May 24, 2000

By REBECCA S. WEINER

AOL Gets Its Name in Front of Students With New Service

fter conquering the consumer market, America Online, the country's largest online service provider, is turning its sights on the nation's schools with a new, free service aimed at harried teachers looking to help their students make use of the Internet.

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But the new service is reigniting the debate over growing commercialism in schools, as companies market soft drinks, Internet service and other products to a captive audience of students.

"The pervasiveness of the Web and the time kids spend on it have made it [commercialism] more of an issue," said Judy Seltz, director of planning and communications for the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).

AOL@School is a version of the company's consumer Internet software that is customized for educators and students. The software creates a whole Web "environment" with links to Internet sites tailored to specific grade levels. AOL does not provide Internet access along with the software. Instead, the service is intended for the 95 percent of schools in the United States that already have access, most of it financed by federal and corporate sources.

Once the AOL software is loaded onto a school's computers, students are registered with their own screen names and passwords. They then have access to one of four age-appropriate portals, for kindergarten through high school students. There is no advertising in the student areas of the service, but the AOL@School name remains in a frame at the top of each screen as the students surf the Web.

Students using the software may only follow links to approved Web sites, and its search engine is limited to approved sites as well. The selected sites include homework helpers, tutors, Time Magazine for Kids and The New York Times Learning Network.

High school students will automatically have access to AOL's instant messaging and e-mail services, but teachers at all grade levels can turn those services on or off "with the click of a mouse," said Tricia Primrose, an AOL spokeswoman.

"When you set up a primary school account, it won't have instant messaging turned on," Primrose said. "The basic rule was, we wanted to let teachers decide. Some teachers may worry that it may become a distraction."

Although students will not see any direct advertising, teachers and administrators will see it on the pages of portals designed for them.

"We're not making money on it," Primrose said. "We'll be lucky to break even. The advertising for teachers and administrators could cover costs."

Steve Case, chief executive of AOL, said when the service was introduced last week that he was interested in contributing to the growth of the Internet as a whole, not just his business.

"Getting schools hooked up to the Internet has been an important national priority," Case said. "Now it's time to help them make the most of this technology to help students learn more."

But some are dubious about AOL's intentions. Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Media Education, a Washington-based public interest group, said the online giant wants to build a new generation of AOL users and pull in their parents as well.

"There's a strategy here to sort of surround the user," he said. "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."

Ann Flynn, director of education technology partnerships for the National School Boards Association (NSBA), said AOL@School is one of a number of methods companies are using to get technology, and their product names, into the classroom.

"AOL wants to come in and potentially monopolize the education market."

"It's a business," she said. "This is coming out of the business unit. But it's a free resource for schools, and we're all still struggling with what these models are and what works."

Flynn cited the controversial Channel One program, which gives schools free televisions, VCRs and cable hookups if they require students to watch a news program interspersed with advertising during school hours. The New York State Board of Regents banned the program, saying it made poor use of classroom time. New York is the only state that has not participated.

Channel One is now one of many deals between companies and schools, Flynn added. "You have schools making exclusive deals with Dr. Pepper and using the money to fund technology programs," she said.

The New York City Board of Education is considering a plan to build an Internet site that accepts corporate advertising aimed at students, teachers and administrators in exchange for computer equipment and services.

Seltz of the AASA said she has not heard school officials clamoring for a service like the one AOL is offering, but she said she is not surprised by the company's interest in schools, given the size of the education market.

Seltz also said the administrators' association had not formally endorsed AOL@School, even though its logo initially appeared at the top of the site's home page, along with those of other groups. Education groups typically do not endorse specific products. Seltz said AASA had a contract with AOL last summer under which the group helped to develop criteria for selecting the Web pages for the AOL education portals.

"We rarely would do an endorsement like that for a particular vendor," she said.

Primrose said AOL removed the logos after the groups raised concerns that their presence implied an endorsement of AOL@School.

Internet links of interest to readers of the Education column Forum Technology in the Classroom

"It was something we had done, it seems, prematurely," Primrose said. "The concern on the part of the associations was that it looked like an endorsement."

While Flynn said the NSBA also does not endorse software or products, she said AOL@School could be a useful resource for teachers lacking the time or the skill level to search the Web for educational resources themselves.

"Before they embark on anything wholesale, they should develop a learning plan," she said. "This would be one place to start."

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The EDUCATION column is published weekly, on Wednesdays. Click here for a list of links to other columns in the series.

• American Association of School Administrators

• AOL@School

• National School Boards Association

• Channel One