WASHINGTON — For children in the rural Tennessee community of Brownsville, access to computers was the first step in helping improve their math skills, reading abilities and communication techniques through the use of technology and the Internet.
Just ask 10-year old Nolita Hall, whose community of about 10,000 is 30 miles west of Jackson, Tenn.
“I go to school, we do assignments on the board and we get homework. If we don’t understand, grandmother takes me to church and we go on the computers. It helps us understand better,” she said.
Kalin Hall, 15, poses with Tennessee state Rep. Johnny Shaw, AT&T’s Trey Rabon and Connected Tennessee’s Deanna Ward. The donation made possible by a grant from the AT&T Foundation. (Photo courtesy of Connected Tennessee).
From left to right: Program Director Ruby Oatis, AT&T’s Trey Rabon, Kalin Hall, state Rep. Johnny Shaw, Program Coordinator Rhonda Hardin, Connected Tennessee’s Deanna Ward and Haywood County Mayor Franklin Smith. (Photo courtesy of Connected Tennessee)
Last week, Nolita was struggling to understand improper fractions in school. After receiving help from volunteer computer instructors at her church, she said, her comprehension improved. Her sister, 15-year-old Kalin Hall, has been using the church computers to improve her verbal and written skills. She said being introduced to Microsoft Word has greatly helped her.
“My teacher helped get me on the computer, showed me how to use Word, and helped me find synonyms and antonyms,” she said. “I didn’t know a computer could do that.”
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 94 percent of youths between the ages of 12 and 17 who have Internet access at home say they use it for school research. Seventy-eight percent of these students say they believe the Internet helps them with schoolwork.
But lack of home computers is a leading barrier to Internet access, especially among economically disadvantaged families.
The Halls are among those families without a home computer. They also are among the 60 students being helped by an after-school program at St. John’s Baptist Church in nearby Stanton, Tenn. The church program received computers through Connected Tennessee, a nonprofit that works with state agencies to provide computers to low-income families.
The pastor at St. John’s Baptist Church is Tennessee state Rep. Johnny Shaw. A minister for 29 years, Shaw said that learning new skills on the computers has not only helped teach students who are falling behind, but also continues to reinforce what students are learning in the classroom.
“Technology not only gives us access to textbooks, but we can connect with the local Board of Education, connect with the state Board of Education, even national if we need to,” Shaw said. “It’s one of the greatest things.”
As part of the federal economic stimulus bill signed into law earlier this year, billions of dollars in funding was made available to increase broadband Internet service in rural areas.
“At risk populations at every level adopt broadband at lower rates than your typical average American,” said Phillip Brown, the national policy director of Connected Nation. His organization, which includes Connected Tennessee, informs states on how to increase their broadband availability and adoption rates, and also works in part to create maps of rural and remote areas to help states maximize broadband stimulus funds.
Connected Nation began as an initiative to provide communities with technology and high-speed Internet access in Kentucky. It has now spread to include a nationwide effort spanning 20 states.
“One of the large barriers of broadband adoption is computer ownership,” said Michael Ramage, executive director of Connected Tennessee, which works with a wide array of local organizations to make the cost of technology expansion go down and the ease of doing business go up. “Our surveys say that they [residents] don’t understand the value of computers or the Internet. [so we are] Improving the value of computers and the Internet and helping them get online. In many cases, there is an affordability issue.”
The group’s Computers 4 Kids program aims to foster education in communities throughout the state by providing computers to children and families facing economic challenges.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, while disadvantaged students are nearly as likely to use computers in school as their peers from families with higher incomes, only 37 percent of disadvantaged students use computers at home compared with 76 percent of students from higher-income families.