Why Schools Give Air to Advertisements

Today, almost every time a school computer loads an educational game, video or blog, it also loads a targeted ad. And, it is not only media-literate High School students who use school computers. Computer use is on the rise throughout the grade levels.

For example, Jack Hartman’s Music for Kids YouTube channel is often used as a fun, active way to teach kids how to count, spell, and read. His “Let’s Get Fit — Sing to 100” video is a particular favorite with over 43 million views. Educational videos like Jack’s have provided huge value to schools; unfortunately, they are usually accompanied by targeted ads.

Some may argue that these ads are a fair trade-off for the benefits of the educational content. However, because of free software like Ad-Blocker Plus, which blocks ads across the web and on YouTube, it does not need to be a trade-off. The technology exists to keep ads out of school, but, for an assortment of reasons, this technology is not used in most schools.

The reasons schools avoid ad-blocking technologies range from lack of resources, to ignorance, to conflicts between ad-blocking extensions and other software. Many schools still use Internet Explorer for the same reasons. In other words, many schools need to upgrade their I.T applications and empower and train their I.T teams.

As this school-I.T revolution is unlikely to happen overnight, the solution to getting advertisements out of schools may need to come from outside schools. Policy makers could effectively ban ads from schools, but since this is a global issue, and policies are localized, this strategy would also be slow moving.

Alternatively, the solution could come from the private sector. Companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft are the major producers of school tech and they could build ad-blocking software into their computers and tablets. Unfortunately, these companies earn money from advertisements and are unlikely to invest in software development that will damage their earnings.

In conclusion, there are many solutions to this problem; but none are simple. If you can help, please do so by sharing this article, by thinking of your own solutions, and by lobbying your local school districts, politicians, and tech CEOs.

Bill Gates — info@gatesfoundation.org

Tim Cook — tcook@apple.com

Sergey Brin — sergey@google.com

Larry Paige — larry@google.com