Today after the kids had gone home I together with the Year 2 teacher attempted to create an area in her classroom for more embedded ICT teaching. This was going to be four computers in one place within her room. The idea is that if I can get her using more ICT in Literacy, Numeracy, Science etc. then I’ll find it easier to bang the drum around the school in other classroom to start using their computers more.
So I needed:
- 1 Network Switch
- 4 LCD Screens
- 4 PCs
- 4 Short Network Cables
- 1 Long Network Cable
- A Couple of 4-way Power Blocks
- A Long Extension Lead
- Mice and Keyboards
The long cable is for the room across the room over the ceiling. I have arranged the 4 screens on 2 tables back to back to save room. In front the mice and keyboards are placed and the PC units are stacked under the 2 tables to save space.
The switch is used to save cable runs across the room, this way one cable is ran across the room and then split by the PCs as opposed to running 4 cables or paying to have access points installed or moved (expensive).
Hopefully in the morning when I go to test them again then switch will have got it’s IP address and they will all connect to the school network.
Maybe then the 4 in Year 6 and 4 more in Year 5 will become used more. Although I worry about having to solve the walk to the printer problems this may cause in classrooms. Maybe I’ll put network laser printers on my Tesco Computers 4 Schools wishlist!
