LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Digital Beat Extra -- EdTech 6/6/2000
Commercialism in Schools:
New Technologies, Old Debates
by Andy Carvin
Introduction
On May 17, America Online announced the premiere of AOL@School, a free
online service that would provide schools with access to AOL's library of
educational content. Available to any school with Internet access,
AOL@School is designed to serve as one-stop surfing for educators,
administrators and students, offering access to age-appropriate lesson plans
and educational Web sites. The service has been developed under the
advisement of numerous education groups, including the National Education
Association, the National Science Teachers Association and the Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development. AOL promises to keep the student
side of the service free of commercial advertising, and will limit the level
of AOL branding to the AOL@School
name.
"Getting schools hooked up to the Internet has been an important national
priority -- now it's time to help them make the most of this technology to
help students learn more," said Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of AOL.
Within days of its premiere, AOL@School began to receive criticism from
public interest advocates who worried that the service was a cynical attempt
to create future AOL customers out of the thousands of students who will
undoubtedly use the service. "There's a strategy here to sort of surround
the user," explained Jeff Chester of the Center for Media Education in a New
York Times interview. "If they're using it at school, they'll want the
service at home. AOL wants to come in and potentially monopolize the
education market."
Certain advocates are more hopeful of the new service, yet still advise
caution. "It sounds like something we'd support, but the jury's still out,"
said Andrew Hagelshaw of the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education, in
a recent USA Today interview. "So many companies are looking to get into
schools and take advantage of the captive audience."
Some K-12 educators have also expressed skepticism. "I don't think
AOL@School makes a significant contribution to this effort nor a worthwhile
investment of time and energy for our school," explains Mark Basnage,
Technology Coordinator at the Mosaica Academy Charter School in Bensalem,
PA. "I'd rather see the school's own homepage become the center for its
community.... It seems to me AOL@School plots a different course -- all of
us across the nation choose a horizontal channel to plug in to, and we're
all offered the same, pre-chosen content.... Does it tap into the great
accumulated bodies of human knowledge in my school community?"
"It's no longer about _my_ community," Basnage adds. "It's about _their_
community."
Cautious Optimism
In contrast to these notable criticisms, some proponents of education
technology have been more supportive of AOL's efforts. As online education
becomes a greater fact of life in America's schools, they argue, it's
inevitable that major corporations will attempt to position themselves in
the burgeoning multi-billion-dollar edtech market. If done responsibly,
these commercial services could become important tools for educators in the
online classroom. If these services are done irresponsibly, educators will
reject them and take their students elsewhere.
"The concept of industry using educational services to their own ends
bothers me less now than it used to," says David Warlick, a North
Carolina-based education technology advocate and consultant. "I have long
held that business/industry should shoulder a much larger share of the cost
of education than they are now.... Perhaps, by offering free educational
services for our schools, industries might be accomplishing a higher
investment in education."
Some educators see significant value in an educational service used both in
school and at home, for it could forge better communication between
teachers, parents and students. "Anything to bring school and home together
is a plus in my book," says Steve McGinness, principal at Vienna Elementary
School in suburban Winston-Salem, NC. "Companies are supposed to come up
with ideas to push their product -- why should AOL be any different? I like
any site that will filter the Web and plan to use it as a practice tool with
my teachers next week when we are reviewing Web sites."
"AOL@School's policy on advertising of consumer products and collection of
student use data should be applauded," says Nancy Willard, Director of the
Responsible Netizen program at the University of Oregon's Center for
Advanced Technology in Education. "AOL is not seeking to capture the
eyeballs and e-wallets of captive kids in schools. The only
advertising/e-commerce activities on the site are directed at teachers and
administrators and are directly related to educational products and
services."
Less Controversial than ZapMe!
The education technology community's general reaction to AOL@School has been
in marked contrast its reaction to ZapMe!, a commercial provider of
technology solutions for schools. First introduced in the fall of 1998,
ZapMe! offers schools a free package of computers, software and Internet
access in exchange for targeted online advertising. From the start, ZapMe!
has drawn a harsh response from public interest advocates. "Parents send
their kids to school to learn to read, write and add, not to learn how to
whine and nag parents to buy products," said consumer advocate Ralph Nader
soon after ZapMe!'s premiere. "Corporate predators like ZapMe! should get
out of schools and let children alone."
In the year and a half since its premiere, ZapMe! has become a common topic
of heated debate among online educators and political leaders. The
controversial service has also made strange bedfellows out of left-leaning
public interest advocates and conservative political activists. "ZapMe! is a
corporation that seeks to turn the public schools into little shopping malls
and market research factories," wrote Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, Mark
Crispin Miller of NYU, Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum and Donald
Wildmon of American Family Association, among others, in an open letter to
President Clinton last February. "It puts computers in the schools and then
snoops on how schoolchildren use the Web in order to gather market research
data... So doing, the company represents an egregious violation both of the
privacy of unsuspecting schoolchildren and of the purpose of schools in our
society."
Many educators and edtech advocates have also gotten into the fray. "Schools
should not be entering relationships with companies that are using basic and
powerful behavior modification techniques to shape how the students will be
using the Internet, especially when that use is in support of e-commerce
activities," insists the University of Oregon's Nancy Willard.
Despite the high level of public criticism, ZapMe! has had little trouble
attracting the attention of school districts around the country. To date,
ZapMe! has connected over 1,200 schools and has a waiting list of 4,500
more. At this current rate, ZapMe! hopes to have an audience of 10 million
students by the 2001-2002 school year. The enticements are obvious: schools
that sign up receive almost $100,000 in hardware and software, along with
filtered access to more than 13,000 Web sites. The accompanying banner
advertising, say ZapMe!'s loyal supporters, is a minor inconvenience when
compared to the benefits of the free service.
"I do not understand the negative response that ZapMe! is getting," says
Rick Spitzer, Director of Technology and Information Services for Widefield
School District #3 in Colorado Springs, CO. Spitzer's district currently has
five schools participating in the ZapMe! service, while its other schools
rely on a separate district-wide Internet service. "What our students access
on ZapMe! is no different than computers on the district network," he adds.
"Many individuals criticize the advertising on ZapMe!," Spitzer continues.
"Kids are exposed to so may commercials [on the rest of the Internet] that
what ZapMe! puts up are small blips on the screen. Virtually every site and
search engine also has advertisements. Most of those banners take up more
screen space than ZapMe! advertising. If we are required to remove ZapMe!
because of advertising, I guess _all_ the magazines and newspapers we have
in the library will have to go out the door with the computers!"
Other educators in favor of the service have made the argument that ZapMe!
provides an opportunity for students to cultivate media literacy skills and
become discriminating consumers of content.
"What comes to mind is how we hear echoing from the educational halls that
schools are not in contact with the 'real world,'" ponders Joe Herz,
Technology Coordinator at Harriet Eddy Middle School in Elk Grove, CA. "What
could be more real then teaching kids about the evil world of predatory
advertisers! They see it in every movie, television show, magazine and
newspaper they view or read. Teach them the techniques of marketing, what is
happening, why the ads appear, why data is gathered -- in fact, _use_ this
as a teaching tool."
"It's real and won't go away," Herz continues. "Better to teach them how to
deal with advertising than worrying about protecting them.... Most Web sites
have ad banners flashing -- give kids some credit. If schools can get free
computers, then by all means get them."
ZapMe! critics, however, refuse to buy into this argument. "If kids using
the Internet in school are being exposed to a significant level of banner
advertising, then there are some significant problems in the way that the
school is using the Internet," argues Nancy Willard. "Good quality
educational sites do not have a significant level of distracting banner
advertising."
For those administrators that have adopted ZapMe!, though, the advertising
is often no more than a small nuisance. "I have asked students what
advertising they saw on the ZapMe! interface," adds Spitzer. "Most respond,
'What advertising?' I guess we better not let the ZapMe! advertisers know
that fact."
Commercialism in Schools: A Necessary Evil or Just Evil?
The debate over ZapMe! will undoubtedly continue for some time, especially
as more schools must come to grips with the potential impact of allowing the
commercial service into their classrooms. The future of AOL@School, however,
has yet to be determined. The service's introduction so late into the school
year may delay the consensus of online educators until next fall. AOL,
understandably, has taken pains to make AOL@School a noncommercial service,
and has partnered with respected education groups in order to provide
content and improve the chance of acceptance within the school community. It
will be interesting, no doubt, to gauge the opinions of educators after they
have had a full semester to utilize AOL@School. Some will embrace it, no
doubt; others may remain cynically opposed to it. Either way, AOL may find
itself entrenched in a debate that shows no signs of abating.
---
Related Sites
AOL@School
http://www.school.aol.com
ZapMe!
http://www.zapme.com
The Responsible Netizen
http://netizen.uoregon.edu/
Center for Media Education
http://www.cme.org
Center for Commercial-Free Public Education
http://www.commercialfree.org/
The Landmark Project (by David Warlick)
http://www.landmark-project.com/
---------------------------------------
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***********************************
Andy Carvin
Senior Associate
Benton Foundation
andy@benton.org
http://edweb.gsn.org/andy
http://www.DigitalDivideNetwork.org
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