Teaching Comparative

Pardon my "politicking"

• Do you know about the political battles going on over "net neutrality?"


• Has your teaching changed in the past 10 years because of the Internet?


• Have your students' opportunities for accessing information changed since they began looking at and creating web sites?


• Would e-mail "postage" change the way you communicate with colleagues and students?
  
  
• How would your teaching and your students' opportunities be different if the Internet was more like cable television and less like the telephone system? (In other words what if your Internet Service Provider delivered only those links that paid to be delivered instead of delivering all the links with Internet access?)

As someone who helped students build a school web site in 1994 and who depends even more today on the Internet to do the things I do, I know what my answers to those questions are. More expensive and limited Internet access would mean that you and I and our schools and students would be handicapped in our efforts to learn about government, politics, and controversial issues.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, a bill to require "net neutrality," sponsored by a very conservative legislator from Wisconsin and a very liberal legislator from Michigan is being considered. Both the Christian Coalition and MoveOn.org are supporting it.

If you think your teaching and your students' educations would be affected by restructuring the Internet following a cable TV model, you should probably tell your Representative and Senators about what those changes would be. I know I will.

Here's an excerpt from an op-ed piece in the New York Times. If you'd like more information, search for "net neutrality" the news section of your favorite source or on the Internet.

Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End

by Adam Cohen
Published: May 28, 2006

"The World Wide Web is the most democratic mass medium there has ever been ... anyone with an Internet-connected computer can reach out to a potential audience of billions.

"This democratic Web did not just happen. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989, envisioned a platform on which everyone in the world could communicate on an equal basis. But his vision is being threatened by telecommunications and cable companies, and other Internet service providers, that want to impose a new system of fees that could create a hierarchy of Web sites. Major corporate sites would be able to pay the new fees, while little-guy sites could be shut out...

"Last year, the chief executive of what is now AT&T sent shock waves through cyberspace when he asked why Web sites should be able to "use my pipes free." Internet service providers would like to be able to charge Web sites for access to their customers. Web sites that could not pay the new fees would be accessible at a slower speed, or perhaps not be accessible at all..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:09 AM