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Recycled CANZ machines and new
Pentiums mixed and matched at Glendene Primary School (July 1999)
Last year, when Dave Edwards was a relieving teacher
at Auckland's Glendene Primary School, he noticed that the school's computers were
underused, and the kids were mainly playing games on them. This year Dave joined the
school's permanent staff, and was made responsible for computing.
Dave had previous school experience with
Apple IIe and Mac SE machines, but at Glendene he moved into a Windows environment. The
school had bought recycled computers and peripherals from Auckland recycler The Ark. Most
were 486s, though some were Pentiums.
The office, library and junior school now
have two machines each, while the senior school has seven. All machines except those in
the office have CD-ROM drives and sound cards. One of the library's computers is used for
cataloguing and research, and the other for internet and research.
When Dave took over, he dumped the games and
now promotes use of the computers in the language curriculum. Even junior classes are
encouraged to produce a new piece of printed word every day, with tools that include
Windows Notepad, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, MS Kids, Kids' Desk and Text-Ease.
Left: Children
at Glendene Primary's junior school writing a story with the MS Kids program
The Encarta CD-ROM encyclopaedia is used at
the school, and there are a few smaller programs such as spelling tutors.
There are no maths programs yet: "We're
looking into it, but the budget is a problem."
Dave Edwards says the concept of using
recycled computers in schools fits nicely with his personal philosophy of life, which is
geared toward conservation and re-use. Computer speed is not an issue for him:
"Recycled computers may be relatively slow, but how many kids can type at 140 words a
minute anyway?" he asks.
He is determined to keep Glendene computing
as simple as possible, taking an approach that calls for a good deal of pupil involvement.
Up to 20 children are being trained as computer monitors. Dave is running staff sessions
which combine training and practice, and he also offers one-on-one help to staff.
Glendene School recently signed on to Xtra,
and one of the student monitors' tasks is to log onto the Internet to collect and
distribute the school's e-mail. Children search out web sites such as museums and
libraries in lunchtime sessions. Internet access is timed and monitored, and only three
people know the Xtra password.
Left: A key
program for controlling the computers is the Windows Explorer file manager, and Dave has
tweaked folder names to help people find things easily. For instance, the folder
containing important education programs has been named 01_Glendene, which means it always
appears at the top of the directory tree.
While the computers themselves have been
standardised, this has not been possible with printers, because of the variety of types in
the school: several brands of dot matrix plus Hewlett Packard Deskjets and Colorjets.
Paper handling is always a problem with the
dot matrix computers. The Deskjets are easier to handle, and the school has bought
recycled models from The Ark for only $140. The Colorjets are easy to use too, but they're
expensive to run. "I'm not sure colour is all that important anyway," says Dave.
The school has just bought six new Canon inkjets. "We got a very good price from
Business Systems Solutions."
"Sometimes I think we do too much for
kids. Our kids print black and white pictures with their stories, and then colour them
in."
Left: The
printers occasionally get switched from computer to computer, and to make this process
hassle-free, all printer drivers are loaded on every computer. (As in the screenshot at
left, which was captured before the new Canon inkjets were purchased.)
Glendene School's e-mail address is glendene.school@xtra.co.nz. Dave welcomes
contact from other schools, and says he will be "happy to help any school that might
need some assistance with its needs in computers and setups."
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