Stop Printing...

[Progeniga]

I just thought I would share a great Green technique we have come up with in school. We no longer allow students to print in ICT.

 

As the submission of coursework is moving to electronic format we now only allow the PDF convertor to 'print' to a file.

 

So far it has saved us a fortune in toners and paper in one half term alone. Not sure if other departments will adopt this yet, but it is certainly working for us.

[witch]

We did this when we changed to Windows 7 and the Epson printer would no longer work. They can print to a printer in another room but the IT teacher works on a 'no printing' stance and it works like a charm.

[glennda]

Doesn't quite work that easily - ICT courses at secondary say you HAVE to print the documents and keep in a folder!

 

Toby

[oxide54]

Doesn't quite work that easily - ICT courses at secondary say you HAVE to print the documents and keep in a folder!

 

Toby

 

jokes init.

[glennda]

jokes init.

 

yep especially when the people before us got the biggest printers possible that cost over 400 quid to replace the toner!

[oxide54]

we are getting rid of most of ours.

[glennda]

we have got loads - got papercut though so people can actually see how much it costs - although we don't charge them - just makes them think thats going to cost me 15p rather then the photocopier which will cost me 1p they tend to walk a little further to the photocopier!

[oxide54]

were getting pcounter, departmentally they will be charged. but they will be printing to the photocopiers. cards / keypad to pick up there printing.

[rh91uk]

Unfortunately as discussed Printing in classes sometimes cannot be avoided - but with full support for a system like Papercut it will work a charm. We moved all our Photocopiers to Papercut and we now have a standardized method of charging.

 

I would love to rip every printer out and put a big MFD/photocopier on every floor!

[wesleyw]

With eportfolios and I believe digital submitting to our exam board we could do that too.

[glennda]

we have it setup so that they appear to be charged through papercut although they are then not charged like that - its just for getting it into there heads it costs money. Each department pays for the cartridges for there printers. the only department which cant handle their budget properly.... business studies!!

[p858snake]

Doesn't quite work that easily - ICT courses at secondary say you HAVE to print the documents and keep in a folder!

 

Toby

 

Does it say it must be printed once completed? could you not wait till the end them print them all in one batch when they are near perfect (and could also do it in duplex to save paper)?

[glennda]

Does it say it must be printed once completed? could you not wait till the end them print them all in one batch when they are near perfect (and could also do it in duplex to save paper)?

 

Its all split into units then into tasks - so they start unit 1 task1 then complete all that work - print it then put it in there folder and so on with each unit. The teacher marks at the end of each unit once already printed. There are loads of units and tasks inside which equates to between 100 and 150 pages for complete evidence. If we start giving to much advice we just get told that this is the way they have to do it blah blah blah. (this teacher in particular does not look advice being given to him) plus this is the department that chose the most expensive printer before i arrived - and it doesn't do duplex printing AFAIK! they would probly say that they cant do it for some stupid reason. And they will not print to the photocopier those pages that are mono as the students can't leave the classroom rah rah rah from the teacher involved! its literally 1.5m from his classroom door - SLT have said students in that department can leave if it means cost savings etc. but he is on his high horse.

 

1. I wouldn't have purchased those printers (HP CP3525n)

2. I would make them print to photocopiers.

3. I would make the staff mark the work while its on the computers to save printing to many pages etc (they have read access to students areas)

4. I would shoot the member of staff in charge of the department

[moleie]

I was just looking through this, and then I opened a file I was just emailed in Word and it said. "Welcome to reading layout" what a coinsidence!

I agree a ridiculous amount of stuff does get printed, particularly for things like ICT course work, where I've come across teachers who will only look at stuff if a printed copy is handed in, although am I the only one who finds about half way thyrough a day of staring at a screen of text my eyes feel like there melting?

[Alis_Klar]

:mad:We have this in ICT also. The worst thing is that 80% of the page printed is taken up by screenshots!!! "Oh it has to be in colour!"

 

The kids find the ICT course mind bendingly boring just print screening into word all day no wonder they play up!

 

Have set the driver to default to draft and double sided on the server before sharing the printer but the setting does not reliably "stick". Also once the end user changes the preferences it stays that way.

[PaperCut]

The most crazy thing I've seen a school admin do to helped reduce paper was to print out the "most polluting users" report (trees consumed by each user) from PaperCut and post it on the staff notice board for all to see. He did this in his first week on the job at a new school! I suspect he did not make too many friends but I'm sure the teachers on the top of the list reviewed their printing habits!

 

Another story I herd was a situation where a teacher printed a class set to the wrong printer. They went to the printer to collect, could not find it, then re-printed another set. About 5 or 6 attempts they finally worked out they were selecting the wrong printer. The school tech collected the huge pile off the other printer and had the balls dump it on the staff room table with a note: "Going cheap! 200 unwanted copies of Ms. Smith's year 9 class notes".

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

Developer @ PaperCut

Edited November 25, 2010 by PaperCut
because i did not use preview :-)

[Alis_Klar]

@Chris (Papercut)

 

Can your software force duplex draft etc? Do you know of any reliable way to make the print button generate a print preview rather than print directly. I have seen third party software as well as the Epson driver which does this but the 3rd party software was buggy in the extreme.

[oxide54]

and peoples insistence on printing forms out to be filled in when sharepoint / infopath could keep it all digital

[PaperCut]

@Chris (Papercut)

 

Can your software force duplex draft etc? Do you know of any reliable way to make the print button generate a print preview rather than print directly. I have seen third party software as well as the Epson driver which does this but the 3rd party software was buggy in the extreme.

 

Yes. PaperCut can enforce duplex. However IMHO it's not a good idea. A better approach is to default drivers to duplex and instead display a "guilt trip" popup if a user selects single-sided. e.g. "By printing duplex you'll save X trees!"

 

Here is an example. The text/design is customizable so you can turn it up or down as required.

http://www.papercut.com/images/screenshots/pcng/print-policy-alert-sized.jpg

 

The reason for this is there are often legitimate reasons why a user would what to print simplex. The obvious one is transparencies, or the requirement to fax the job after. Or even the old fashion teacher that manually cuts-n-pastes . Asking users to confirm via an alert popup is a good compromise.

 

The same goes for:

• printing emails
  
• printing web pages in colour
  

Show a print policy alert popup instead.

 

Regarding the idea of a mandatory print preview. It's a great idea and I think something Microsoft should put in their print driver architecture as standard. Why make drivers all implement this with their own look-n-feel (and bugs!) Unfortunately MS have not many any significant changes to their print architecture in years! I've seen the Epson driver and it's a good start, but as you said the "extra fat" can lead to instability. Something Epson suffer from a little (just try their mac drivers )

 

Oh. Speaking of transparencies, this reminds me of a story my friend told me when he was working at ExxonMobile. His manager turned up to an important presentation with his transparencies printed in duplex! I hope he's not managing any Oil Rigs today

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

Developer @ PaperCut

Edited November 25, 2010 by PaperCut
spello