Toitū te Toki was a pilot programme designed to support digital equity in Waihōpai Invercargill. It was developed and delivered by Te Rourou, One Aotearoa Foundation and One New Zealand with support from Quadrent and Brightpoint New Zealand. It aimed to improve access to digital tools in schools and enable better outcomes for rangatahi and their whānau.

Refurbished laptops were loaned to two participating schools in May 2022. Schools made arrangements for pupils to have access to these devices for the duration of the programme.

Emerging insights
To explore the impact of the programme on students, Toi Āria conducted a number of focus groups with students at both schools in March and November 2023. From these conversations, we established three ‘ripples’ of benefit for the programme:
— Impact on individuals
— Impact on school communities
— Impact beyond the classroom

Impact on individuals
— More autonomy around how, where and when they get their work done
— Easier access to additional opportunities
— Enhanced learning outcomes and skills development

The most frequently cited impact of the programme on students’ lives was the autonomy it gave them to do work on their own terms, according to their own schedules. There were also some clear articulations of how having a personal laptop has allowed rangatahi to learn about and more easily access new, more or different opportunities. Students mentioned researching courses and further studying opportunities, attending online meetings, working on their CVs and doing tasks related to extra-curricular activities. Some students self-reported doing more — or better work — as a result of having a personal laptop. One student also described how it helped with their additional needs — in terms of being a bigger screen and the opportunity for audio capture.

Impact on school communities
— Enabling equity of access for all rangatahi
— Easier learning environments

The importance of how this programme prioritises equity of access cannot be underestimated. Whilst many students shared that they could indeed access the internet without these computers, several expressed concern that this may not be the case for all their fellow students. School staff also underlined the difference that removing the stigma of ‘not having a device’ made in a school setting. Quite simply, more computers and more chargers means fewer issues around access, capacity and sharing. Less time spent on this means less angst and more peace — more time and space to focus on learning. This is appreciated by both students and teachers.

Impact beyond the classroom
— Additional capacity
— Better relationships

Whilst many families do have access to laptops and other computers, students having their ‘own’ can offer helpful extra capacity in family settings. Having access to more devices in households proved valuable to more harmonious relationships inside some homes.

Next steps
The gifting of laptop computers has unquestionably had a positive impact on the lives of rangatahi in Waihōpai. Whilst there were certainly challenges in this pilot year, none of these are insurmountable for future iterations of the programme. Te Rourou and the schools are using these insights to further develop and improve Toitū te Toki to ensure it becomes even more effective for students, and easy to implement for schools.