High court's Internet decision means a balancing act for schools

The medium once called "a never-ending worldwide conversation" has new license to continue its voluminous and unpredictable discourse, thanks to a landmark decision by the U. S. Supreme Court.

Educators are just beginning to consider the implications.

The medium, of course, is the Internet. By a 7-2 margin on June 26, the court struck down the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the brainchild of former Sen. Jim Exon (D-Neb.), who wanted to ensure that children would be protected from pornography, songs with sexually explicit lyrics, and other harmful material that could be accessed from their home or school. The statute made it a crime to make "indecent" or "patently offensive" material available to minors.

But the court ruled the act a vague and over-broad infringement on the constitutional rights of adults.

"The Communications Decency Act lacks the precision that the First Amendment requires when a statute regulates the content of speech," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens. "In order to deny minors access to potentially harmful speech, the CDA effectively suppresses a large amount of speech that adults have a constitutional right to receive and to address to one another."

The ruling was a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union and groups representing libraries and the online computer industry. It was a defeat for the Christian Coalition and
antipornography groups.

"Parents now must be doubly sure that they monitor their children's Internet use at home, and that their schools and libraries are utilizing top-notch filtering software," says Dee Jepsen, President of the antipornography group Enough is Enough.

Indeed, one Internet law expert predicts a boon for software designed to screen out obscene or other inappropriate Internet sites. "I see a huge boost for the filtering and blocking industry because people who are concerned about it will not have the CDA to fall back on," says Michael J. McGuire, a Minneapolis attorney.

Among those buying protective software will be school districts, McGuire predicts. But he said that technology comes at a cost. "If you use blocking or filtering software, you are relying on someone else to make a decision about what your child or your students have access to," McGuire says.

Sometimes that technology-driven decision can seem needlessly broad. For example, a high school student could be prevented from researching breast cancer or date rape because those terms could be flagged by software, McGuire says. Last summer an Oregon child was prevented from accessing the White House kids' page because it referred to Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper as a "couple," a word that apparently activated the filter.

A few days after the Supreme Court decision, President Clinton called for a summit of educators, computer industry leaders, and parent representatives to develop voluntary measures to police the Internet. People on both sides of the issue supported the idea.

"The bully pulpit of the White House will lead to public education and more deployment" of screening software, says Jerry Berman, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, which opposed the CDA.

Some experts, such as David A. Splitt, a Washington attorney and authority on school law, have said that there is no substitute for ongoing supervision by parents and teachers, especially when younger children are on-line. (See "Decency vs. Free Speech," Electronic School, September 1996.) Others have used the court decision to call for a less restrictive approach than the Clinton-endorsed filtering systems.

Jon Katz, a contributing editor of Wired magazine, writing in the Washington Post soon after the decision, invoked the views of 17th-century English philosopher John Locke in arguing for "the moral education of children rather than the arbitrary imposition of rules."

"Children need to be given the chance to develop values and a sense of social responsibility," Katz wrote. "Learning to make their way on the Internet and helping them confront whatever dangers lurk there is no different from countless challenges they will have to face as they grow up."

What seems certain is that the Internet also will pose challenges for adults--parents, teachers, and school officials--as they seek to balance the desire to bring the world to young people with the need to protect them from its excesses.

Companies aim to protect privacy

Worried about web-site operators gathering personal information about your students--or maybe about you--without consent? You should be, because it happens. In fact, some web-site operators may know more about you than you ever imagined.

A group of high-tech companies wants to put a stop to this cyber invasion of personal lives. The companies say they have agreed on a common format that will enable web surfers to stop personal information from being sent automatically from their computers to web-site operators.

Netscape Communications Corp., maker of the popular Navigator browser for cruising the web, and two other Internet software companies--Firefly Network Inc. and Verisign Inc.--submitted a proposal this summer to the World Wide Web Consortium, which sets Internet standards. About 60 other high-tech companies, including IBM Corp. and the New York Times online news service, were listed as supporters.

Web servers currently have the ability to plant nuggets of information--known as "cookies"--in a computer user's PC. On your first visit to a site, you might type in your name and other personal information. The web server stores that information on your hard drive so that during your next visit, it can retrieve the cookie and greet you by name.

But that's not all it can do. The technology can track which web sites you visit, what pages you look at, even what your hobbies are, and then link that data to your name and address. Site owners can then sell the information to advertisers and other interested parties, without your knowledge or consent.

Under the Netscape proposal, people who visit web sites could see a box pop up that asks them to specify what information they want to share. For example, a user can specify that his or her name and electronic mail address be available, but no personal hobbies. In other words, no personal information would be retrieved and sent to other companies without the consent of the computer user.

Netscape plans to integrate the format into its software, according to Martin Haeberli, director of technology for the Mountain View, Calif., company. Verisign, also in Mountain View, makes software that helps prevent unauthorized use of web users' personal information.

The boom goes on -- and so do the inequities

More computers, newer computers, faster computers, and more versatile computers are online in your schools than five years ago. But according to research, low-income and minority kids are still getting the short end of the technology stick.

Some 6.3 million computers were available to students in 1996-97, a 23.5 percent increase for the year and a 186 percent jump over the 2.2 million machines in the schools in 1991-92, according to statistics compiled by Market Data Retrieval of Shelton, Conn.

The ratio of students per computer declined from 36.5 a decade ago to 19.3 five years ago, and 7.3 in the last school year.

However, the study shows, schools with low minority enrollments have more computers available for their students. Schools with less than 5 percent minorities have a ratio of 6.6 students per computer; those where more than half the students are minorities have a ratio of 8.4 students per computer.

"Most public schools, despite factors such as busing, greatly reflect the socioeconomic status of the community in which they are located," says the study, "Technology in Education: Advance Report." The findings were released in July at the National Education Computing Conference in Seattle.

Similarly, while Internet access in schools has gone up, the lion's share of the access is in wealthier schools, the study discovered. The percentage of schools with Internet access went from 32 percent in 1995-96 to 70 percent last year.

In affluent neighborhoods, the figure is 78 percent, compared with 69 percent for blue-collar neighborhoods and 66 percent in rural areas. Among schools with less than 5 percent minority enrollment, 72 percent have Internet access, compared with only 61 percent of the schools with more than 50 percent minorities.

The survey, conducted annually for 15 years, is used to compile a database for commercial use by software makers and other high-technology companies. All 85,000 public schools nationwide were contacted by mail and telephone, and about 55,000 responded.

States put school statistics online

With the click of a mouse, a frustrating bureaucratic system has been replaced, at least in Pennsylvania. The public can now find comprehensive statistics on Pennsylvania's schools online. School profiles--everything from test scores to district finances--now are available on the Internet for all 501 Pennsylvania school districts, according to state Education Secretary Eugene Hickok.

Pennsylvania is one of the first states to offer this comprehensive look at its classrooms via computer. Following the Keystone State's example, Arizona, Georgia, and New Jersey are making similar efforts.

The information, previously available only on paper, can now be obtained at public libraries, school districts, or homes, either on the Internet or on CD-ROM. For people who don't have access to the World Wide Web at home, the state will distribute 5,000 computer discs to about 600 public libraries and all school districts, Hickok says.

The district profiles cover the 1995-96 school year and cost taxpayers $189,000 to set up. Westat Inc. of Rockville, Md., a research and analysis firm, designed the page and has another contract to update it with 1996-97 data.

State law requires the schools to submit the profiles, but until now, Pennsylvanians had to "jump through bureaucratic hoops" to obtain copies, Hickok says. People who wanted information about schools first had to contact their local school district for the profiles. If the district refused to make the profile public, the citizen had to submit a letter to the Department of Education for the information.

Score America C+ on net use

Having access to the Internet is one thing; using it well is another. That's the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from the Great American Net Test, which tested user ability to find information on the Internet. The national, nonscientific test was conducted by the long-distance telephone carrier MCI.

Overall, the test found that many Internet users are still having trouble finding information. "While the . . . extreme users performed very well, the vast majority scored more in the C to C+ range," says John Scarborough, director of Internet services for MCI.

The test also called into question the conventional wisdom that young guys are the natural navigators of cyberspace: Men did make up more than two-thirds of those tested, but they scored slightly lower, on average, than women--78.3 points out of 100, compared with 79.1 points for women. And women over the age of 60 scored 71.4 on average, outpacing 17-year-old men, who averaged 70.6.

Participants were tested on their speed and accuracy in using the web to answer questions on a variety of topics. Questions included "What is the Internet country code for the Slovak Republic?" "What was Harry Houdini's birth name?" and "How much does the Leaning Tower of Pisa continue to lean each year?"

Corporate donors vie to outdo each other

Schools and libraries benefited from a summer race to see who could be nicest--and who could get some business.

First, Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates announced that he and his wife would donate $200 million to equip public libraries with computer hardware, and that his company would pony up an extra $200 million in software.

A day later, Oracle Corp. chairman and longtime Gates rival Lawrence Ellison announced his company would donate $100 million to schools looking to buy bare-bones network computer terminals.

The gift competition comes as Gates and Ellison are striving for the upper hand in the expanding network computer business. Oracle sees its new network computer as a way to wean companies and schools from more complex machines that use Microsoft's Windows software. Microsoft has teamed with chip-maker Intel Corp. to sell a stripped-down computer the two companies call the Net PC.

Apple -- still leading after all these years?

Are Apple computers still No. 1 in the school market? It depends on who's counting the computers.

One study, recently released by CCA Consulting Inc. of Natick, Mass., says the IBM PC-compatible platform now owns the majority (53 percent) of the school market. A study by Market Data Retrieval of Shelton, Conn., on the other hand, says Apple remains dominant in schools, with more than 53 percent of the market.

And a study by Quality Education Data of Denver agrees that Apple remains on top in planned computer purchases. Not only does Apple control 56 percent of the market for planned computer buys, says QED, but Apple computer sales rose 3 percent in the education market during the past year.

The CCA report says otherwise. According to CCA, there are 4.5 million PCs in schools now, compared with 3.9 million Apple computers (900,000 Apple IIs and 3 million Macintoshes). This growing taste for PCs is expected to continue into the 1997-98 school year, the study says, when schools plan to purchase 613,000 PCs and only 283,000 Apples.

"We have seen Apple's share of new purchases fall since the 1992-93 school year," says CCA President Carole Cotton. "However, this is the first time we have seen PCs emerge as the leading platform in both the K-12 Instruction and Administration markets."

Apple's announcement this summer that CEO Gil Amelio and Chief Technology Officer Ellen Hancock had stepped down fueled speculation about the embattled company. As the search for a new leader got under way, it was announced that Apple cofounder Steve Jobs will play an "expanded role" advising Apple's board, which was reported to be "not happy" with the company's financial performance.

But even Microsoft CEO Bill Gates--whose Windows software programs are designed for PCs--doesn't count on Apple losing its competitive edge. Answering a question earlier in the summer at the National Educational Computing Conference, where about 7,700 participants, exhibitors, and others used Apple computers to register, Gates drew laughter and applause when he said, "I think the Macintosh will continue to be very, very important in the educational environment for a very long time to come."

Serving time on the server

In a fine display of making the punishment fit the crime, court officials in Hastings, Neb., have "sentenced" two teenage hackers to hard time--setting up an Internet home page for the police department.

"We figured we would put their talents to work,'' says Police Detective Tony Scaccia.

The 14-year-old boys, who were spared criminal charges after hacking into a local Internet service provider's files, each were ordered to spend their 20 hours of community service helping Hastings police set up the computer page. The boys were apprehended, Scaccia says, after one of them "got a guilty conscience and sent e-mail to the Internet provider.''

The boys, along with a third person, are developing ideas for the home page on their personal computers. Working from the police department's mission handbook, they will include information on each of the department's divisions, along with its personnel and mission objectives. The site will include a page for daily news releases. Once it is completed, the police department will maintain the home page.

Scaccia says the boys have been very cooperative.

"They were quite open. They showed us how they did it,'' he says. "Naturally, they were sorry they did it. In their case it was more curiosity than malice or vandalism.''

Nebraska laws concerning the punishment for unauthorized access start as a Class 1 misdemeanor, which for adults is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. Felony charges could also have been considered, depending on what was done with the stolen data. But when Scaccia approached the county attorney about the case, they agreed that given the circumstances, the boys would enter a diversion program instead of facing criminal charges.

Scaccia says he believes that the boys will walk away from the experience with a greater respect for the law.

"When I showed them in black and white the Nebraska statutes and the possible punishments, they were breathless,'' Scaccia says.

Gridlock on Mars

The Pathfinder's historic landing on Mars produced gridlock at NASA's web sites this summer. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says its sites logged 100 million hits for the Independence Day landing.

The sites were deluged even before the first pictures were beamed back. The sluggish performance improved after users connected to mirror sites that duplicated information on the NASA pages. "We are really now in the electronic age, and I am so proud we can get this information to everyone who wants to see it,'' NASA administrator Dan Goldin told the Associated Press.

The most intent Mars-watchers were probably at Planetfest, a three-day festival in Pasadena, Calif., where Pathfinder's first images appeared on a 25-foot screen.

But you didn't have to be in Pasadena to participate. NASA's online curriculum "Live from Mars" is an electronic field trip sponsored by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and public television. And The Web Interface for Telescience, accessible from any web browser, allowed users to take simulated Sojourner rovers for a virtual spin in cyberspace. The trick was waiting for a break in traffic.

RESTING IN VIRTUAL PEACE

No need to send flowers if a kid tells you his Tamagotchi died. A Tamagotchi, the latest fad to generate lines of desperate parents in toy stores, is a hand-held videogame that comes on a keychain and features a virtual pet chicken that beeps to indicate it needs to be fed, played with, or cleaned up after. Without proper care (i.e., if the right buttons aren't pushed), the chicken dies.

Death needn't be permanent, however. A deus ex machina in the form of a reset button on the back of the egg-shaped game can bring the chicken back to beeping life again. For fuller melodrama, kids can bury their dead Tamagotchis in a virtual cemetery on the web.

By last spring, more than 46,000 hits had been recorded at a Tomagotchi cemetery on the home page of a Buddhist temple in Hiroshima. ("I don't know quite what to make of it," chief priest Sojo Suzuno told the Associated Press. "For some reason, I'm popular on the Internet.") By summer, the virtual graveyard had been moved to a more fitting location

Tamagotchi is a product of Bandai Co., the Japanese toymaker that brought us Power Rangers. It sells for about $16.

Report: Teach the teachers first

Your gleaming computers are hooked up to the Internet with high-speed connections. Chances are, however, your teachers aren't making the best use of these sophisticated new tools.

Inadequate teacher training is the biggest barrier to effective use of computer networks in the nation's classrooms, according to a report released in June by the Benton Foundation. "Technology makes teaching more--not less--difficult," the report states. Overall, teachers need more training than they receive now to figure out the nuts and bolts of new technology and devise lesson plans using technology.

Unfortunately, teacher training is often overlooked in the rush to get new hardware and Internet connections into classrooms. According to the Benton report, which incorporates past research on school technology with anecdotal accounts from 18 schools around the country, technology experts recommend schools devote about 30 percent of their technology spending on training. The reality falls far short of that ideal: In 1996-97, the report says, schools devoted only about 5 percent of their technology budgets on training.

The report recommends giving teachers time to meet and discuss with each other how they use technology in the classroom. They can find even more help online--discussion groups, lesson plans, and other teachers eager to exchange ideas--according to the report.

The Benton Foundation is a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C. "What's Going On: The Learning Connection," was issued by the foundation's Communications Policy and Practice Program. Included is a list of online resources for teachers and education leaders. The report is online.