StM Computer Lab Blog

Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough.
~James Matthew Barrie

• Did you know that the computers in St. Martin’s lab are a decade old or older?
• Did you know that most of the machines only have 256MB of RAM?
• Did you know that most of the machines in the lab don’t have a large enough hard drive to install all of the educational software we use at the same time? And some of the newer software we have takes up 10% of the hard drive all by itself?
• Did you know that applications like Worldwide Telescope and Google Earth and Alice are wonderful new technologies and free to use but that most of the machines in the lab don’t have enough hard drive space or RAM or new enough monitors to run them?

Help! We need 21-25 fairly new computers for the lab!!

Do you work for a company that upgrades their office computers on a regular basis? Do you know what your company does with their outdated computers? If your company is looking for a place to donate outdated but still fairly up-to-date equipment, please keep St. Martin’s in mind. Here’s an idea of what we’re looking for:

• Windows XP computers that are new enough to have one or more USB ports (preferably USB 2.0 but USB 1.1 will work) on the front of the machine – the ones in the lab right now don’t!
• Minimum 512 MB of RAM – more would be great but 512MB should be the absolute minimum
• 20GB or more of Hard Drive Space – once again more would be preferable but 20GB should be the minimum
• CD drive – we’d love CD writers but those aren’t necessary
• Windows Office installed with the license to use this or licenses for Office: Word, Excel & Powerpoint at a minimum

We could also use the following equipment for 21-25 computers:

• Flat Screen Monitors – we’d love to replace our old clunky monitors with something more current that takes up less room. This isn’t a necessity but if we’re wishing! It would be great if we could get at least one fairly large flat screen monitor for demonstrations in the lab. It’s tough to demonstrate things with all of the students around one computer.
• Microphones – we’re doing more recording in the lab and right now we have an assortment of different kinds of microphones and not enough for every computer. It would be great to have USB microphones for every computer.
• Keyboard Trainer – Memorizing the keyboard is a must for improving keyboarding speed and this type of cover works best to retrain those hunt and peck typists.
• Printers – okay we don’t need 21-25 of these but it would be nice to have fairly new, fast, color printers in the lab. We currently do have 2 new, fast printers and 5 sort of working sometimes printers. It would be nice to have a couple more fast, inexpensive to operate printers if possible.

And while I’m wishing … Technology isn’t just about computers and we’re getting involved in other areas of technology too and could use:

• 4-5 (or more) Digital Cameras – Something like the Canon Powershot A460 or similar – 5 MP or more (3MP minimum), 3x optical zoom or more, movie mode if possible.
• 2-5 (or more) small Video Cameras – Something like the Flip Video by Pure Digital would be good for class use.
• Batteries (preferably rechargeable) & memory cards for the cameras
• Webcam – The Logitech QuickCam Fusion has been recommended to me. We will hopefully be doing some collaborative projects with other students around the world and may be able to talk with them via webcam if we have one.

And we can always use: cleaning wipes for the computer screens, blank CDs and ink for printers.

Thanks for any help you can give to the computer lab!