[Air-L] odd query?

[Charles Ess]

Hi all,
a colleague who is responsible for sustainability initiatives on our campus
has asked me if I knew anything about the following:

a careful, quantitatively oriented analysis of the comparative costs - both
direct (e.g., consumption of electricity, toner, etc.) and indirect (costs
of manufacturing and distributing paper, computers, monitors, etc.) - of
a) paper-based techniques in teaching and learning - e.g., 5-page lab
reports in a composition book turned in weekly, to be read, hand-marked by
the instructor, and then returned to the students,
vis-à-vis
b) comparable (at least roughly) paperless techniques - e.g., written work
produced and turned in electronically, graded and commented electronically,
and then returned to the students electronically?

I know that the advent of the paperless office has been heralded for at
least three, going on four decades, coupled with the proclamation of the
imminent death of the book, etc. - and that for many good reasons (besides,
in my case, sheer curmudgeonly Ludditism), paper and books retain their
unique places and roles in learning (and elsewhere).  So I, for one, would
argue strenuously for the ongoing importance of what Naomi Baron so nicely
encapsulates in her recent book _Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile
World_ (Oxford U.P.) under the heading of written culture (thanks, Naomi!),
even if paper and books might be comparatively more expensive from a
material and environmental standpoint.

But however one views these matters pedagogically, etc. - the question is a
good one: does anyone know what the comparative costs really are?

Many thanks in advance for any pointers listmembers can provide!

- charles ess

PS: I'm using ch. 9, "Gresham's Ghost: Challenges to a Written Culture" in
my Freshman class to introduce them to my arcane insistence on their
developing their own commonplace book - and thereby as an introit to further
work in Plato's Phaedrus as a way of helping us develop a framework for
thinking through the relationships between our technologies of communication
and our conceptions of our selves, our relationships to larger communities,
etc.  I recommend the chapter - and the book at large - heartily!
- c.