Two weeks ago I would have said they are not necessary anymore.  Today, I would not say the same thing!  About two weeks ago, our server that has our Moodle system on started acting strange and working very s-l-o-w-l-y.  It was a rickety old computer that it was housed in and we needed to update.  To give you a little background about our school: We are a MacBook air, one to one school.  Teachers have MacBook pros.  The upgrade was a disaster, the program, in the best way I can describe it- imploded, costing me all my materials, test questions and my entire classroom platform.  We are talking two days before my last chapter test and one week before my cumulative final and I have no testing platform!  The Moodle front had collapsed and I was in panic mode.  The only thing I could lean on was that file cabinet with some old tests in it.  I paper tested the French Revolution, by the way I hate checking tests manually- never liked it.  I also hate reading hand written essays!  The lesson to be learned here is that keeping paper copies of assignments and tests is not such a bad idea.  Hopefully you never have to use them, but you never know!  Now I’m off to find a new learning platform for 2nd semester.  Wish me luck, or send me some suggestions:)  Mr. Harms