Computers for a school: funding options?

Seanchai

Our school has no computers. None. The money just isn't there, even though we are a DEIS school. A simple homework request for internet research leads to some 30% (at least) of the class saying they have no internet at home. In short, the lack of internet is without doubt an impediment to studying, classwork, the development of 'learner autonomy' and the development of creativity. To purchase 30 laptops for the school is simply beyond the means of the school.

Is there any scheme, public or private, which would be available to a school in a deprived area to access funding just for computers/laptops (and nothing else) for students ?

Enright

Any local businesses who would donate older ones to you?
The Dept of Ed has on three occasions provided funding for ICT in schools. did your school not apply for it?

Miss Lockhart

Yes, I thought all schools had been given funding specifically for ICT. We were in your position a few years ago (also a DEIS school) but over the past 4 years we have gotten a computer and Interactive Whiteboard for each room using a dedicated ICT fund.

solerina

There certainly was a lot of funding available about 2/3 years ago...we managed to get an interactive white board fro about 75% of the rooms in our school, we also got 20 new computers and 20 laptops which are available in the staffroom for teachers to take to class....your school must not have applied for the funding (although I thought it was available to all)

rainbowtrout

I don't understand this. Like the others my school availed of the ICT funding from a few years ago that was available to every school so I can't see why your school wouldn't have applied for it.

More to the point, maybe the funding was applied for and used for something else, because in this day and age I find it hard to believe that a principal would get funding and not get one single computer for the school or not apply for funding that was freely available, DEIS school or otherwise.

I know when we last got funding it was in the region of 30K - one of the guys in doing the installation etc told me that, that would more than cover 24 computers for a room with even basic facilities on them.

My school is relatively new so when it opened it was equipped with a new computer room but we used our funding a few years back to put a computer in every room in the school and we have a data projector in every room as well.

killbillvol2

A DEIS school would have had access to significant funding from Dormant Accounts (€19000 in our case) on top of all the other funding for ICT in the last few years.

If you didn't get any funding somebody messed up bigtime.

spurious

There's also small levels of funding available through JCSP, which if you're DEIS you may also be part of. Not enough to equip a lab or anything, but possibly enough to get one low spec desktop.

gaeilgebeo

Seanchai wrote: »

Our school has no computers. None. The money just isn't there, even though we are a DEIS school. A simple homework request for internet research leads to some 30% (at least) of the class saying they have no internet at home. In short, the lack of internet is without doubt an impediment to studying, classwork, the development of 'learner autonomy' and the development of creativity. To purchase 30 laptops for the school is simply beyond the means of the school.

Is there any scheme, public or private, which would be available to a school in a deprived area to access funding just for computers/laptops (and nothing else) for students ?

I am truly baffled that a school in 2012 would have no computers whatsoever, considering all the funding that was made available for ICT in the past number of years.

Seanchai

The ICT funding was, it seems, spent on putting projectors and wireless internet into each room, the school figuring (rightly, in my view) that they would be a vital teaching aid. All teachers use their own laptops, however.

A tiny number (@3) of individual students who have particular special needs have been allocated a personal laptop each. But there is no funding that we know of for c. 30 computers for a room that all students could have access to.

rainbowtrout

Seanchai wrote: »

The ICT funding was, it seems, spent on putting projectors and wireless internet into each room, the school figuring (rightly, in my view) that they would be a vital teaching aid. All teachers use their own laptops, however.

A tiny number (@3) of individual students who have particular special needs have been allocated a personal laptop each. But there is no funding that we know of for c. 30 computers for a room that all students could have access to.

But is that not putting the cart before the horse? It would seem like a waste of time having wireless internet in a school that doesn't have computers to access the internet and no guarantee that staff would have a laptop of their own to use in the classroom.

We have a computer in each room. They are networked (as are the rest of the computers in the school). I can log into any computer in any room and access the files I have saved in my own profile. It saves me having to connect up a laptop to a projector for each class and saves wear and tear on my laptop from carting it in and out of school. Teachers shouldn't have to use their own personal laptop anyway.

whiteandlight

Most teachers in my school use their own laptops-we don't have base computers and only a limited supply do staff laptops. We do have two computer rooms however tho one of them was funded by a local factory

StillWaters

I think the Principal here has questions to answer. Whilst lots of schools have a BYOD policy. It is unheard of that there be no computers for student use. Particularly in a DEIS school.

Chris68

I recommend that you contact Camara. They "recycle" old computers and then give them out to schools in disadvantaged communities. Originally they targeted communities in Africa, but today they recognise that some schools in Ireland are just as disadvantaged.

http://camara.org/hubs/hub-ireland/

byhookorbycrook

We got PCs from our local IT that were finished with them.

TheDriver

Serious questions here as there was a lot of money 2-3 years ago which could have purchased a lot of IT equipment. Ask the principal

wingnut

Just adding to the chorus that there was significant funding for schools over the last number years, enough for projectors and computers if budgeted correctly.

Your best bet is second hand machines, ex office or factory. You could save money by putting ubuntu linux and libre office on them, which will give you consistant and up to date software for free. They would be perfect for internet research and typing reports.

The Black Oil

Not sure about linux as I've never used it. Are there many drivers available for it - including for printers, etc? A lot of things like Maths Circus or Word Shark, for example, may not run on it. I don't know.

Try to use local contacts - ex office machines, maybe a parent who works for a bank or something like that. Also, if the school is near a Tesco you can ask parents to collect tokens (if they shop there). You generally have to collect thousands to make it worthwhile, but you can get cameras, printers and computers from this scheme.

Ideally, schools would have networked PCs and a few interactive whiteboards. I'm not a teacher, but I've seen little use for laptops in the couple of schools I've spent time in. It's all been PCs in classrooms or a computer room, or both and lots of donated PCs over the years. Some of these will soon be obsolete. There needs to be someone figuring all of this out, and if they don't have great technical knowledge they need to ask for help. Any school running Win XP should be moving to Win 7 or 8 at some point next year because support for XP is going to cease in April 2014.

Check out the NCTE for broadband - they provide pre-filtered internet access to schools, but obviously you need to have your basic infrastructure in place. Figure out what you have, what you need, but be careful and manage expectations.

Also, look into Microsoft for volume licensing or their Education scheme. I recall one school getting a master disk for Win 2000 for free, but this was a while after this OS had been released and though useful, it wasn't a huge boost. I don't know if anything similar is available now and it won't be cheap.

A lot of people think it is easy and that you can just throw money at it, but there is a lot of work that needs be done, and this is very under-recognised. Be careful in that if you hire a technician you will pay through the nose if paying by the hour.