Paying The Piper: The Educational Cost of the Commercialization of the Internet

KEYWORDS: COMPUTERS; EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, INTERNET; COMMERCIALIZATION; CREDIBILITY; ACCESS; SURVEILLANCE; PRIVACY

The enormous educational potential of the Internet is threatened by the increasing commercialization of cyberspace. Beyond the obvious and often prohibitive costs of hardware, software, and Internet connectivity associated with entry into the world of new Information Technologies, the presence of commercial advertising has a deleterious affect on both the credibility of information found on sites hosting advertisements, and access to information with little mass appeal. The presence of the commercial and the educational existing side by side in cyberspace also has the potential to form troubling new relationships that may serve to foster consumerism more than education and exacerbate the serious issues of surveillance and privacy.