Going Green with a CMS

And this one is for the environmentalists or anyone that cares about our Earth, trees, natural resources for that matter. We are always looking at the functionality and features of the CMS that are labeled “Web 2.0” because that is the current buzz word for what you need in a good CMS. So we focus on Videos and Blogs and Podcasts. And while those are all great, why don’t we take a moment to look at the ways a school district can “Go Green” with their CMS.

Hot Off the Press! Get Your News and Announcements Online! What better way to deliver the most up to date news and announcements to students and parents than the web site. Some CMS’s even provide functionality for e-Alerts that can be delivered via email or text messaging. In addition to the daily news, many school districts are publishing their newsletters online. This makes the process simpler and definitely cheaper than printing which allows a district to even generate newsletters more frequently.

Don’t Forget Your Homework! With online homework dropboxes, students and parents don’t have to worry about forgetting homework or even printing it for that matter. Students can simply do their homework on the computer and upload it to the classroom web site.

What Did You Learn in Class Today? For parents with kids that cannot remember what they learned in class today, a classroom web site serves a great purpose of refreshing their memories by allowing teachers to post presentations and resources related to classroom topics. So instead of printing out those Powerpoint slides, simply upload them to the site.

Rules, Rules, and More Rules. A school district and a classroom must have rules and those rules have to go into some type of really long document. Now imagine a classroom of 20 students with a classroom policy guide of 5 pages and a school or district policy guide of 30 pages. That is 35 pages per student equating to a total of 700 pages for one classroom. Then take that to an entire school level and then a district level. That is a lot of trees. Why not post it online and even have a web based form that verifies the student or parent received it and read it? Sounds a little more efficient and earth friendly to me.

Well this covers a few ways that schools can use their CMS to “Go Green” and “Save Some Green $”. Anyone else have ideas? I know there is a way to even use the Web 2.0 tools to save on paper and definitely time.