Digital Submissions of Student Work

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http://pedagogy.dwrl.utexas.edu/content/case-digital-submission

One of the scenes I hate most at the end of the semester is not the stack of papers I need to grade, but the hundreds of unclaimed portfolio notebooks abandoned in the graduate lounge. They'll wait there over the break, sometimes over the entire next semester, never to be retrieved by the student-authors. I think this is really, really telling. If a portfolio is meant to be a reflection instrument, to show changes, progress, regression, or insight, if the notebook isn't retrieved, there's little reflection going on. And, though I'm not certain if this is the larger or lesser crime, think about all those thousands of pieces of paper just wasted. Eventually the notebooks will be thrown into the recycling bin, but so many unused pages will go to waste. This waste is indicative of the wasteful attitude we have in our country, and in the academy, where teachers too often will photocopy reams of paper that students rarely value. And who can blame them?

Anyway, I commiserate with the poster's ideas on feedback, assignments not being misplaced, etc., I believe the most important reason to use digital submissions is that the student will never misplace the work. For example, if I can have all my students use a CMS or GoogleDocs, then the student can always find his submission to review, revise, or canibalize. All those are writing strategies. Though I'll always be a fan of the printed book, I also realize, enthusiastically, that we are and must shift to a digital medium for most of our school assignments. When a professor tells me that he won't accept e-mail work, that tells me that he's unorganized. If I tell a student that I'll accept e-submissions, I hope the student will realize I'm more concerned about her work than whether or not she has a printer at home.

And I hate plastic folders.

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