America Online Inc., the largest Internet
service provider in the world, is continuing its philanthropy interests with
this week’s announcement to provide free Internet content to Pennsylvania
public schools.
AOL@School gives potentially 6,000 Pennsylvania schools access to resources
like dictionaries and encyclopedia’s, and a portal catering to the subjects
schoolchildren learn every day, ranging from math to reading.
John Bailey, director of Pennsylvania’s office of educational technology,
said AOL’s content is a perfect match for the initiatives set forth by
Governor Tom Ridge to bring technology to the school.
“The governor’s committed a huge amount of money for technology to schools,”
Bailey said. “Corporate partnerships have allowed us to make that
technology really more valuable to teachers by providing educational
content, tools and resources.”
Pennsylvania officials have been beefing up the educational system’s
infrastructure the past couple years to accommodate the rising need for
computers and Internet access in the classroom.
This year, the governor has given out almost $17 million in grants to fund
technology initiatives in the public schools. Ridge has also proposed
another $25 million for 2001-2002.
The efforts have paid off, it seems. All of the school districts are
connected to the Internet, while 90 percent of schools in the state are
virtually wired. Of that 90 percent, 75 to 80 percent of the classrooms have a
computer and an Internet connection.
But getting the computers and bringing the Internet to the classroom is only
half the battle, Bailey said. Many teachers are novice Internet users and
AOL’s service addresses the problem.
“The real value for teachers is that (AOL@School) simplifies the Internet,”
Bailey said. “They don’t necessarily have to go out and have to go out and
try to make sense of a search on a science resource that goes out to 5,000
kids. It simplifies the Internet by providing them links to other resources
that teachers around the country have said is a good resource.”
According to AOL, content is determined by group of educators and
schoolchildren around the country. If a particular state has a problem with
the content available on the site, they are asked to bring it to the
attention of AOL officials.
To avoid complaints from parents or consumer groups, AOL went educational
associations like the National School Boards Association and the Association
of Supervision and Curriculum Development for content selection.
“We haven’t had anybody challenge the content so far,” Nixon said. “The
reason we haven’t is because they know we are trying to put something useful
on the Internet. What teachers tell you, more than anything else, is that
they don’t have time to find the best resources.”
Mark Nixon, AOL executive director of education, pitched AOL@School to Steve
Case, AOL Time Warner chairman of the board, and Bob Pittman, AOL-TW
co-chief operating officer, last year, predicated on three values:
- Building on the power of the medium
- Respect
- Brand recognition
“To be one of the most respected companies, you have to give back to the
community,” Nixon said. “So, if you want to give back to the community,
what better place to start than education. And from the selfish side of
this, if you want to propagate the brand of AOL, so that at some point in
the future, if these kids, teachers and parents have a good experience with
AOL, maybe they’ll be interested in our brand.”
It must have been a good speech, because Case and company signed off on the
AOL@School project in May, 2000. Pennsylvania is the fourth to sign up to
AOL’s education portal, behind Virginia, Florida and Maryland.
AOL plans to make more announcements with other states throughout the year.
