The ShapingTomorrowBlog just posted a quick review of an infographic from EducationNews.org that appears to suggest the long awaited arrival of the paperless society. While paperless may be a misnomer, the infographic points out that office use of paper has declined since 2001 and its overall use has declined since 2006. Those are interesting statistics which could herald an even more significant decline happening very soon as smartphones, ereaders, tablets, and the various hybrids continue to grow in popularity. http://www.educationnews.org/technology/never-print-again/
The idea of a paperless society has been talked about since the 70s. Professor F.W. Lancaster, who coined the phrase, expected its arrival by the end of the 20th century–a typical time horizon for prognosticators of his time period. However, we still use millions of reams of paper everyday, but a significant decline in paper’s use is now being seen at least in the home printer industry. EducationNews.org has published a useful infographic that reviews the changes in student use of paper. Now that the generations addicted to paper have graduated, the younger generations are focusing more on electronic devices for textbooks, notes, and probably doodling & gaming in class. The tablet owning student population tripled between 2011 and 2012, and 90% of that population say they use their tablets for educational purposes. More importantly, 70% of all students say they regularly use digital textbooks, and 60% say they prefer…
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