Mothers, fathers, stick your children in front of a computer screen at home for better school results. Well, not really. Regular computer users perform better in key school subjects, according to an OECD study released yesterday.

"School students who are established computer users tend to perform better in key school subjects than those with limited experience or a lack of confidence in their ability to perform basic computer functions," the OECD stated. But the bald statement needs to be modified, I feel.

Simply allowing your children to play games on the computer, surf where and when they want, or spend hours chatting at Internet user groups, does not add up automatically to bright bulbs.

I believe that also teaching your child how to use the Internet for research will give them the tools they need to conquer life as they grow up.

That is, the pleasurable aspects of the computer needs to be balanced with a push to help them learn how to master and use the technology as a tool.

The OECD's study about the benefits of ensuring your child has access to a computer at home is hard to deny, especially relating to student performance in mathematics. Students who used computers for several years mostly perform better than average in school, the OECD found.

By contrast, those who don't have access to computers or who have been using computers for only a short time tend to lag behind their class year.

In general, the poor performance of students who have only recently had access to computers is partly influenced by their home backgrounds.

Students with low home access, in particular, are likely to come from disadvantaged backgrounds. But even taking account of socio-economic factors, however, a sizeable positive effect from regular computer use is evident, the OECD.

The influence is particularly clear in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Korea, Switzerland and the US. Nearly three out of four students on average in OECD countries use computers at home several times each week. In contrast, only 44 per cent use computers frequently at school.

One positive finding. The OECD says that students are not all playing games on their home computers. Half of all students surveyed reported frequent use of word processing software and the Internet as a research tool.

Girls are less confident than boys in performing computer functions, especially high-level tasks such as programming or multimedia presentations. Girls also tend overall to use computers less frequently than boys.

Boys are more likely than girls to have computers at home in most OECD countries and more likely to play computer games and do programming.

I take no pleasure in the plight of BlackBerry users everywhere, though there must be many of the more jealous types scoffing at the probable downfall of an elite group of high-tech users. A US judge this week refused to consider Canada's Research In Motion's claim that America's courts did not have jurisdiction to shut down the company's network.

The decision could see the network shut down after the company lost a patent battle....

Over the years the Blackberry has become the icon of the corporate crowd, especially senior management types and those working in the financial services.

The wireless device supports e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, web browsing and other services, making it easy to run an office will on the move.

In August a judge had decided that RIM had infringed patents belonging to US intellectual property holding company NTP.

Canada-based RIM has been fighting the decision by attempting to wriggle out of US law. Now judges have ruled it falls under US jurisdiction, the company faces closure.

With corporate customers now wondering if the should continue to pay their subscription fees, RIM said it has developed a software "workaround" to enable the service to continue to operate, even if the judge issues an injunction ordering suspension.

Contact Ahmed by elaminahmed@yahoo.com . Visit SecureBermuda.com for security updates.