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What is the most expensive red herring at your school? Here, I would say collectively IWB's would come close but some teachers do use them properly so I would therefore have to say the class set of 32 voting pads that cost close to £9k (not our purchase!) and have only been out the box twice in 18 months.
I think IWBs too - the use they get is minimal. That, or the Mac suite - not mac bashing just the staff aren't comfortable using them (with training) and they sit lonely getting mainly youtube use or the occasional bit of word use.
Our lecture theatre
Hmmmm....would have to be the IWB's here. We have one in every classroom and only a very small number of staff actually use the interactive element of them. Good have painted the walls white and saved a bomb.
It's kinda sad to see them going unused...know some teachers in other schools who would KILL to have a IWB in their room.
Why did you put a mac suite in?Quote:
Originally Posted by dwhyte85
(not bashing or nothing either, just curious why it was suggested/implemented)
Video conferencing equipment. It was part of some funding so we didn't pay, it got used for a year or so, then the use declined, the video started to cut out after about 10 minutes and the school wouldn't pay for the support contract so it still hasn't been fixed about 3 years later. Apparently it cost £10k new! Two other local schools had it as well, neither still use it...........
We'd kill for another, larger one! We too have a 32 way voting thing, but that is going to be used in anger soon, so it can't be that... Maybe the £20000 processional cross? Old Boys' money, rather than educational budget.Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexPilot
Yep. I would agree with this. LSC funded a whole heap of VC kit, whiteboard, TV etc. Then turned out that as it was IP based it wouldn't work outside of the EMBC so the schools that had it could only talk to each other!Quote:
Originally Posted by joe90bass
Ah, video conferencing, how I'd forgotten about that. We heard £10k new as well, and when you tot up how many schools got it in our county alone it turns into mega mega bucks.Quote:
Originally Posted by joe90bass
Another one we had a while ago was we got a load of Samsung Q1's for use by certain pupils at home. The scheme lasted a year I think, but by the time we managed to get them all configured and parents in to sign AUP's etc the kids only had them for a couple of months. Now the scheme is over we have a load of Q1's sat doing nothing (a lot of them damaged anyway!). The feedback from the kids is they were rubbish anyway.
EDIT: I think this is the one - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8449485.stm - if it is, that's £300million for nothing. What a waste of money.
I imagine anybody can go pitch an idea to the head honcho's who put these scheme's into place, doesn't have to be well thought out either. If we totalled up crazy schemes like this then I doubt County Hall (in my area) would be laying off 16% of it's staff over the next four years.
The ICT technician!!!!
:getmecoat:
School was given money for its Arts College status & this was part of the bid (they tried to inflate the bid to the max) - it was more a fact of saying we have a Mac suite for parents I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hightower
VC kit, definitely. It was used for a single year, once a week to teach French to 3 local feeder schools, bought alongside 'Bridgit' which was never used.
Or a set of 5 A4 graphic tablets, or a vinyl cutter (which sat doing nothing for a year until I nicked it and started using it for banners and sponsorship on our minibus).
4 17" digital photo displays that exist in our head's office. 3 iMacs that were bought because people demanded them and are now used as web browsing machines.
I could go on, but I'm sure all schools have such things.
If it is IP based then you just use the JANET gatekeeper ... Unis have been for years.Quote:
Originally Posted by stevenewman
Because "they iz for media and shiz like init"Quote:
Originally Posted by Hightower
I would also have to say IWBs and Macs are right up there, but No1 would have to be the £20k+ we spent on video conferencing equipment which never, not once, got used. Oh and the promethean voting crap.
Not quite a red herring because they are actually used, but our entire Lower School department has Promethean boards and are insanely jealous of the Upper School with their touch-sensitive SMART Boards. I've always maintained that SMART are better for younger children (even if just for the fact that they can't pull the sodding pen nibs out and eat them), but various past decision makers in our school decided otherwise.