--- TIC-TECH message:
----- Original Message -----
From: Wes Felty <wfelty@gte.net>
To: <TIC-TECH@tic.ssd.k12.wa.us>
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 10:38 PM
Subject: Tic-Tech: Another way to access the Internet
> --- TIC-TECH message:
> If you are offended by mention of a commercial project, please hit the
> delete key and save us both some grief.
>
Hello. I'm Dwight Van Winkle, a SPS parent that has been lurking on this
list. Some of you may know me as a critic of the school district for
allowing N2H2 to do advertising and data collection through BESS.
I wasn't at all offended by Wes's posting information about a useful device.
This is not the kind of commercial activity that concerns me, as I don't
expect the government or the school district to be making its own computers
or writing its own software (though as an aside, I do think open source
software, at least ideally if not practically, better comports with the
"public" in public schools.)
If there is a commercial product that can improve education, I'm glad to see
teachers and district staff sharing information about it.
What does concern me is two-fold:
(1) School districts giving companies access to students to companies for
advertising and collection of marketing data, in return for equipment,
software, services, cash, etc. I say this is clearly wrong, end of debate.
Wes described where to BUY the product and how much it cost, not how to
trade access to students to get the product for "free." I see no problem
with that.
(2) School districts (and parents and students) being influenced by
commercially motivated advertising, hype, and research, resulting in
exaggeration of the benefits of computers in education. This is much more
subtle, very open to debate, and I claim no special expertise.
Thanks for listening.
Regards,
Dwight Van Winkle
dvw@eskimo.com
> And, if Bess
> blocks your legitimate searches one time too many, well, the district
phone
> lines do NOT go through Bess (wink). I could have used this when Bess
> blocked our Travel and Tourism from going to a STATE DEPARTMENT site! The
> US government! On traveling to foreign countries safely. When asked to
> unblock this site, Bess said that we weren't signed up for that kind of
> service or something like that. Shee.
>
> Opps, it just dawned on me that I should ask our Telephone people if this
> is OK. Anyone out there?
>
> -Wes
> wfelty@gte.net
> - End TIC-TECH message. To join, leave, or visit
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> http://fp.seattleschools.org/fpclass/tic-tech/
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Mar 10 2001 - 08:56:28 PST