Success of NetDay may spell its demise

By ADAM GIFFORD

This year's NetDay on May 26 could be the last, with the programme's success making such a focused effort unnecessary.

Since it started as an initiative by the 2020 Trust and 30 Wellington area schools five years ago, more than 500 schools have been wired up with computer cabling during NetDays.

Sponsors - led by Telecom and equipment supplier Tyco Electronics - have come on board and the Education Ministry subsidises networking activity.

Brooke Riley, the Telecom NetDay 2001 national coordinator, says 110 schools have signed up this year, fewer than last year. A training video has been produced, which captures much of what people have learned from past NetDays.

2020 Trust chairman Laurence Zwimpfer says NetDay probably peaked last year, when the trust estimates $12 million was put into participating schools, much of it in voluntary labour.

"The majority of schools now say they have networks or are on that path," Mr Zwimpfer says.

"Last year 600 schools did some form of networking, but only 140 of those did it on NetDay. That's giving us the signal it's time to move on.

"We've succeeded in raising awareness and giving people confidence to get started. We've also been able to put a bit more information into schools, so they are able to manage the quality of what other contractors are doing outside of NetDay."

He says schools understand the benefits of laying networks.

"It means they are able to make better use of hardware and printing resources. They can provide more distributed access to the internet, so it's not limited to one computer."

Brett Skeen, the principal of Waterview Primary, a decile 2 school which participated last year, says without NetDay it is unlikely the school would have got wired up.

"NetDay made it affordable. With the support from Telecom we were able to find other sponsors and volunteers. Telecom put out a newsletter and drew in all these people in the neighbourhood with expertise we knew nothing about," Mr Skeen says.

"It's also given us access to a huge amount of teacher resources through the net and saved us a lot of paperwork, because we can deal with the Education Ministry by e-mail."

Mr Zwimpfer says networks allow schools to try new arrangements. Instead of keeping all the computers in a lab, Machines are being clustered in classrooms or put in pods, small rooms beside classrooms with six to eight computers.

"What's changed too, is the computer labs aren't being used for 'computer' classes. Now it is the economics and maths teachers who say they want access to the lab facility for certain parts or their classes."

The NetDay model is being applied to other 2020 Trust initiatives, starting with the Computers in Homes scheme being piloted in Panmure Bridge and Cannons Creek, where 25 families in low-decile school communities have been given recycled computers and internet connections for six months.