Champagne Set-up On A Beer Income
Sun Herald
Saturday May 4, 1996
COMPUTERS are probably among the most expensive things people buy these days but, as deputy principal Tom Lockley at Wiley Park Public School has proved, hardware needn't cost an arm and a leg.
His classroom contains 30 computers and 10 shared printers and cost the princely sum of $6,000 to set up - and that includes $600 for a bench for the printers.
The children learn basic skills in applications that are used in businesses and at home - things such as word processing, spreadsheets, databases, drawing and some games.
Mr Lockley is a computer enthusiast and he was given a $5,000 budget (since increased) to play with. That could have bought one snazzy, top-flight multi-media computer, but Mr Lockley had other ideas.
A few years earlier he'd bought half a dozen old XTs for about $100 and the kids became used to them. So he decided to advertise for more second-hand equipment.
"People called offering their old computers and we were given 10 machines. Since then we have bought second-hand stuff for $10 to $100 a piece. In some cases people have been happy to give them free of charge when they realised what they were for," he said.
Setting up involved a fair bit of mix and match, aided by a Job Skills appointment, unemployed Croatian metallurgist Zvonko Lacmanovic , who knows how to navigate the insides of a computer.
"We now have four 386es and 26 ATs. Most of them have colour monitors with 20 or 40Mb hard disks and dot matrix printers."
Mr Lockley said that occasionally the cost of replacing a broken component, like a $10 switch, can be more than the cost of the rest of the computer.
"All the computers are loaded with Microsoft Works. Licensing the software, at $40 a machine, was one of the biggest costs.
"They also have Mouse and MousePaint, Maths Blaster - we got them for $5 each in a job lot - shareware reading programs and fantasy action games."
While I was still marvelling at 30 computers for less than $6,000, Mr Lockley said that even more important was the effect it was having on the children.
"They are doing some fantastic word processing ... the results show that the children are soaring ahead."
He said one child who had an attention span of a couple of minutes "if you were lucky", now spends an hour playing a text-based adventure game, improving his attention span and his use of English and typing skills.
"Ninety-six percent of the children at this school come from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Computers are a great educational tool for them."
Mr Lockley said he was amused that what the kids considered play was, in fact, learning.
Surely these children would be better off with more modern equipment?
"When kids have become familiar with the keyboard they can make better use of better equipment.
"We have just bought three multi-media computers and there are plans to buy more this year," he said.
But don't think that his keen eye for prices has in any way been blunted. The three he just bought were ex-demo stock 486 DX266 with 8Mb RAM, 400Mb hard disk and dual-speed CD-ROM for about $1,000 each.
"We have increased the budget to $10,000-$15,000 and we plan to make it stretch as far as we can."
"The message I'd like to get across to businesses is that the old hardware they may be thinking of throwing away may be just what a local school needs.
"We can take up to 200 more. Stand-alone desktop computers are much better than network computers."
So, if you or your boss is about to throw out any old hardware, think first about what you can do for your local school. Not only could you be helping children, but you could find someone willing to take your redundant gear away too.
© 1996 Sun Herald