Projectors

[button_ripple]

We have got a projector + IWB in every classroom in our school. Despite about 50 warnings about turning the projectors off the staff still 'forget'. What can we do about the lack of brains in our school?

We have completely run out of money until march so we cannot have a bulb blow because the projector is on too long.

I don't believe that we can ask staff to pay for the replacement bulb - or even half of it as the projector is school property (or can we???).

We also have some 3 year old NEC VT47's which have had there fair share of bulbs and filters. They are now on their final legs but the head says that she will not replace them even when we get our money back!! What can we do about this. We have staff complaining that the projectors don't work (so they can't teach - head still doesn't fall for this).

[mrforgetful]

Set them to automatically turn off after however long a lesson period is at your school.

Our's luckily are 55 minutes so we set auto-off to an hour and tell staff to turn the projector on and off after each period. But as they're rarely in there two in a row they don't need to just the new member of staff coming in needs to turn it on when they arrive.

[button_ripple]

The only problem with setting the timer is that the staff don't move rooms during the day. (we are a primary school) Also staff often go over the lesson time or they use the projector for more than 1 lesson in a row. So if the projector switches off they have to wait about 10 minutes for the projector to allow itself to switch back on.

Plus our lunch break is 1 hour, so if the timer is set to this the projector will switch off as they are on the way back to the classroom

[Ste_Harve]

We had this problem, and I solved it by getting SLT to warn the staff and having the site supervisor making a note of which rooms had left the projectors on in an evening. These people if they were warned 3 times had to buy their next bulb from the department budget. It seems to have solved the problem of having 30 odd left on overnight, but still get the odd one on.

[CheeseDog]

Good idea but it wouldn't work here as not many primaries have department budgets. Certainly not round here anyway.

Might be able to take it out of resources instead of IT.

They're left on at lunchtime here and communal areas are sometimes a problem.

Still trying to get staff to realise they don't need to be switched on as soon as they get in in the morning and they should be turned off when the kids disapear not at sometime between 4 and 5pm.

Had the IT suite projector left on all weekend last week. However it is a rare occurance

[mrforgetful]

I afraid I don't really see any other option for you other than staff turn them off, a timer turns then off or you turn them all off.

I know which I'd not want to do, which the staff won't do and which will definately work but cause some inconvenience. Maybe that will 'teach' the staff to be more responsible.

Also we charge the departments for projector bulbs for exactly this reason. Why the whole school should pay to support the bulbs of wasteful departments doesn't make sense. Plus when they get the bill for a couple of hundred quid they soon buck up their ideas.

[maniac]

We just warn people as and when we catch them. SLT take issues like this seriously, so there is pressure from above to make sure they do as is asked. We still get some left on thou.

To be honest the attitude of your head saying 'she won't replace them' is not helpful. You can't possibly be expected to keep equipment that is clearly well past it in service. We recently had this arguement with our SLT, and it was only when we eventually dragged them into some of the rooms with duff projectors so they could see them for themselves that they agreed to replace them. Get the teachers to complain directly to the head or SLT about these projectors, they'll soon get sick of hearing about them!

Also get the message to teachers that if a blub does go, it won't be replaced at the moment, and make them aware of how much they actually cost. A lot of teachers don't realise they cost £100's, they compare them to OHP bulbs which were relatively cheap. We find little bits of education like this can help. Not everyone listens, but if only a few take note it's worth it.

Mike.

[Andrew_C]

The only problem with setting the timer is that the staff don't move rooms during the day.

The timers only kick in after n-minutes if inactivity. So lessons won't be disturbed if you set the time to a short one (15mins?) and they will have time to cool down before the re-start. I has been argued that repeated restarting is worse than leaving them on, which I could accept if they weren't left on overnight. This leads to 6 hours use, and 18 hours wasted; I'll wear the 2/3 restarts through the day!

[djm968]

Raise the issue with the SLT and leave it at that. If SLT refuse to purchase replacement bulbs, they will not have a projector until March. The more you automate tasks for Teachers the lazier they become.

I personally blame the LA’s for forcing these expensive soon to be dinosaurs on every school in the country and conveniently forgetting to mention that the ongoing costs for bulb replacements was to be met by the school.

They should have negotiated a 5 year replacement bulb deal with the company who supplied and installed the boards and projectors before they got into bed with them!

[mullet_man]

We kind of have a small problem with a few being left on, teachers do not undertstand that they cost so much to replace.

I got into work early the other day to find a teacher who was also in early with her projector on this was 7.20, a whole hour and ten mins before form starts, the mind just boggles on what goes through a teachers mind.

We can't be expected to go round every room at the end of each day to turn off projectors.

[enjay]

Also staff often go over the lesson time or they use the projector for more than 1 lesson in a row. So if the projector switches off they have to wait about 10 minutes for the projector to allow itself to switch back on.

Not exactly - the auto-off timer resets each time the image changes, so it won't turn off while the teacher is in mid-flow, but will turn off at lunchtime and after school.

[edit] Oops - just seen that Andrew beat me to it with that comment, I'd missed his post when I first read this thread.

[Pete10141748]

Not exactly - the auto-off timer resets each time the image changes, so it won't turn off while the teacher is in mid-flow, but will turn off at lunchtime and after school

You'd be suprised how many teachers I've seen who put up 1 image at the start of a lesson and do nothing more with the board than leave it there for an hour, yet will complain if it would go off, claiming that they are still "using it".

Yesterday, I walked into a classroom to find uniforms on the floor, the kids+teacher all gone outside for an hour of P.E., and the WB+P on with the words "get changed for PE" written on the WB. It now appears that NQT's are losing the ability to speak!

Pete