Totally Off-The-Wall ICT Ideas Wanted!

[tech_guy]

I have a bet with a colleague that I can't get something totally bonkers relating to ICT become a reality and actually happen in our school.

 

The project has to totally insane in reality but to all intents and purposes appear to be 'an excellent idea let's do it' kind of IT thing.

 

Something that will grab the kid's imaginations and get them involved in ICT in a way that perhaps they never would have before.

 

Any (legal) suggestions?

 

We have a budget of around £2k.

[klawd]

Buy a set of 30 screwdrivers and let the kids strip down and rebuild your IT suite?

 

:|

[laserblazer]

Give them the HT's credit card number

[torledo]

I have a bet with a colleague that I can't get something totally bonkers relating to ICT become a reality and actually happen in our school.

 

The project has to totally insane in reality but to all intents and purposes appear to be 'an excellent idea let's do it' kind of IT thing.

 

Something that will grab the kid's imaginations and get them involved in ICT in a way that perhaps they never would have before.

 

Any (legal) suggestions?

 

We have a budget of around £2k.

 

I've always liked the idea of spending some money on Netware 6.5 (don't laugh) licensing just to run netware, not netware/suse enterprise. I thing most people would think you nuts for going *back* to netware but it would work - and you'd have better joy with setting up printers

 

That or buy 4 of those hideous RM One machines now that is insanity.

 

I know it's not 'off-the-wall' but you can't really get very 'off-the-wall' with just 2K. Plus I'm an IT engineer I'm not interested in capturing pupils imaginations. I'd rather confuse, maybe by blowing a million (money no object scenario) on an ibm P595 and plonking it slap bang in the middle of a classroom. Like something out of 2001: ....one morning it just appearing no rhyme or reason.

[FN-GM]

Why don't you put the money towards teaching the students how the components work in the computer, how t build one with real examples.

 

Z

[joe90bass]

Buy an interactive whiteboard and see if anyone actually uses it 8O

[tech_guy]

Buy an interactive whiteboard and see if anyone actually uses it 8O

 

We already have enough of those sitting neglected

[webman]

Buy an interactive whiteboard and see if anyone actually uses it 8O

 

Sounds like the teachers haven't been trained how to use them effectively. Ours get used so much that teachers "forget" to tuen the projectors off :?

[FN-GM]

Do you find that allot of the boards are used as backgrounds for the projectors and not actually used as a IWB.

 

Z

[webman]

No, they're getting quite confident in using ACTIVstudio and the pen and the interactivity (we also use ACTIVote). We have a few 'champions' who have taken the reins and created some really good stuff to show off and the others get a bit jealous and want to learn how to do it

[tech_guy]

Oh, they've had all the training we can throw at them. They've been kicked and prodded. Once the initial enthusiam had worn off they soon stopped using them.

[tech_guy]

I keep forgetting I work with a bunch of luddites ;-)

[joe90bass]

Sounds like the teachers haven't been trained how to use them effectively. Ours get used so much that teachers "forget" to tuen the projectors off :?

 

In some cases that's very true training at the right time (not months in advance!) is key, in others it's people wanting them because they look good! Most are just projection screens, but try and take them away to use elsewhere

[Midget]

tech_guy> how about a 40-50" LCD TV showing random stuff in reception.

 

You could put a camera on the wall behind the TV and have that hooked up to the TV so that it acts like a one way window.

[webman]

I know this is cutting it a bit fine with the £2k budget, but what about getting an imac?

[tech_guy]

tech_guy> how about a 40-50" LCD TV showing random stuff in reception.

 

You could put a camera on the wall behind the TV and have that hooked up to the TV so that it acts like a one way window.

 

Great idea but we do that already.

[tech_guy]

I know this is cutting it a bit fine with the £2k budget, but what about getting an imac?

 

 

Yeaarghh (runs off to sprinkle himself with holy water).

[GrumbleDook]

Train up a few students as ICT Trainers so that *they* can tell teachers how to do things.

[blackcat]

Buy a few Iphones and raffle them off to the kids and see if you can make more money for something really hugely insane

[Enzomatrx]

I like the iMac idea, honestly.

Put it in a computer lab, in the corner isolated from the other computers. Leave it on and lock it down with a screensaver you can't disable, and when the mac zealot students and teachers ask to use it, explain it functions as a "cyclic redundancy checker for your DNS server with DHCP scraping".

 

They'll be pissed they can't use it, but have no clue wtf you just said and accept it as a "tech thing".

 

I constantly use "cyclic redundancy check" when people ask why something isn't working. It makes the teacher feel a lot better than "because you forgot to turn the fucking power button on, moron" when they inquire what wwas wrong with their printer.

[tech_guy]

Train up a few students as ICT Trainers so that *they* can tell teachers how to do things.

 

They/we already do that I'm afraid.

[dhicks]

> The project has to totally insane in reality but to all intents and purposes

> appear to be 'an excellent idea let's do it' kind of IT thing.

> Any (legal) suggestions?

> We have a budget of around £2k.

 

Seriously? £2000 to spend on pretty much any random fun stuff you feel like? Wow, cool! You could build an autonomous robot that roams the school corridors - adapt a laptop to be the computing platform, they're cheap enough these days, and possibly power it by a ceiling-suspended monorail system. You might need some automated door openers to help it get past doors.

 

--

David Hicks

[tech_guy]

> The project has to totally insane in reality but to all intents and purposes

> appear to be 'an excellent idea let's do it' kind of IT thing.

> Any (legal) suggestions?

> We have a budget of around £2k.

 

Seriously? £2000 to spend on pretty much any random fun stuff you feel like? Wow, cool! You could build an autonomous robot that roams the school corridors - adapt a laptop to be the computing platform, they're cheap enough these days, and possibly power it by a ceiling-suspended monorail system. You might need some automated door openers to help it get past doors.

 

--

David Hicks

 

Great idea but the kids would steal it/wreck it or a frustrated teacher would kick its head off or something.

 

Do like the idea of a robot though - perhaps like one of those things in a glass case - the kids put a quid in and the robot tells them whether they are going to fail their GCSEs or not......

[tech_guy]

Yes do like your idea David. We could use photo recognition software linked to Sims.Net that identifies the student and talks to them....hmmm possibilities are endless......

[CyberNerd]

Train up a few students as ICT Trainers so that *they* can tell teachers how to do things.

 

Anyone notice how the curriculum is changing to accommodate apprenticeships and vocational training? I think training students as unpaid helpers is definitely a way forward for school IT departments, Ideally the students should get a qualification out of it too. it is something we are already doing (students as helpdesk operatives) and will probably expand upon.

 

As for other ideas, how about building a Freedom Toaster !

http://www.freedomtoaster.org/