Families cross digital divide

By STACEY BODGER education reporter

Tori Pickering giggles and hops on the spot as the computer screen flicks into life.

She grips the mouse with both hands, pokes her tongue out in concentration and calls up a computer game to show her mother.

"This is cool fun." Seven-year-old Tori has used computers since beginning school two years ago at Panmure Bridge Primary.

But she and her brother Robert, aged 9, will "own" a computer for the next two years as part of a Computers in Homes pilot project.

Fifty families from Panmure Bridge Primary and Cannons Creek School in Porirua will test the scheme, which aims to bridge the digital divide between families in low and high-income areas.

It is funded by the 2020 Communications Trust and the Ministry of Education and will be officially launched tomorrow by Pacific Island Affairs Minister Mark Gosche.

Official statistics show that while 96 per cent of primary school pupils use computers at school, only 43 per cent of families own one.

The scheme provides each family with a computer, including internet access and word processing.

Parents receive training and advice and in return must supervise their children's internet use for an hour each day, train at least one family or community member, and care for the machine.

Panmure Bridge and Cannons Creek were chosen for the pilot because they are both decile one schools, the lowest ranking according to socio-economic status, and have a high proportion of Maori and Pacific Island pupils.

Tori and Robert's mother, Shelly Rountree, volunteered for the pilot to improve her computer skills and give her children a headstart with information technology.

"But they're so keen that I've had to lay down some rules - they do their normal homework and their chores and then they get to switch it on," she said.

Panmure Bridge principal Rod Bright said the families' excitement was catching.

"We struggle with resources like computers and it's a big deal for these kids to have one in their homes."