Acquiring Technology through Commercial Partnerships
Susan Brooks-Young
Educational Consultant
Funding is almost always an issue for educators. Traditional avenues for supplementing school budgets include fundraising activities and writing grant applications or proposals to foundations. While these methods work, they are time intensive, there is risk in applying for dollars awarded competitively, and you can sell only so many beef sticks or rolls of wrapping paper.
Increasingly schools have turned to forming commercial partnerships as an alternative way to sponsor programs or acquire technology equipment. Some of these partnerships have a basis in altruism, but others target students as a desirable marketing group. Advertising, a form of partnership between schools and businesses, has been found on school campuses across the nation for decades. Free book covers from a fast food restaurant arrive in the mail, are distributed, and no one gives it a second thought. Middle and high school newspapers and yearbooks include ads purchased by local businesses to help defray publishing costs, or space is sold for large ads to be displayed on walls of school athletic fields to help pay for maintenance of the fields--and again, no one finds this remarkable. So, why has advertising on school campuses become a concern? It's because in recent years the rules have changed, and the stakes have become much higher.
Many of the partnerships being formed today require that students purchase certain brands of food or drink while on campus, or that they watch a particular television program, or use a certain ad-ladened Internet Service Provider (ISP) for a prescribed period of time each day. Requirements like these are the most striking difference and the underlying cause for concern about commercialism in the schools.
Trading for Technology
In 1990, entrepreneur Chris Whittle introduced Channel One, a program still active in many schools. The concept is simple. Participating schools receive classroom televisions and other equipment absolutely free. The catch? On 90 percent of the days school is in session, 80 percent of the students must watch a 12-minute news broadcast, which includes 2 minutes of commercials. And the equipment does not belong to the school; should the terms of the contract be violated, the equipment will be removed.
In the last couple of years, another technology-oriented partnership has come to the forefront. ZapMe! provides a 15-station multimedia computer lab, including the necessary equipment for Internet access, in any middle or high school that wants one, along with.
Equipment, installation, and maintenance are free. In exchange, the school agrees that the lab will be in use with students on the Internet, a minimum of four hours daily. Of course, the school will access the Internet through ZapMe!'s ISP which has a space permanently set up for advertisements; and once again, the equipment is only there as long as the terms of the contract are met. Many people think these sound like great deals. It is estimated that 8 million of our nation's middle and high school students watch Channel One each day. ZapMe! has installed 1400 labs in middle and high schools in 43 states. However, there are some difficult questions educators need to be asking themselves.
You Never Get Something for Nothing
Start by asking why these companies are so interested in our students' time. Why is equipment usage so clearly defined in the agreements? What are the sponsors getting out of it?
Kids have an amazing amount of disposable income. In 1997, children ages 4-12 spent more than $24 billion; in 1998, children ages 12-19 spent more that $141 billion. There is also the fact that companies target young consumers in the hope that they will become lifelong customers. This makes our children an important demographic group to marketers, and what better place to find large numbers of them than at school? This poses an ethical question for educators. Is use of free equipment for the remainder of the day worth exposing students to this kind of advertising for a prescribed period of time? By bringing commercials onto the school campus are we sanctioning these products and in effect telling our students that we support their use in exchange for computers and televisions?
In its position statement on advertising in schools, the Association of Supervision and Curriculum recommends: "Schools should be cautious in their use of any materials designed to promote commercial products or containing commercial advertising because students are required to attend school and are therefore a captive audience." Is it also possible that by accepting partnerships offered by companies like Channel One or ZapMe! schools may actually be hurting themselves over time as governing bodies feel less pressure to appropriate funds to schools because they already have this equipment in place?
Some educators think that partnerships of this type are worth the risk. They believe that students are capable of ignoring the advertising. I wish I were so confident. In the meantime, I'll encourage the teachers and administrators I work with to find other ways to acquire equipment.
This article originally appeared in Todays' School Fall 2000.
Author's Note: Since this article was published, Zap Me! has withdrawn from the education market, removing its equipment from all school sites.
Susan Brooks-Young, a teacher and administrator for 23 years, is an educational consultant, freelance writer, and adjunct faculty member at the University of Phoenix. She invites your comments and flames at sjbrooks@aol.com.
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