
Trying to break old habits is hard. We used to have to print, because there was not a way to share otherwise. Today there are lots of ways to share information, but we have to access that new technology and use it. Start with one thing you are not going to print and move from there. Before long you will wonder why you ever needed a printer.
My list is only a start. I am sure there are other ways to avoid printing, so let me hear from you. And please, don't print this post.
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