Aston Pride Computers in the home

Mike Farmer
mike_farmer@birmingham.gov.uk
July 2005
(An abbreviated form of this Case Study was published in Education Now (July 2005)

A unique experiment is taking place in Aston as part of the Aston Pride project.
Centred on Prince Albert Primary School families of year 5 pupils have been offered a
home-based computer with a printer and Internet access. As of now 40 families have
been loaned a computer and linked to the Internet.
As part of the arrangement adults in the family have to attend eight hours of computer
training at the school after school hours. The adults bring along their children who act
as interpreters and help the adult complete the course.
What effect is it having? Look at the case of the Choudhury family. There are seven
children in this family and all but two of them (two year old twins) are at school. Three
of the children are at Prince Albert and two are at Aston Manor. The father is a taxi
driver and the mother a housewife. There are also grandparents living in the
household. All of the family, with the exception of the twins use the computer. The
children use it for homework, games and music and need a rota to control its use. The
father is interested in starting a coach company so in addition to working out taxi
routes he spends a lot of time looking at the possibility of buying a coach and creating
a business plan. The mother is committed to learning how to use Word and was
supported in this aim when she attended the school course. She is now thinking about
the possibilities of the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). The school is also
thinking about the ECDL and is actively striving to become a centre that will teach and
accredit both pupils and adult members of the community.
One mother had taken a greater interest in learning English since having the computer,
and was beginning to listen to English and films in English, she has started to write
English for the first time, although she could not speak English easily. Another mother
had started to use a computer for the first time, and could then use MS Word and
access the Internet without help from her son. Parents felt that they understood more
about the schoolwork that their children were doing, and that they came into the school
more frequently than they did before.
An independent evaluation of the first fifteen computers that were placed in homes
(Sept 2004 Jan 2005) showed that each computer had ten users so there are fifteen
computers with 150 users. Cousins are finding excuses to visit their relatives that have
the computer. Unlike national statistics, which indicate, that almost 7 out of 10 homes
have a computer the evidence for computer access in the home for Aston residents is
closer to 1 out of 10.
A community of computer users is slowly being built, led by the children. All of the
adults have been given a BGfL PLUS environment to make their own. This is supported
by the school, who share selected properties with the parents environment. Parents
can therefore see school noticeboards, calendars, galleries and other important
information sources.
Case Studies

1999 - 2004 Birmingham City Council

There is early evidence that the year 5 children who have access to the computer at
home are achieving higher grades on the NfER tests that the school administers on a
regular basis. This agrees with other wider research, which shows that ICT in the
home is much, more valuable than in the school. In homes pupils get more:

incidental learning
time to access the computer and explore.
praise for the work they do on the computer.
freedom on how to use the computer, they choose the activities

After the children have gone to bed it is the adults turn to use the facility. The
computers are then used for to support the running of restaurants, a portable crche, a
double glazing company, several independent taxi firms, a car body building enterprise
and many more activities that will eventually provide the building blocks for the
economic growth of the community.
Is it sustainable? From a computer perspective it is possible. Computers are now
being offered at under 200 so with support from the e-learning foundation the
contributions of parents could sustain the purchase of new computers. However in the
present model the ongoing cost of Internet access could question the sustainability. A
fixed Internet connection via a BT line is not something that a family that falls into the
category of free school meals can afford. A wireless connection beamed from a
community school offers a much more sustainable model.
There is no doubt that this unique project is changing the Aston community. At the start
we did not realise the extent of the change. Initially the focus was on the parents of
year 5 pupils because they had two more years in the school and were computer
literate so a success factor was built in. The extension of the project to other families
without the built in ICT competence has not influenced the effect of the project. The
effect has been so profound that we are now looking at developing the project in other
schools and spreading it throughout the Aston community. ICT literacy is no longer the
just within the realms of certain communities of Birmingham. Look out Birmingham,
Aston is about to join you and possibly overtake you.
Notes
1. The computer is a fairly normal model running Windows XP, with Office Word, PowerPoint
and Excel with a 17inch flat screen monitor and a fairly basic printer where the cartridges
cost more that the printer itself.
2. The computers, monitors and printers are on loan until September 2006. At this point
project members will have the opportunity of purchasing the computers. The purchase
money will contribute to the e-learning foundation.
3. The Internet connection is to the BGfL proxy server and is set-up in such a way that this
cannot be circumnavigated. The Internet connection is therefore filtered in exactly the
same way as the schools Internet connection.
4. At the moment only the adults are linked to the BGfL PLUS virtual environment. When we
are more certain about the security issues of putting parents and pupils in the same
environment we will work to achieve this.
5. The computers are protected by the Sophos anti-virus service.
6. For the initial 15 computers the families were selected on the basis of the ICT skills of the
pupils. For the next 30 computers families of year 5 children were asked to volunteer.
Case Studies

1999 - 2004 Birmingham City Council

7. Picking any year group in Prince Albert means that you are including other siblings in the
same school. For all the year five pupils in Prince Albert there are 120 other siblings in the
school.

Case Studies

1999 - 2004 Birmingham City Council