Hi All,

Ignoring the debate over the appropriateness of such technologies in
schools, what about the accessibility?  Are the schools installing such
equipment making necessary adjustments in terms of comparable equipment for
students with disabilities?  This is the type of issue that should be
settled long before a contract is signed.  I'd be interested to hear from
anyone who knows more about this because my own inquiries to the Zap-Me
corporation have gone with no return call.  The company can be reached at
(925) 543-0300

As schools employ more and more technology, the failure to consider
accessibility is going to increasingly hamper students with disabilities.


>Posted at 10:16 a.m. PST Tuesday, December 1, 1998
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
>ZapMe!
>By Chris Allbritton
>AP Cyberspace Writer
>
>
>NEW YORK (AP) -- Across the country, schools struggling just to provide
>books and pencils are being offered an appealing deal: 15 hotrod personal
>computers, a furnished lab, high-speed Internet access, built-in word
>processing and spreadsheet programs. Free of charge to whoever signs on the
>dotted line.
>
>There is, of course, a catch. And it has educators debating whether the
>free stuff is worth the price.
>
>In exchange for providing all of this equipment and Net access at no cost
>to the schools, the ZapMe! Corp. of San Ramon, Calif., receives a student
>audience for advertising on its network and gets permission to monitor
>students' Web browsing habits, breaking the data down by age, sex and ZIP
>code.
>
>It delivers this information to advertisers and marketers, who use it to
>target students in school with laser-like precision.
>
>According to the company, more than 8,000 schools have applied for a ZapMe!
>lab. Already, 12 California schools and eight in other states have them.
>The company expects to have about 100 schools in 12 states online by the
>end of the year.
>
>Quality equipment is the main selling point. Without dipping into already
>strained capital budgets, schools can get up to 15 multimedia personal
>computers with high-quality 17-inch monitors and a high-speed Internet
>connection via a satellite receiver on the roof. Each computer has a
>custom-built Web browser that incorporates Microsoft Corp. word processing
>and spreadsheet software.
>
>The company maintains a network of about 10,000 Web sites screened for K-12
>students by a ZapMe! committee of editors. The company says this closed
>network will protect students from much of the inappropriate material on
>the Internet.
>
>The at-large Internet may be accessed only if parents grant permission.
>
>Kids also will have individual e-mail accounts and a storage place for
>their favorite Web sites, kept on separate computers maintained by ZapMe!
>
>There are no floppy disk drives or CD-ROMs on the computers, meaning kids
>can't install new software or programs from the Net, and lab supervisors
>don't have to worry about them mucking about on hard drives or picking up
>computer viruses.
>
>Frank Vigil, president of ZapMe!, estimated it would cost each school more
>than $90,000 per year to maintain a computer lab with similar equipment and
>services. Instead, schools' only costs are for insurance and an extra phone
>line.
>
>So who pays?
>
>ZapMe! turns to corporate sponsors, such as Microsoft, Compaq and Earthlink
>to provide equipment and technical support for the labs. It also sells
>advertising from non-computer companies that run as rotating ads built into
>the company's Web browser. They are constantly displayed in the lower left
>corner of the screen.
>
>At East Hartford High School in Connecticut, which is considering
>installing the system, computer coordinator Denise Moynihan said the school
>board was aware of the advertising.
>
>"Advertising probably can be done in an unobtrusive way as long as it
>doesn't obscure education," she said. "A small logo is probably OK, but
>full-blown advertisements are inappropriate."
>
>In a demonstration for The Associated Press, Vigil clicked on the banner
>advertising Schick razors. A full-motion commercial filled the screen,
>showing an attractive blonde confidently marching through the streets as
>people rushed to protect her freshly shaved legs.
>
>Randi Polanich, a spokeswoman for the company, said the Schick ad was a
>just a prototype, not a real ad; but she added that advertisers -- who are
>still being determined -- could do "pretty much whatever they want" to get
>their message out. She said clicking on a banner could take the student to
>a Web site or show a full-blown commercial. Or the ad in the corner might
>display more information. Polanich also said about two-thirds of the ads
>could be public service announcements, such as those from Mothers Against
>Drunk Driving or from universities.
>
>In many ways, ZapMe! is like Channel One, the cable channel used in more
>than 12,000 schools. It presents 12 minutes of news and two minutes of
>commercials, which include plugs for candy, acne medicine, breakfast
>cereals and electric razors.
>
>Moynihan said East Hartford does not subscribe to Channel One specifically
>because of the ads.
>
>Unlike Channel One broadcasts, though, ZapMe! takes advantage of the
>two-way nature of the Net. While students are surfing ZapMe!'s network, the
>company monitors which sites are most visited. Combined with the students'
>ages, sexes, grade levels and ZIP codes, this information could be very
>valuable to advertisers and marketers.
>
>ZapMe! takes all this data from its national network, combines it into
>totals, and hands it over to the advertisers, who can then microtarget
>students. For example, a company could decide to show its ads for acne
>medicine only to 14-year-old boys in Los Angeles' tonier neighborhoods.
>
>Information that identifies individual students is stripped from the data,
>he said.
>
>"We do not, and we will not ever, sell or release any information that we
>learn about any individual student," he said. "The privacy of each
>individual student is vitally important to us."
>
>In the proposed contract between ZapMe! and East Hartford, provided to the
>AP by Jim Fallon, the school system's assistant superintendent, the company
>promised that no personal information it receives from users will be
>distributed to third parties.
>
>However, the company "does intend to monitor the Network and compile
>statistics and demographics with regard to the habits, viewing preferences,
>and other non-personal information about the Network's users. (ZapMe!) may
>distribute to third parties any of this aggregated statistical,
>demographical or non-personal information for commercial purposes."
>
>These "commercial purposes" have been an element of corporate involvement
>in American schools since the 1980s.
>
>Posters for Pepsi, display cases hawking Snapple, Excedrin and the like --
>such promotions have allowed corporate America to reach into classrooms,
>expanding their markets while helping to pay for education.
>
>These practices, and the unprecedented potential for direct marketing
>through computers, spark sharp questions from consumer and children's
>advocates.
>
>"The way they advertise to kids is entirely inappropriate," said Gary
>Ruskin, director of Commercial Alert, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer
>advocacy group. "They're forcing kids to watch ads. Even worse is the
>tracking and the invasion of privacy, which one assumes is used for further
>marketing purposes."
>
>For advertisers, schoolchildren are a gold mine.
>
>According to Census Bureau figures, there are 42.5 million children in
>kindergarten through high school. Their purchasing power is immense: Kids
>ages 4 through 12 directly spent more than $23.4 billion and influenced
>their parents to spend $187.7 billion in 1997, said a Texas A&M study.
>
>As ZapMe! brings marketers straight to that potential $211.1 billion
>market, it raises the question: Who does it serve better, the students or
>its advertisers?
>
>"Public schools desperately need funds, ... technology," said Betsy Taylor,
>director of Center for a New American Dream, an organization that monitors
>commercialism. "But it's a bad bargain. It perpetuates the notion that
>there is no line between ... a student and a shopper."
>
>ZapMe! executives readily acknowledge they want to make a profit. But in
>addition, Vigil said his company wants students "to have access to the
>tools needed to reach their full potential." The company, he said, can help
>close what he describes as a $411 billion gap between the technology
>students need and what U.S. schools can afford.
>
>At Skyline High School in Oakland, Calif., one of the original test sites
>for the system, librarian Mary Walfoort said the results have generally
>been favorable.
>
>"Since we didn't have the funds, I was willing to go this route," she said.
>"I would not have been able to afford (the computers.) Not in the near
>future."
>
>As for the advertising, she said it "just kind of blends in with the rest
>of the Internet. I don't think it's in the way of learning."
>
>Vigil and Lance Mortensen, chairman of ZapMe!, said they are actually
>"managing" the glut of advertising that would wash over students were they
>to surf the Internet without ZapMe! Walfoort said kids would see online
>ads, anyway, so the schools might as well exploit that.
>
>Alex Molnar, director of the Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in
>Education at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, disagreed.
>
>"That's like saying kids are going to sneak a beer in the basement, so we
>might as well have tightly controlled beer parties for 12-year-olds," he
>said.


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