Close the Education Gap with Advertising?
posted by Donald Braman
What if a technology company like Microsoft supplied a school with computers students could use for free? Self-interested, maybe, but certainly there could be a convergence of interests there. Well, what if the company then required that the computers not run any alternative software? A little less nice, but in a country where income, education, and opportunity are closely intertwined, poor schools would have to think seriously about turning down such an offer. Well, what if the company then implemented a technology that required students to watch enough advertising to justify the use of computers and repossessed the computers if students didn’t watch enough ads? I’m not dismissing this model as, on net, bad for students — I’d want to see some data on that. But I find the mixture of commercial interest and education more than a little disturbing.
(FYI, I first read about the Microsoft patent on Slashdot.)
February 11, 2007 at 10:15 am
Posted in: Education, Intellectual Property
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Responses (2)
Not a Lawyer - February 11, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Corporate sponsorship of educational initiatives, and the advertising that accompanies it, is already quite prevalant in schools today. I find it hard to accept that the poorest schools would have to subsidize their students’ educations at the risk of compulsory marketing that further serves to naturalize excessive consumerism. It’s rather twisted: richer schools might be able to bypass such measures while poorer districts’ students will be exposed to ads meant to develop consumer desires that are perhaps, for that population, frustratingly unattainable.
The data about Generation Y is already out there: their personal and professional goals are deeply intertwined with material success. If you come to my classroom I will show you a group of young people who are not unsavvy about advertising, but who think that because it is so pervasive, that they can be immune to its effects.
There is a pertinent article about this in the Mar/Apr 07 issue of Adbusters by a media literacy educator in Colorado. Not on their website yet but
here’s a quote:
“…perhaps the most frustrating argument students make about consumerism is that it shouldn’t be a societal concern because “it’s the parents’ responsibility.”… this disturbs me because it lets corporations off the hook for the effects they have on society. It doesn’t matter how or to whom a company markets their products; it only matters how parents raise their children. Once again, consumerism becomes the business of individual families, not society.”
-Naomi Rockler-Gladen
Frank - February 12, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I think this may have happened with TV systems for schools in the early 1990′s–have the students watch a minute a day or so, and get the TV’s and common wiring system installed.
It’s a tough call, but I can’t see opposing the computer program if there are persistent budget shortfalls. Computing skills are a necessity, not a luxury. NotALawyer makes some very good points, but I just can’t see losing the computers in order to avoid the ads.
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