As School Starts, A Look At 'Paperless' Classrooms

As the new school year approaches, we're taking a look at the shift towards a paperless classroom.

Google is one company trying to help create classrooms without pencils or notebooks, or excuses about dogs eating homework. Its web-based software Google Apps For Education already has roughly 30 million active users around the world. The latest tool is called Classroom.

Many teachers say it's a helpful time-saver that lets them see how students are doing on assignments as they're work on them. But others worry about commercializing the classroom, student privacy and whether this is just another passing technological fad.

NPR education blogger Anya Kamenetz talked to teachers about the program and discusses what she learned about the paperless classroom — and what it means for students — with Here & Now’s Sacha Pfeiffer