This subject is discussed in detail in my book, Teaching with Computers in Christian Education

You can also read my article: "Ordering Tricks and Tips that Save Money"

Results vs Cost
Occasionally someone laments "the cost of software." My first question is "compared to what?" Compared to construction paper and markers? In reality, the cost of software is surprisingly LOW when you add up the number of times a CD will get used over the next four to six years in a Sunday School, and by the number of kids. Below I've actually done some calculations.

I would first ask these questions:
-What's the cost of boring students so they don't want to come back?
And...
-What's the cost of not training your computer lab teachers?
-What's the cost of buying software and not printing the free teaching materials?
-What's the cost of over-doing it on equipment and shorting your lab on software?

The first year or two of a computer lab is always the most expensive.
Why? Because you don't have enough of a software library to "fall back on" like you will in succeeding years. And the cost PER USE of what you buy is high at first, but over time, as you REUSE your software, the cost per use drops. The first year or two also feels more expensive because often you've had to put in new equipment. But even that equipment needs to be pro-rated over the years ...but that's another article.

Calculating the real weekly cost of software...

EXAMPLE #1:  Play and Learn CD
My lab has four copies of Play & Learn Childrens Bible CD. Cost: $12 each x 4 =$48. We use them about 10 lessons a year. As of the date of this article, we've been using them for SIX YEARS years in my current church. That's 60 uses --or 32 CENTS everytime we've pull out all four Play & Learns. And we're not done using them. We'll be using that CD for several more years, I'm sure.  Final cost per use = somewhere below 20 CENTS per lesson.

EXAMPLE #2:  Awesome Bible Stories CD
My lab has four copies of Awesome Bible Stories CD. Cost: 4 x $23ea = $92.  The CD has six different major Bible story lessons on it. And we'll probably repeat each one at least twice over several years. 6 lessons x 2 repeats = 12 total lessons that we use all four CDs.  $92 divided by 12 is $7.66.  That means each time I walk into my lab and say "we're using Awesome CD today" it costs me $7.66. Once again, that's less than many art supplies, and WAY LESS than a videotape or DVD.  Now lets computer the per-kid average.  If I have two kids per computer and have four computers, that's 8 kids. $7.66 divided by 8 students = 95 CENTS per kid each time they walk in the computer lab and use Play and Learn.

Ok...so I have to buy many CDs over the years. Can't very well use Awesome Bibles Stories all year!  What does that do to the overall cost? Let's say I buy $250 worth of software a year for four years to cover my four computers. That's $1000. Seems steep. But remember that ALL the CDs I buy will get used for many more than four years! --I'm going on 8 years of use with many of the CDs. So that $1000 worth of software covers me for EIGHT YEARS.  Thus, my per year cost over eight years is really only $125 worth of software -which covers all four computers for eight years.   ONE HUNDRED and TWENTY FIVE BUCKS A YEAR for a nice average reusable software library.

Divide that $125 a year by 40 Sundays =  $3.12 a week. It costs you three dollars and twelve cents every time you walk into your computer lab for eight years. And that's a conservative software library budget. Double it!  Build a great software library to choose from!  And it still only costs you $6.24 a week --for all four computers over an eight year period, using the computers 40 weeks/class period a year.

We can crunch numbers a lot of different ways. Your numbers will depend on your kids, the number of computers, and the number of times you repeat lessons from software over the course of 5 to 8 years. But anyway you crunch them, software is not that expensive when used intentionally.

Copyright 2006, Sunday Software and Neil MacQueen. All rights reserved.