Friday, August 07, 2009

Control Pricing




I have been looking at options for Key Stage 2 Control technology kits this week. What are the options for an ICT Coordinator to purchase for their school in 2009/2010?
Let me begin by asserting that while there are some excellent on-screen control applications, Scratch being one of these! I still think there is great benefit in children actually seeing their series of instructions/programming outworked in an external object or system. This brings programming to life and helps them see the relevance of what they have done it also makes it easier to understand and adds to the joy that is already there in this often challenging but stimulating area of ICT.

I have put together a Spreadsheet that outline the cost of the 3 most popular Control packages, including a site license and enough hardware for children to work in small groups. I also took some feedback via Twitter, which you'll see next to each option/application.

I hope you find this useful and if you have any feedback, or you notice any omissions or errors then do let me know.



Not on the list, because I have not seen it used yet is Lego Wedo software, a sort of scaled down version of NXT. This was featured in a recent Ictopus newsletter and looks like a great introudction ot object orientated programming for lower Key Stage 2 / Upper Key Stage 1.

No comments: