Printing

[SteveT]

>RANT
:x
We all know how much time we spend sorting out printer problems and the amount of money that goes into initial purchase and then ongoing cost of consumables.

I asked staff at a meeting:

"Do you photocopy the students` exercise books?"

Reply....."Of course not."

"Then why do you think it necessary for them to print out copies of any work they do on computer, most of which is left lying around or stuffed into bags never to be seen again?"

No cogent arguments in reply!!!

Seriously, when are we going to actually see ICT in education being used properly??

How often do you see students "wordprocessing" - which to most teachers seems to involve writing out the essay or story in their exercise books first, then "typing it up" on computers.........especially when they seem to spend most of the lesson piddling about with WordArt and silly fonts??

>RANT-OVER :?

[indie]

We use Print Manager Plus to audit printing and charge each depeartment for what they've used. It's amazing how much they cut down on printing rubbish once they're made to pay for each and every copy.

It can be configured to deduct a different cost based on Colour/B&W, paper used, printer used and also works with plotters. Invaluable!

[andy]

How do you charge per department? For example if in an ICT suite that is used by anyone, and you can see that little Billy Smiff has printed out 400 copies at a cost of 3 million quid - which department gets charged? That is the trouble we are having at the moment.

Andy.

[indie]

Staff have unlimited printing and it all gets charged to the department they're in.

Little Billy on the other hand has x credits, if he prints x copies of crap and uses all his credits, the next time he's in x lesson he can't print. The teacher would come to me and say Little Billy can't print, i'd check his account and see that he printed x copies of crap.

At this point we make the Little Billy pay for the extra curricular printer use and reinstate his credit's making him aware they are for school use.

Once his credit has run out, and he's say in an English lesson we can add credits to his account and charge them to English. There is a certain amount of administrative effort involved though!

No system is perfect and some prints do slip though the net, but up to now we've been able to account for thousands of pounds of printing costs.

[SteveT]

Yes, I use print quotas through PrintManager as well and it has reduced costs considerably, but my point is really a philisophical one rather than a practical one.

Simply ask the question.............in what circumstances should a hard copy be more appropriate than the work just being stored (and backed up........hence my question about photocopying exercise books) on the network.

1. For display purposes. Yes I can accept that.
2. For transmission to those who don't have access to a computer. Hmmm possibly...
3. Errrrrmmmmm...........

[GrumbleDook]

For ease of annotation when the school's literacy strategy uses codes and symbols not easily reproduced on a computer.

I have had this conversation with my better half on a few occassions. She is a Head of English and has demonstrated the difference made when students type up their work, it is printed off with adequate gap between lins for annotation which can easily be read and then reworked by students.

It is not the same in all schools and depends on the access students have to computers at home in my experience. Sometimes the work students do is annotated by the teachers and then the students look at the work, work out what they need to change, and can do so the next time they have access to a computer.

One the flip side the students on our laptop scheme do some of their stuff almost completely electronically.

[sahmeepee]

I think we need to resort to mind control to get rid of the inane print-everything mentality. Does anyone have some software that can flash up a large message for 1/25th of a second?

[mark]

I like your line of thinking sahmeepee

[Andrew_C]

Simply ask the question.............in what circumstances should a hard copy be more appropriate than the work just being stored

Marking. If the teacher "marks up" a Word document, the pupil justs clicks "accept changes" and learns nothing in the process. Print it out, cover it in red ink and send back to student. They then have to think about the changes...