-tictech message:
Though Devin has many good points, I must respectfully talk about the other
side. I know laser printers are expensive, but most of us who talk about
printers in classrooms are talking about the ink-jet variety.
As a classroom teacher that uses technology on a regular basis, I have
found my desk-jet printer to be invaluable. My children type and print
whole-class books. I regularly print our reports on fluency and typing
skills. I link my art curriculum with my technology, and therefore print
color copies artwork. My students correspond by E-mail and print the E-mails
they recieve to be kept in a journal. Also, for some of my struggling
readers, I have online books for them to listen to and read -- phonics
lessons too with certificates as they complete each level.
As for cost: at my school it is understood that the school buys the first
set of ink cartridges, I must buy all additional sets out of my ROPE or PTA
funds. That helps limit costs. In the past it was believed that TVs and
VCR's were too expensive and therefore every class would did not need one.
Some thought teachers might abuse them by using them too much. But, every
class in a remodeled elementary has a TV now. And no one is abusing them as
far as I know.
Most importantly, if technology is to be used, it must be available. If we
can afford it, and the positives and negatives have been weighed, then each
school staff should be able to make their own decision.
We are currently sharing 12 ink-jet printers on WIN 98. We also have two
networked HP Laser Printers. We have had absolutely no problems. In fact we
had more problems with the CWS machines than with our little inexpensive
desk-jets.
Devin, it sounds like your saying elementary teachers cannot be trusted to
use printers correctly and efficiently. For some that may be true, for
others it is not.
Here are my suggestions for printer use (a teacher's point of view)
1. Have a School Tech Committee that can debate issues of support and
resources and create a plan for support(include your network analyst)
2. Discuss printer costs and priorities with the entire staff
3. Give guidelines for appropriate use and conservation of resources
4. Have a system for sharing costs (toner, ink, etc) between school funds
and individual teacher funds
5. Then trust the teachers to do the right thing based on the information
they have received.
Treat teachers as intelligent professional by giving them information and
then allowing them to manage the resources.
John Carroll
2nd Grade Teacher
Stevens Elementary
(Educationl Technologist and former network analyst in a past career)
jscarroll@seattleschools.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Fisher, Devin [mailto:dmfisher@seattleschools.org]
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 1:30 PM
To: 'tictech@learningspace.org'
Subject: RE: tictech: the truth about printers
-tictech message:
First let me say, sharing printers off of anything less than Windows 2000 is
ugly. I know most, if not all, schools are strapped for cash, but one thing
I am sure of is that every class room does not need their own laser printer.
They may think they do, but at least on the Elementary level what they say
they will do with the technology is different that what they end up doing.
My school has a total of 6 (almost 7) networked hp LaserJets. Each LJ is
setup in a cluster (7 clusters) of classrooms and two teachers in each
cluster are asked to host the LJ and a DeskJet. This works out well, and the
following are my reasons why more printers =/= better.
* Less equipment to support. Props to hp for making fabulous machines and
drivers, but downtime is never zero. Paper jams, networks issues, toner
runouts, etc. You recognize this if you are the main technically oriented
person in your school.
* Less toner to buy. Toner is expensive, especially if you do not want to
invalidate your warranty by buying generic toner. Hp toner is at least $140
retail.
* Staff will use the printers less. I know this is a mind game, but if the
printer is not in the specific room, the staff member may not use the
printer just because it is in a different area and not easily accessible. It
also cuts down on printing out of "private" information. No on wants to send
their bills or emails to another teacher's room.
Yes there are problems with not having a printer in each room, but for now I
don't think it is necessary. How much and how often does every class need to
print? Are they printing out silly and nonsensical web pages as well, thus
eating network bandwidth, paper and toner? Maybe they should only print out
things that need to be printed out.
Devin Fisher
Technology Consultant
Van Asselt Elementary
7201 Beacon Avenue S.
Seattle, WA 91808
206.252.7500
dmfisher@seattleschools.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Rockwell, Neil [mailto:nrockwell@seattleschools.org]
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 11:11 AM
To: 'tictech@learningspace.org'
Subject: RE: tictech: the truth about printers
-tictech message:
This is interesting that IS is "frowning" upon sharing printers. The
possibility of viruses are given as the problem. I would like to see some
data from Symantec or Mcaffee regarding the danger of viruses exploiting
printer shares. I did search their sites and found nothing. I believe that
there may be some confusion between printer shares and "open shares" of
drives and folders. In the latter there are well known dangers, but with
printer shares, I don't believe there are any inherent virus risks.
It is difficult for cash strapped schools too afford the quantities of jet
direct connected printers, especially laser printers, in the quantities that
schools need. With 40+ classrooms at Mercer, can you imagine the expense of
40 laser printers with print servers?
As it is I have 17 network laser printers and large quantity of ink jet's
and non network laser printers that I share out. It is true that inkjets
currently are cheap to purchace and expensive to operate. I am of the
opinion that all classrooms need to have their own printer. Affording it is
problem. Locating networked laser printers which several classes can print
to is a stop gap solution.
I have several "zones" where classrooms and offices do this. I have a Hp
Laser printer with an external print server in the staff lounge. It is
quasy secure for confidential printing, but not completely secure. It is
for only staff printing, not student printing. I have set up the main
office with it's own network laser printer for all the computers there. The
computer lab where I have my office also serves as a area laser printer. It
does take some management and what if the door is locked? 12 of our
classrooms have network laser printers and the teachers kindly share with
other classrooms.
There are problems.
One is that someone has to manage the printer, keeping it full of paper and
managing the output, sorting and caring for it. This is no small task.
Another is finding locations for these area printers. What teacher wants
students coming in to their classroom all through the day, looking for their
printing, interupting the teacher when it isn't there because they dont
really know exactly what printer they sent it, or some other student from
some other class took it.
If there is a paper jam or some other error, 20 or 30 printjobs can
accumulate and who is going to sort them out? Once a kid hit the print
button on the browser and sent 120 sheets of paper through the printer. The
expense of printing consumables is a tech budget buster and a solutions
needs to be found.
Not having printers in the classroom reminds me of the years I taught in
schools where there was only one phone on the whole floor and you stood in
line at lunch to return someones call. The logic then was that it was
cheaper to share phones rather then give everyone their own. Now we know
that each classroom requires their own phone. Printers in the classroom is
a similar issue.
Classrooms are important enough to have their own printers and we just need
to figure out how to afford it.
PS: Mark, you asked how to access a shared printer from a CWS computer. The
major restriction on shared printing here is that you can not share a
printer from a CWS box. You can access a shared printer though. Issues
are:
1)Regarding the cross domain printing issue, I understand that you have had
your CWS rollout. Did the district leave your old domain intact? I was
under the impression that they want to move schools over to the SSD Domain
at the time of the CWS rollout. Apparently not. The problem with printing
across domains are the "Trusts". The district, for security reasons, limits
or mosty denies Trust relationships between networks. Without this in place
you are not likely to be able to print across domains.
2)Win2K sometimes balks at accessing printers shared from a Win98 PC. I
have puzzled it out with and without sucess. Certain Xerox and Lexmark
lasers balk while most Hp's do it with good results. I believe it's due to
the design of the drivers. Win 98 computers print more easily to printers
shared from Win2K boxes.
3)You should install, on the host computer, all the necessary drivers for
all the expected OS's that may print to it. . This is the neatest method.
With Hp printers and many others, any computer that accesses the shared
printer receives the drivers from the host computer and off it goes. Some
printers, such as the Epson 900N that many TLP Grant awardee's recieved need
the drivers individually installed on every computer that want to print to
it.
On Win2K boxes, such as the CWS computers, this requires "Local" admin
rights. On Non CWS computers, such as the Levy Dell's or really any other
Win2K box, the school's ET should know the local admin password enabling
them to install drivers and what have you. Schools control what software
goes on these computers.
I reccomend that schools limit Win2K local admin access to the ET's
regarding what software goes on their computers. As the numbers of
computers grow in the school, the ET's will be faced with the same issues
that have forced the limits on the CWS computers- too many computers for the
limited tech support staff. I have about 300 I personally maintain and need
to control the software to prevent problems. I'm very flexible, yet there
are some limits.
Neil Rockwell
Technology Coordinator
Asa Mercer Middle School
nrockwell@seattleschools.org
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