I have been using the Epson PictureMate for some time now. We often use a digital camera to record a range of activities within sessions, and then use the Epson PictureMate to print off photos in class. All learners love the 'instant' photos, with younger members of the groups having great fun trying to 'guess who is going to come out of the box'!!!
However ... it seems the PictureMate is a little too easy to use! :(
within a group of adults learning how to develop IT skills we looked at digital cameras and added the use of PictureMate for printing photos. Most learners were able to print off a couple of photos, but we ran out of time for all so I said I would bring the printer back the following week so all could have a go. We also looked at the cost of printing - £39 paid for ink resulted in about 120 good quality photos.
One learner then decided to download photos from a computer at home back onto their camera, bring to the next IT session with an aim of printing off 98 prints!
What would you do?
I pointed out that I wanted to use the printer for another group later in the week, but by this time 58 prints had already been printed!
Any suggestions about how to stop this from happening again?! Should I put a '10 prints per learner' sticker on the printer?
I will start my next printing session off with a chat about how many photos should be printed! - or hide the paper!!
I live and learn!!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Lesley, the cost of consumables such as ink and paper is a real issue and I'll be interested to read what others think about it. I think it's perfectly reasonable to limit the prints per student - after all, in any class where there are shared resources, an agreement has to be reached to ensure everyone gets a fair share (and I guess I'm thinking time as well as the materials themselves)
Do the students know/understand the costs involved? Perhaps it would be useful (and an opportunity to include some numeracy ;-) ) to work out how much it all costs and reach some kind of consensus. Could be that at least one of your students understands very well and has spotted a bargain here!
Thanks for your comments Gill. We had talked about the cost of the ink, and worked out how much each print would cost. The learner even asked again how much each print cost ... and then set it to print 98!!! This was the first time anything like this has taken place in one of my sessions - I will be ready the next time and set firm ground rules in future!!! I will either add a note to the printer, or give each learner 10 sheets of photo paper, when it's gone it's gone!!! Any other ideas from other tutors very welcome!!!
Post a Comment