I think the kits cost us about £100 each to start out with (but you might get it cheaper if you bought the components individually yourself), plus 2nd hand monitors, keyboards and mice. We’ve replaced the kits since then (I think we replace them about once every 5 years but on a rolling basis so we don’t have to do the whole lot at once) but the monitors, mice and keyboards are still going strong. We basically bought the cheapest ones we could get because we weren’t wanting things we could run high end games on nor were we too worried about them dating. It needed enough oomph to load windows and play simple games (the CD we give them has “retro” games on it – Chuckie Egg is the current favourite!
Can’t see the issue with electrocution being any worse that using any computer in school. Most of the components will only physically fit into the machine one way round (tho’ I did once have a group of kids who managed to force the RAM chips in at 180 degrees to where they should have been… not quite sure how they managed that, but it smoked nicely and smelt horrible when they turned it on! However, generally that would be picked up by a teacher before lift off. We do check they’ve installed the components properly before we let them close the case and before we hand out any power cables. Surely the physics department do stuff with electricity without electrocuting anyone?! Might be worth asking the PT Physics (or Science) what risk assessments they have to do?
Janet
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