You send your kids to school to learn, right?
Or maybe you're taking a professional development
course yourself to upskill. Right, yeah, you
expect a totally focused environment. Exactly.
You sit down, you open your laptop, log into
the school portal, and you just expect an environment
dedicated entirely to education. But... But it's
rarely just that. No. What if that mandated learning
time is secretly doubling as, like... a highly
targeted inescapable marketing campaign. It's
a huge shift from how things used to be. I mean,
we assume the Internet in an educational setting
acts like a public utility, you know, like turning
on the water fountain in the hallway. That's
a great way to put it. But the reality is we
are often sending students into what is essentially
a digital shopping mall and just asking them
to ignore all the stores while they try to study.
Yeah, it really is a profound shift from how
education used to operate. For decades, the classroom
was a strictly bounded environment. Totally.
You had physical textbooks that were curated
by educational boards. You had encyclopedias
in the library. Which were ad -free, by the way.
Exactly. And even the early days of school computer
labs, they were mostly closed networks running
software from CD -ROMs. But the modern cloud
-connected classroom, it's infinitely more porous.
The walls have effectively come down. Which completely
changed how I've used school devices after reading
the material for today. So welcome to today's
Deep Dive. Glad to be here. Our mission today
is to explore the hidden curriculum of screen
time in schools, specifically the unavoidable
barrage of advertisements students face and the
ethical and technical dilemmas this creates.
Right, and we're drawing our insights from a
really thought -provoking post titled, On Advertisements
in School. Yeah, written by Dr. Gary L. Ackerman
from his site HackScience .Education. He's an
author of several books on technology in schools.
And his work really forces you to look at everyday
internet usage through the highly vulnerable
lens of a student. It really does. OK, let's
unpack this, because we all know that schools
today rely heavily on the open web. I mean, it
is the primary research tool. Oh, absolutely.
But Dr. Ackerman points out that the quote unquote
free information students are required to access
comes with a massive hidden price tag. Yeah and
to understand that price tag we have to look
really closely at the economic engine powering
the modern web. The internet is not a public
library. Right. It is a commercial space and
the places teachers are directing students to
aren't, you know, sketchy, unregulated forums
where you might naturally expect a barrage of
pop -up ads. Right, they're sending them to the
good stuff. The exact places you want a student
to go to learn media literacy. Precisely. They
are pointing learners toward high -quality journalism
sites, the official websites of professional
scientific organizations, edited periodicals,
and major platforms like YouTube for, say, historical
documentaries or science explainers. Which sounds
great on paper. It does. Fascinating here is
the inherent paradox. Educators are doing their
jobs perfectly by directing students away from
unreliable sources and toward reputable ones.
But creating reliable, vetted information costs
money. Right. You have to pay the journalists
to investigate. You have to pay the scientists
to write the articles. And well, you have to
pay for the massive servers that host the content.
Exactly. And the dominant way to fund that overhead
on the internet is through advertising revenue.
So by successfully finding and accessing pristine
quality information, the learner is automatically
and unavoidably exposed to a barrage of commercial
messaging. It's unavoidable. The higher the quality
of the free site, often the more sophisticated
the advertising apparatus wrapped around it.
You know, I was trying to visualize what this
would actually look like if we took it out of
the digital world and mapped it onto a physical
school. Oh, I like this. OK, so imagine a traditional
classroom environment. The teacher hands out
a history textbook. It's got great information
in it. You are sitting there at your desk trying
to read a chapter about the Industrial Revolution,
but the textbook has been printed with blank
spaces on every single page. Okay. And the moment
you open the book, a dozen different salespeople
instantly jump out of the closet. Wow. And they
bid in a microsecond auction for the right to
slap a highly personalized sticker into that
blank space. based on what they think you might
want to buy. It sounds totally absurd when you
describe it physically like that, but that mechanism
you just described is exactly how the digital
ecosystem functions. Right. But OK, I hear the
exploitation argument and I understand the friction,
but I have to be honest and play devil's advocate
for a second here. Sure. Go ahead. Kids are practically
raised by screens these days. I mean, their personal
phones are non -stop, infinitely scrolling streams
of sponsored content, influencer brand deals,
pre -roll videos. They're swimming in it. Exactly.
So as a banner ad on a National Geographic article
really moving the needle on their commercial
exposure, Are we maybe being a little overly
protective by calling this exploitation? Just
because a teacher assigned a YouTube video instead
of them watching it at home. It is a totally
valid question. If they are swimming in ads at
home, why does a splash of water at school matter?
If we connect this to the bigger picture, the
distinction lies entirely in the legal and ethical
concept of consent and choice. When a teenager
is browsing on their personal phone at home or
watching their favorite creator on YouTube, that
is a voluntary transaction. They are actively
choosing to engage with that platform. And in
exchange for that free entertainment, they implicitly
agree to view the advertisement. Yeah, makes
sense. And if they get annoyed, they can turn
the app off. They can put the phone down and
walk away. Right. They have an exit strategy.
They do. But in a school setting, attendance
is mandatory. It's compulsory by law. The curriculum
is mandated by the state or the district. Oh.
So if a teacher assigns a specific article on
a mainstream media site or a specific video on
a platform, the student cannot simply opt out
without facing an academic penalty. Right. They'll
fail the assignment. Exactly. They have to click
that link, and they have to consume that content
to get their grade. The student is, by definition,
a captive audience. Ah. So you are taking away
the exit strategy entirely? Yes. It fundamentally
shifts the dynamic of the transaction. We move
from the passive, voluntary consumption of commercial
media to forced commercial exposure, orchestrated
and mandated by a state -run institution. That's
a really heavy way to think about it. It is.
The school system is essentially delivering a
captive demographic to advertisers on a silver
platter. The student's attention is legally required
to be on that screen, and the advertisers are
monetizing that legal requirement. Wow. That's
why parents and educators feel it crosses a severe
ethical line. You are taking a publicly mandated
space meant for intellectual growth and turning
it into a captive marketplace. That refrains
it completely. I mean, you are forcing them to
walk through the digital mall, locking the doors
behind them and telling them they can't leave
until they finish their homework. Exactly. That
makes the frustration entirely understandable.
Beyond the high -level philosophical debate of
whether it's ethical to force kids to look at
ads, Dr. Ackerman's piece dives into the very
immediate practical impact this has on the learning
environment itself. Because the day -to -day
reality of trying to learn inside a marketplace
is chaotic. Yeah, the source material breaks
down the practical objections into a few distinct
areas. There is the issue of unsuitable products,
the massive problem of severe distraction. and
the very real danger of completely inappropriate
situations arising in the classroom. Right. Let's
unpack the mechanics of how these inappropriate
ads actually end up on a student's screen. Because
it's not like the teacher is, you know, picking
them. No, not at all. The teacher has absolutely
zero control over what populates the margins
of those websites. And this goes back to the
mechanism you mentioned earlier, the microsecond
auction. Most advertising on the internet today
is served through programmatic ad networks. Wait,
can we pause there? Sure. When you say programmatic
ad networks, what does that actually mean for
the end user? Explain that to me like I'm five.
Absolutely. In the early days of the internet,
if a company wanted to advertise on a website,
say, a science forum, they would call up the
owner of that science forum and buy a banner
ad for a month. Like buying space in a newspaper.
Exactly. Everyone who visited that site saw the
exact same ad for a microscope or a science kit.
It was contextual. The ad matched the content
of the page. Like a billboard on the highway.
Everyone driving by sees the same image. Right.
But programmatic ad networks changed everything.
Today, the website itself often doesn't even
know what ad is going to show up until the exact
millisecond the student clicks on the page. Wait,
really? Yes. The website leaves a blank box in
its code. When a user arrives, an automated algorithm
instantly reads whatever tracking data or cookies
are attached to that user's browser, profile,
or IP address. It then holds an automated auction
among thousands of advertisers in the blink of
an eye. The highest bidder wins and their specific
ad is instantly injected into that blank space.
So the ad isn't matched to the educational article.
The ad is matched to the tracking data of whoever
happens to be sitting at that keyboard. Precisely.
And that introduces a massive liability for a
school because these automated algorithms are
optimized for engagement and revenue, not for
child safety. A student could be researching
a completely benign topic like the ecosystem
of a coral reef for biology class. And the programmatic
ad network decides, based on complex opaque metrics,
to serve a targeted banner ad. for an R -rated
movie, an aggressive political campaign, or a
weight loss supplement. Suddenly, a school -issued
Chromebook is displaying content that would absolutely
never be permitted in a physical school library
book. And it happens instantly, often right in
the middle of a classroom. Here's where it gets
really interesting to me, though. Even if we
completely sanitize the system. Let's assume
the programmatic networks are perfectly filtered
and the ads are perfectly rated G. OK, best case
scenario? Let's say it's just a harmless, bouncing
ad for a new brand of toothpaste. The user experience
of the learning process is still completely shattered.
If you've ever tried to look up a simple recipe
for banana bread online, you know the exact feeling.
Oh, the recipe websites are notorious for this.
Right. You are scrolling down, just trying to
find the measurements, and suddenly a video for
a minivan starts auto -playing over the ingredients.
A newsletter sign up pops up and dims the whole
screen, and an animated banner follows you as
you scroll down the page. Yeah, it's exhausting.
It takes genuine mental effort to constantly
close those boxes just to find out how much baking
soda you need. Now, take that exact same exhausting
user experience and impose it on a 14 -year -old
who is trying to understand a complex, dense
article about the causes of World War I. You've
perfectly described the concept of cognitive
load. Learning is not a passive activity. It
requires sustained attention and working memory.
When a student is trying to synthesize new complex
information, their working memory is actively
engaged in building mental models. And ads are
engineered by highly paid psychologists and marketing
teams to do the exact opposite. They're literally
designed to hijack your attention and break your
focus. Yes. They use motion, bright colors, sudden
sounds, and urgent messaging to force your brain
to look away from the text and look at the product.
It's an unfair fight. It really is. So, in an
educational setting, the student is forced into
a state of continuous cognitive defense. The
mental energy required to constantly filter out
those flashing distractions, to find the tiny
X to close the pop -up, or to patiently wait
for the skip ad button to appear on a video,
it directly drains the student's working memory.
They are burning mental calories just fighting
the interface rather than absorbing the lesson.
It directly undermines the teacher's entire lesson
plan. The tool that was meant to aid learning
the internet becomes an active obstacle to it.
That's so frustrating. And the disruption scales
up quickly. Imagine a teacher presenting to the
whole class on a smart board. They pull up a
short, powerful documentary clip to illustrate
a historical event. Okay, setting the mood. But
before the footage starts, the entire room is
subjected to a blaring, unskippable 15 -second
advertisement for a mobile video game. The tone
of the room is instantly destroyed. The focus
is gone, the students are distracted, and the
teacher has to spend the next five minutes just
getting 30 kids dialed back into the serious
subject matter. It creates a tremendous amount
of friction. The educational environment is constantly
being punctured by commercial interruptions.
So if teachers can't control what ads pop up
and algorithms are running wild delivering targeted
stickers to captive audiences, who cleans up
the mess? Is it just the poor school IT department
having to manually block millions of websites?
That is exactly where the burden falls. And this
raises an important question about how the expectations
on school technical support have radically shifted
over the last decade. Yeah, Dr. Ackerman's post
details how IT professionals are the ones asked
to serve as the frontline defense. They are tasked
with minimizing students' access to these advertisements
while on the school network or using school devices.
So what does this all mean? Are we essentially
turning school IT staff into digital bouncers?
Effectively, yes. 15 years ago, a school IT person
was mostly a hardware and local network mechanic.
They made sure the Wi -Fi router was broadcasting,
the library printers had toner, and the desktop
computers in the lab didn't have a virus. It
was a very physical, maintenance -driven role.
Keeping the lights on and the cables plugged
in. Right. But today, they are forced to act
as digital curators and environmental sanitizers.
They are responsible for managing the psychological
user experience of the student. Which is wild.
The source mentions they do this primarily through
installing and configuring specific software
across the network or adding web browser extensions,
essentially deploying ad blockers on a massive
scale. Which is a monumental logistical task.
Managing a fleet of thousands of student Chromebooks,
pushing out the correct extensions, and ensuring
those extensions don't accidentally break the
functionality of actual educational software
requires constant vigilance. And it's an endless
arms race, isn't it? Yeah. Because the websites
hosting the content rely on that ad revenue to
survive, so they're constantly updating their
code to bypass the ad blockers. It is a perpetual
game of cat and mouse. The IT department deploys
a new filter, and the commercial platforms deploy
a new workaround to force the ads through. But
the source material also mentions a second strategy
that IT departments use. And this one really
surprised me. It's the practice of training faculty
to embed media directly into their virtual classrooms.
Ah, yes. I always thought that when a teacher
embedded a video into a platform like Canvas
or Blackboard, it was just a formatting choice.
You know, just making the syllabus look neat
and tidy. I had no idea it was actually a deliberate
strategic move to bypass the advertising ecosystem.
It is a highly strategic, protective measure,
but it requires understanding how the architecture
of the web works. OK, bring it down for me. When
a teacher simply copies a raw URL, a standard
web link, and emails it to their students or
posts it on a discussion board, clicking that
link physically transports the student's browser
out of the school's digital environment. They
leave the school building and walk into the digital
mall. Exactly. They are dropped directly onto
the commercial platform's home turf. And once
they are there, the platform's algorithm takes
over entirely. It serves the pre -roll video
ads, it surrounds the video with flashing banner
ads, and crucially, it populates a sidebar full
of up -next recommendations that are highly optimized
to pull the student down a rabbit hole of unrelated,
distracting content. The classic algorithmic
black hole. You go to watch a five -minute video
on cell biology, and an hour later, you are watching
someone build a swimming pool out of mud. Precisely.
But embedding changes the architecture of that
interaction. When an IT department trains a teacher
to properly extract the specific embed code for
a video, and they paste that code into the school's
virtual learning environment, they are essentially
punching a one -way window through the school's
website directly to the video file on the server.
So they aren't sending the student to the platform,
they are pulling the video into the classroom.
Yes, it sandboxes the media, it strips away the
algorithm, it removes the sidebar recommendations,
it hides the toxic comment sections, and in many
cases, it bypasses the ad network entirely. That's
brilliant. When the student pushes play, they
are only seeing the educational content within
the walled garden of the school's secure portal.
It is an incredibly clever solution. It's extracting
the knowledge from the marketplace without forcing
the student to walk past the storefronts. Beautifully
put. But the fact that school IT departments
have to actively build these clean rooms and
spend their time running professional development
sessions just to teach faculty how to securely
show a video really underscores the severity
of the problem. It proves that protecting a student's
attention is no longer a philosophical goal.
It requires constant, active, highly technical
intervention. The default state of the internet
is commercial noise. To carve out a quiet space
for education requires immense and visible labor
behind the scenes. It requires an army of digital
bouncers standing at the doors of the internet
checking IDs and turning away the marketers.
Right. We have covered a massive amount of ground
today and it completely shits how you view the
tools we use every single day. It's a complex
ecosystem. We started with the realization that
the high quality, reputable sources we want students
to use are inextricably linked to an economic
model funded by targeted advertising. Which led
us into the ethical quagmire of compulsory education.
The fact that students aren't just casually browsing,
they are a legally captive audience, mandated
by the state to consume content, which inadvertently
turns them into a monetized demographic for programmatic
ad networks. And we explored the mechanics of
those networks, the microsecond auctions that
serve ads based on user tracking rather than
educational context, leading to inappropriate
content slipping past the teacher's control.
And we broke down the cognitive load, the exhausting
reality of trying to synthesize complex academic
ideas while constantly fighting off an interface
designed by psychologists to hijack your attention.
Ultimately landing on the incredible evolving
burden placed on school IT professionals who
have transformed from hardware mechanics into
digital curators, deploying ad blockers and training
teachers to sandbox media just to keep the noise
out. It is a lot to process. So the next time
you are learning something new online, or perhaps
you're sitting at the kitchen table next to a
child while they do their digital homework, take
a moment to change your focus. Yeah, look away
from the center of the screen. Pay close attention
to the margins. Notice the banners, the auto
-playing videos, the sponsored sidebars. Notice
how much sophisticated commercial messaging is
wrapped tightly around that educational content.
Ask yourself, in that exact moment, are you the
learner absorbing information or are you the
product being sold to the highest bidder? It
is a vital perspective shift. Once you start
seeing the infrastructure built around the information,
you realize just how deeply commerce is embedded
in our pursuit of knowledge. Exactly. And we
will leave you with this final, somewhat paradoxical
thought to chew on. Oh, this is a good one. We
just spent this entire deep dive unpacking how
school IT departments are fighting tooth and
nail to block these advertisements using browser
extensions and clever embed codes to protect
students. But let's imagine a world where they
win the arms race. What happens if every school
district in the country perfectly and permanently
blocks every single ad? fascinating hypothetical
consequence. Right. How will that impact the
creators of the free educational content? If
the advertising revenue completely dries up because
millions of captive students are successfully
shielded from seeing it, will those high quality
journalism sites, those professional scientific
organizations, and those brilliant documentary
filmmakers be able to afford their server costs?
Probably not. If we finally manage to kick every
single marketer out of the digital classroom
for good, does the high quality textbook disappear
with them? something to think about. Thanks for
joining us on this deep dive.