Ask HN — Native ads in education: What would this look like? Feasible? Ethical?

[crsn]

Native advertising is advertising that matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears.

What could this look like in education?

Example contexts: textbooks, tutoring tech, MOOCs, LMSs, OERs, testing platforms, adaptive learning tools, VLEs, study materials, etc.

Obviously this provokes hard questions. Is this ethical? Is this even feasible? What would the model look like?

All thoughts/arguments/questions welcome.

[gumby]

It's already in place. Math textbooks in the US that specifically use Oreos(TM) and Nike(TM) shoes in examples. Supposedly "the well-known products were included simply to make the math problems more relevant to sixth graders."

  *"Another word problem, this one in the 1999 edition,
  gives a plug to Oreos, made by Nabisco: ''The best-selling
  packaged cookie in the world is the Oreo cookie,'' it begins.
  ''The diameter of an Oreo cookie is 1.75 inches. Express
  the diameter of an Oreo cookie as a fraction in simplest form.''

  "A section on surface area in the same edition asks students
  to calculate the surface area of a box of Cocoa Frosted Flakes,
  adding some gratuitous information about when the cereal was
  introduced. Another page, titled ''School to Career,''
  highlights Lands' End, the mail-order apparel company.
  ''Consumers can purchase unique clothing and accessories,
  and products for the home,'' the section reads."*

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/21/business/math-book-salted-...

[mryan]

IMHO this is fundamentally unethical. The purpose of education - again, IMHO - is to equip children with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in the wider world. Advertising has no place in this model.

The example given by gumby is particularly insidious. I could make the argument for including products that the children will be familiar with to make maths problems seem more applicable to the real world. However, knowing that the "best-selling packaged cookie in the world is the Oreo cookie" does nothing to enhance the child's mathematical ability.

The Merchants of Venus by Frederick Pohl is a satirical SF story about the potential perils of runaway capitalism. I could see school districts experiencing rivalry depending on whether they are a "Coke school" or a "Pepsi school". The last thing school systems need is yet another superficial basis for tribalism and rivalry.

There is one potential benefit that I can see. Advertisers would presumably pay money to schools for the privilege of advertising to such a malleable, captive audience. If this money were to be used to enhance the quality of education at the school, could it outweigh the damage caused by advertising to children? I'm not sure, but I doubt it.

[DanBC]

We've already had adverts in school textbooks. At least California banned them. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/436312.stm

> For example, text books will now no longer be allowed to present maths problems in terms of the prices of brand-name trainers or show counting exercises using branded chocolate bars.

Advertising aimed at children is unethical and is not legal in some countries and more tightly regulated than other advertising in many other countries. I would strongly object to advertising in an education setting. I would use every method I had available to remove ads from my child's educational life. He's bombarded with ads every day and I'd like to give him a bit of time away from that.

Also: some people suggest that Youtube kids allows advertisers to bypass tv laws about advertising to children. Youtube should probably push this link a bit harder: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6168681?hl=en-GB

[joeclark77]

As a professor who teaches tech classes, I can tell you we're constantly courted by companies that want us to use their software in our classes. Some make it easier than others. I've never been offered "sponsorship" although to be honest, I wouldn't necessarily turn it down as long as I was making my own choices about who to take it from. Certainly vendors have been known to provide free equipment and licenses to academic institutions. I think where it becomes problematic is if someone else is taking money and, in exchange, constraining my decisions as an educator. So the real question for me about "native ads in education" is, who's buying and who's selling? Are teachers and students going to suffer the consequences of decisions they're not involved in, for someone else's profit?

[cJ0th]

This clip from the Simpsons should answer all your questions ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK0BMaUMmGw

[japhyr]

So, advertising that's hard to distinguish from what you think you're reading? In the context of education, that sounds pretty ugly and manipulative.

[troymc]

There are far more lucrative ways to get revenue in education: people are happy to pay to improve their life chances.

Frankly, it feels like this question was the result of mixing two cards from a card deck for generating business ideas.

Next two cards, please...

[brudgers]

Sounds like in-app purchases for education.