Vol. 5, #8, November 1, 2000 | BCTF News Archive |
What are the most important services that could be provided on the web? Will this be determined on business grounds or educational grounds?
Consider this. Telus is promoting "Disney's Club Blast," a members-only portal for kids at just $2.95 per month--if you subscribe to telus.net as your ISP. Telus also hopes to expand its marketing to education on a national basis as it moves to become a national telecommunications carrier competing with Bell. How will Telus running a ministry portal fit with these other businesses of internet-service-provider and content sales?
Ingenuity Works is the company in the consortium that is tagged to be responsible for content on the ministry portal. This company has a multi-million dollar contract with several Canadian museums to provide content on the web. What will be its priority in pushing content on the ministry portal? Will it want to focus on modified and adapted materials for students with special needs--a top priority when teachers are asked what kinds of materials they need? Or will it place a priority on museum content that must produce a revenue stream?
All the proposals for an education portal assume that teachers will contribute to it--sharing lesson aids and projects and participating in professional discussions. Teachers are generous in sharing their work with colleagues. They may get a bit testy, though, if they discover work they contribute through the portal has become part of corporate revenue, without counting in the creators.