The power of convenience

Around 2003, John, the principal of a large high school in the district which I worked, decided that the daily bulletin would go to teachers as an email. The practice had been to print the bulletin and at the end of the first hour, send runners through the halls to clip the printout just outside each classroom door. The bulletin was then read aloud at the beginning of second period.

The end of the print bulletin was met with strenuous objection by a single teacher. Bob insisted on continuing to get his bulletin on paper. So Principal John acceded to his request. He printed Bob's bulletin but instead of having it delivered to his classroom, the printed copy was placed in Bob's mailbox in the office where Bob had to walk to retrieve it. 

Bob soon started using the electronic version of the bulletin.

What I learned from this was that making a digital means of completing a task more convenient was a better way to facilitate change than a simple mandate.

It's no secret that I am a fan of paper-less schools. Not just from an economic standpoint, but because we should be giving our kids experience in working in environments, work and school, in which tasks are increasingly completed digitally.

I certainly would never take away anyone's ability to print. But I would certainly make it sufficiently inconvenient that one might think twice before doing so....