ABSTRACT
The homes of many of our pupils contain a broad range of information and communication technology. Many pupils are now avid users of mobile telephones. Televisions are no longer used only as passive receivers but are becoming interactive devices, connected to satellite or cable decoders, video recorders and games consoles. We cannot be precise about the extent of access to computers in homes, because of differences between children’s and adults’ perceptions as to what constitutes a ‘computer’. In 1997, the UK government estimated that 40-50 per cent of households would have at least one home computer by 2000 (Timmins 1997), and at the time of writing this seems likely to be an underestimate. Certainly, a considerable proportion of our pupils inhabit a technologically rich environment, controlling far more advanced electronic multimedia equipment in their homes than they find in their schools.
