Google goes to school(s)
p2pnet.net News:- Google has decided to deploy what looks suspiciously like a variation of get ‘em while they’re young indoctrination by ‘giving’ children an online word processor, spreadsheet and other online applications —
— starting with kids of kindergarten age, and following through to high school level.
The entertainment and software cartels already do this, routinely greasing so-called ‘educational’ programs into classrooms with the sole purpose of exposing school children to pervasive and invasive mind-bending techniques.
The Google plan also “worries some privacy experts” because the programs, “automatically store everything in Google’s vast data centers so the information can be retrieved on any Internet-connected computer,” says Associated Press.
“It’s the perfect place for them to target the next generation of computer users,” the story has James McQuivey, a Boston University professor specializing in technology and communications.
“The free-software approach poses a challenge to Microsoft Corp., whose success revolves around sales of its long-dominant Windows operating system and Office suite,” says the story. “The programs – including Word and Excel – are installed on hard drives and information is usually stored locally as well.”
But Google which, together with Microsoft and Yahoo, helps China censor the Net, claims it’s intentions are pure.
It’s an “educational initiative” and a “public service for teachers” who “often lack the money and expertise to introduce more technological tools into their classrooms,” says AP, going on that Google doesn’t allow advertising in its word processing and spreadsheets programs, and wondering how Google expects to make money.
Is the answer really simple? Is this nothing more than a long term plan to get kids used to using Google, Google and nothing but Google, with the $ coming later?
Perish the very thought.
“We think it’s good to get people familiar with the other things we do (besides search), but it’s not like we are trying to get some kind of lifetime value out of each student,” AP quotes Cristin Frodella, a Google product manager overseeing the education project, as saying.
“We just want to help teachers engage kids with technology that makes learning seem less like drudgery.”
Also See:
Associated Press – Google advances online software crusade, December 3, 2004
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