Emphasis On Broadband As Education Tool

Telecom Puts Emphasis On Broadband As Education Tool

Telecom is encouraging people to discover the educational benefits of the Internet by offering education funds as a broadband subscription incentive.

There are three $20,000 funds to be won by people who sign up for Xtra Broadband between now and March 10.

Telecom GM of Consumer Marketing Kevin Bowler says that increasingly parents are seeing the educational value of broadband for their kids and even themselves.

“Telecom’s recent research shows that kids are using the Internet as an important educational tool. And it follows that if you add broadband into the mix your children will be at an advantage, not to mention freeing up the home phone for making and receiving calls.”

In October last year, as part of a survey of nearly 450 ten-year-olds, Telecom found that 57 percent used the Internet as their main source of homework information, alongside library books at 18 percent, encyclopaedias at nine percent and text books at four percent.

“The great thing about using broadband is that you can do so in conjunction with other excellent learning resources such as library and text books,” says Mr Bowler.

Among the children surveyed homework was identified as one of the most common uses of the Internet – second only to online games.

According to 2006 OECD figures New Zealand children are in the top five of 41 countries for access to information communications technology (ICT) such as computers and the Internet at school.

Mr Bowler says this is evident in the number of schools who have Xtra Broadband or a Telecom School Zone broadband service.

“We currently have over 65% of schools on broadband connections provided by Telecom - and we are keen for kids to have that kind of access at home as well.

It’s the perfect time of year to start thinking about getting broadband at home, just before the kids start heading back to school and university.

“The added incentive of the education fund means three lucky winners will be able to put some money aside for their children’s university education, register themselves for a night class, or even fly to France for a cooking class.”

ENDS

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