Please contact us if you find a lower price or have a money saving idea so we can help other schools!

Printer Ink

Save your school hundreds or thousands of dollars!  Change your default printing preferences on all school computers to draft or fast draft which prints faster.  Draft mode will print impressively on brighter paper.  Spend a little more for paper with a higher brightness number (i.e. 92-100), because paper is less expensive than ink!  Users can always change their preferences for individual prints from File and Print and Preferences when they want a better print quality.  You can change the default settings to draft for all jobs in Control Panel (not from printer preferences in your browser or publishing program).  This will save you a ton of ink!   Try making most school documents available from your website, and let users consume their own ink.   Many e-mail programs let you create newsletter-looking messages that you send out via e-mail.   Buy compatible or refurbished black ink cartridges instead of OEM at websites like HERE where you can purchase HP45's for $5.00 or less.  Black refurbished and compatible cartridges are usually good, but do not buy refurbished color cartridges because the colors may vary a little for photos.  Trying to refill your own cartridges has the risk of a messy disaster.  Some businesses, such as Office Depot in some areas, will trade your empty ink cartridges for a ream of paper.  If you are in the market for a printer, most people are now purchasing the multi-function type printer and getting rid of their scanners.  It is also nice to have a copier right on your desk for single copies as long as a person doesn't get lazy about using the school copier for larger jobs because the multifunctions can be more expensive per copy.   

Electricity

Save your school hundreds or thousands of dollars!  Older CRT monitors, especially 17" and larger, consume an enormous amount of electricity compared to new monitors.  This type of monitor should be shut off when not in use.  The expense of a newer LCD (flat screen) monitor can often be recaptured in two years' savings on electricity.  Newer monitors will also reduce the load on the circuits in your room and save you desk space.  Older heavy monitors will bow tables in less than two years.  Older monitors also expensively emit more heat which can raise your energy bill due to air conditioning.  When soliciting computer donations, specify that you only need flat screen monitors and do not need CRT monitors.  CRT's are getting more expensive to dispose of each year.

Software

Save your school hundreds or thousands of dollars!  Using free programs not only saves you licensing costs, but it saves you the labor cost and hassle of license management.  Promote to school personnel the use of free software (often called open source) such as Open Office (office suite), Scribus (desktop publishing), and Serif Photo Plus (graphic tools).  These programs will open/save in Microsoft programs' format.  Most people are reluctant (stubborn) to switch to a new program once they are familiar with a program, so you will need to preach this over and over.  Encourage your I.T. to install these programs on computers so they are available.  After a year, consider making it a school policy to use. Teachers can also download for free at home. Encourage teachers to purchase one of our student registrations and go to computer class with the students (if there is a computer available).  

Computers

Save your school hundreds or thousands of dollars!  It is better to have older matching computers than newer mixed and matched computers.  The repair and maintenance labor quadruples when computers are mixed and matched.  When soliciting computer donations, specify that you are looking for a particular brand/type/series OR a minimum quantity of different brands (minimum quantity equals a quantity sufficient to update all lab computers or update all teacher computers).  Quantities of matching computers with Windows XP can often be found for approximately $100 each.  Contact your county or school district office to find out what they do with their surplus computers.  Since students and staff are not using video games and other power hungry programs, older computers will normally meet your school needs.  It is beneficial to have one newer computer in your lab for advanced students that will be completing the video related courses.  It is a good goal to have extra computers of the same model that are preloaded with typical software as backups. This prevents a disruption in the lab.  These should be prepared during the summer if possible, so that anytime during the year a computer can be quickly swapped out.  Computers with problems can then be looked at when it is more convenient.  Matching computer models often have the benefit of matching operating systems for better verbal instructions in the computer lab.  

Computer Lab Tables

Save your school hundreds or thousands of dollars!  Use regular folding tables with inexpensive plastic rain gutter attached to the backside of the table for computer lab tables.  The rain gutter holds the cables to make your lab look great.  It also allows the floor to be cleaned easier. The wood-looking folding tables often have the legs spaced better for computer and chair placement.  These tables also have a recessed brace to attach the rain gutter so it is more out of sight and allows more row space.  You may have to use a combination of 8' and 6' tables depending on your room size (i.e. five rows of two 8' tables will work nicely for 24 computers).  Normally, you can get more computer stations in a room using rows rather than perimeter.  It is best to leave an isle on one side of the room (rather than the middle) for easier cabling, more computers, and to save the instructor steps.  It is best to have the computer monitors face away from the windows for glare prevention.  In most situations, this will leave students facing away from the door and less distracted.  This will also give a more impressive appearance to visitors walking by the door or when they first enter the lab.   

Headphones

Save your school hundreds of dollars!  Good prices for headphones can be found on the internet, but tax and shipping costs should be considered. Many sellers will offer a price much lower than anyone else but charge a large shipping fee to make up for it.  Schools should use leatherette or plastic over ear headphones with volume control.  Leatherette or plastic ear pads can be easily cleaned with disinfectant.  Less expensive headphones with foam pads quickly deteriate in a computer lab and can be quickly blamed for lice outbreaks.  Over ear headphones block out distracting noise and make it easier to supervise a computer lab.  Less expensive headphones that do not cover the entire ear normally allow more room noise to be heard.  Headphones with volume control either on the cable or with dials directly on each earpiece will allow the student to quickly adjust the volume.  Headphones without volume control cause extra work for the lab instructor during class.  Earbuds?  Since hygiene principles should prevent sharing earbuds, some schools have considered requiring each student to provide their own set of earbuds.  If the school does not have a fool-proof storage system setup, students who forget or lose their earbuds create a class distraction.  Unless an extension sound cable is used with each computer, repetitive plugging in may wear out ports.  Although most hearing loss research focuses on listening to music rather than speaking, there are results showing earbud users may even use less decibels than headphone users.  One study did find there is a wide variance in earbud products.  The main issue is that earbuds can go up to more dangerous levels than headphones.    A couple sources of headphones- $5.30 and $8.99 (w/mic)