Diocesan News18 Dec 14

Bandon Grammar School Teachers Come Up with New Technology Initiative

A new initiative to source ICT equipment for schools, the brainchild of teachers from Bandon Grammar School, is underway. Darren Platts & Trevor Collins came up withe concept involving sourcing and refurbishing second hand computer equipment. This equipment is then donated to schools to assist staff and students with teaching and learning.

Bandon Grammar School students lend their support to the DOTIE initiative

Most primary schools have restricted budgets and sourcing funds to support ICT in the classroom can very often be a difficult task. This project is geared towards helping those schools to attain this aim. The project is in its infancy but of the 83 computers sourced to date, 40 units were suitable for redistribution. So far, 6 schools have benefited from the scheme but with your help, more schools can benefit.

If you are in a position to donate some equipment to this worthy cause, please log on to their website, www.dotie.ie which gives full details on what they are looking for. They also have an email address where you can direct any queries to. ([email protected] or 0862388999)

So what are they looking for? Any old PC or laptop will do! Preferably, the PC will have a flat screen monitor, main terminal, keyboard, mouse and appropriate leads.(Windows XP or higher operating system is preferred) Any laptops will have both the laptop and quite importantly, the appropriate power leads. Please make contact if you have a query.
Who gets the computers? You can decide! We shall distribute the computers to various schools but if you would like a particular school to get one of your old computers … then consider it done. All you have to do is let us know of your preference when we collect it/them. A few computers have been allocated to some schools at the donor’s request. We have already contacted some schools or members school management in West Cork but please feel free to contact us using the methods outlined.

In addition to donating computers for free, they are also organising a teachers’ forum of Thursday, Jan 29th, 2015 to discuss various aspects of computers in education. This forum is geared towards the practising teacher who would like to discover more about free online resources, good practice, improving school ICT infrastructure and sourcing equipment. More details and how to book a place are also available on the www.dotie.ie website.