TARGET:Cost of computer printouts

[Leila Silverberg <leilas@OMNIFEST.UWM.EDU>]

I read with interest the HIT about charging students for computer printouts
and how some schools allow the first two or three pages gratis and then charge
for succeeding pages.  My question is: how do you monitor this activity?  With
six stations in our media center and two other labs open to students during
the day, there is no way we can keep track of who is doing what, how many
pages are being printed, etc.  How do you have students pay?  Sounds like a
lot of bookkeeping for someone.  I'd be curious to know how you all do this,
because I have a feeling that kids would be more responsible about what they
copy and how much they copy if they knew there would be a charge at the end of
the road.  I'll bet you get as steamed as I do when a student decides *not* to
really read that 1300-line SIRS article to see what he/she needs and instead
just decides to copy the whole thing and look at it later.  Even if the
article is downloaded, you can bet that it will probably be copied in its
entirety.  I will post a HIT if there is a response.

Leila Silverberg
Whitefish Bay High School
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
leilas@omnifest.uwm.edu