Broadband boost for schools

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

Three more rural schools will log onto OtagoNet, a broadband network, following a $330,000 cash injection from the Government's Collaborative Innovations Fund.

The money will give rural kids at Blue Mountain College in Tapanui, South Otago High School in Balclutha and Tokomairiro High School in Milton better access to resources, said Tony Jenkins, principal of East Otago High School in Palmerston.

They will join students at East Otago High School, Dunstan High School, Cromwell College, the Catlins Area School, Mount Aspiring College, Roxburgh Area School, Maniototo Area School, Lawrence Area School and Waitaki Valley School.

Until the grant was secured the three schools were excluded from OtagoNet, a broadband network cluster that shares resources through video conferencing.

In practical terms, said Jenkins, it meant students could still take a subject if there was no teacher for it at their school, because they could video-conference into a school that offered the subject.

All the schools on OtagoNet are small, with the largest having just over 500 students. "This means we have a virtual school."

Jenkins said more than one school could hook into a video conference with classes starting on the hour. Links have been set up to the Correspondence School and other networks round the country.

About 65 students are currently benefiting from classes managed through OtagoNet and the fund provides an annual sum of $1 million to support consortiums of schools or early childhood education services which want to develop new styles of teaching and learning that improve student achievement.

Subjects taught over OtagoNet include physical education, agriculture, hospitality, history, and maths with calculus, maths with statistics, physics, electronics, computing and graphics. There are about 14 video conference clusters in New Zealand.

The service is available to 72 schools throughout the country and a further 17 will be added this year.

While the video conferencing service is free, schools pay for access.