General Sessions:
• Kids Online
• Privacy: Lost in Cyberspace?
• Point and Counterpoint: Media Views of the Future of Computing

Kids Online

Overview:

The session "Kids Online: Home, School and the Web," chaired by Bob Kraut of Carnegie Mellon University, featured the work of Janet Schofield and Leonard Waks. The topics were equity and access in use of the Internet, both at school and at home.

Janet Schofield, a psychologist from the University of Pittsburgh, presented the results of a five-year study she performed with the Common Knowledge Pittsburgh program (CKP). The goals of this program were to increase communication and collaboration among teachers, connect students to the outside world, increase the motivation of students and increase the equality of educational opportunities for students. Following President Clinton's Internet teaching promise of "The same learning at the same level at once," the program had five million dollars to "connect" schools in the Pittsburgh area. The five million did not prove to be enough to give every classroom a computer with connectivity. To receive funding, teachers were asked to write up a proposal explaining how they'd integrate use of the Internet to their teaching methods.

In the first year of the program, funding went to schools where teachers had more time and energy to write up a compelling proposal. In general, these schools were among the more privileged in the Pittsburgh area, which meant that the more needy schools did not make it into the program. Before the following year's computers went up on the auction block, teachers from the area's underprivileged schools were offered intensified training on how to write up proposals, as well as how they could use the Internet in the classroom. This program was quite effective, and by the end of the fourth year, two-thirds of the schools in the district had received funding.

Having the computers is fine, but do they increase the quality of education? The answer, for some, is "maybe." Once a teacher received a computer (an "access point"), rights to the machine still tended to go to the more advantaged students. Teachers tended to see the machine and its connection as optional privileges, to be given to students who had already mastered the "core" curriculum. That the teachers had to fight in order to get the computers in the first place was seen as one of the causes for this behavior: since the computers had been a reward for the teachers' hard work, why shouldn't they be one for the students as well? The computers were used as rewards for behavior that met with the teachers' approval. It turned out that the Internet connections were used only by those students who did not need guidance in the core curriculum, and who'd already had developed skills in the use of the Internet.

Among the student population, economically advantaged males tended to win these spots over students who were not as likely to have access to computers outside the classroom. Since they were already computer proficient, they could be allowed to use the Internet unsupervised--teachers did not have to take attention away from the rest of the class to work with them. As a side-effect, the teachers who followed this approach tended not to have gotten familiar with the workings of the Internet themselves, much less integrate it to their curriculum. Economically advantaged female students did not often get the opportunity to work on the Internet, because they tended to be less aggressive than their male peers in competing for access.

Leonard Waks, a philosopher at Temple University, described what happens when students do get connected and can "work the 'net." Following models by Emil Durkheim, Waks pointed out that each new industrial society (and, by implication, our information-based society) has to forge its own concept of education and of the role of education in that society. As an example, Waks pointed to the comprehensive high school and State University systems of today, in contrast to the elite secondary schools that preceded them. "Education must be manifold and one," having its own core, yet able to adapt and change. "Education must be an evolving and adapting institution."

Our corporate culture demands high technology-ready workers. One of the reason for this expectation is made clear by a statement from the president of McDonald's Canada who said that MacDonald's combines high tech machinery with low tech operators to turn out a highly polished product. The emerging trend is that as technology use in the work place increases, wages decrease. The upwardly-mobile spiral has taken a downward spin.

The eventual class disparity that follows such "high tech" training is seen even in the social relations on the Net. Trolling--passing off blatantly wrong information as correct in order to elicit a response from someone who is looking to gain the group's approval--is a class issue, said Waks. It enforces exclusionary practices by those who are "in the know." One might wonder what happens to those students (or other users, for that matter), who wander on to Web sites full of "trolls." Whether the information students find on the Net be high camp or high science, Waks found that students lack much of the context needed to situate this information in their learning. "They do not have a critical eye." This leads to a greater reliance on the social aspects of the Net, rather than on an instrumental use of it as a resource. One can hardly wonder, then, why those students Schofield studied needed to first master the core curriculum before they were let loose on the Net.

Panel chair Bob Kraut reported some findings from his own research in his summation points. After giving 250 families free computers and Internet access, he found that increased Internet use caused increased loneliness and clinical depression, and less contact with face-to-face friends. As our efforts towards getting students wired intensify, it is time to consider our students.

Privacy: Lost in Cyberspace?

Overview:

The session discussed issues of privacy on the Internet. It was chaired by Anita Baker, Director of Ethics and Business at Lockheed Martin; Jeff Smith and Judith DeCew presented different academic approaches to the issue of privacy, but both focused on solutions that protect privacy.

Baker opened the session by providing the context of the current privacy debate in the United States. Smith used a descriptive approach to discuss information privacy, which he defined as "a condition of limited access to identifiable information about individuals." He set out five dimensions of information privacy in the organizational setting, described the process of corporate policy making and explained the development of a model-in-progress relating corporate privacy policies to regulatory approaches to privacy. His presentation was replete with anecdotes.

DeCew used a philosophical approach to discuss information privacy emphasizing the importance of the need to protect individual freedom and independence. DeCew argued that individuals should be entitled to a presumption of privacy. She also emphasized the comprehensive privacy protection scheme of the European Union, commenting that the EU might supply a profit motive for corporations to develop privacy protection policies. Using the debate over Caller ID vs. Call Blocking as an application test bed, DeCew suggested that dynamic negotiation could be used between callers and recipients to decide when privacy--not disclosing name and phone number, was more important than communication--completing the call.

Point and Counterpoint: "Media Views of the Future of Computers"

Overview:

The first day of the ACM Policy 98 conference ended with a lively debate between Ester Dyson and Gary Chapman over the future of the field of computing.

Esther Dyson started off the discussion by challenging two common myths about information technology. She questioned the idea that 'information makes you free.' Dyson argued that a significant amount of context and meaning is lost in the flood of information. She related an encounter she had with a young Russian who had an impressive command of American cultural trivia but lacked the context or experience to make sense of it all. She argued that context does not get shared through information but rather through experience.

Dyson also challenged the idea of privacy protection. She argued that what was more important for the individual user was the ability to control their data. She noted that technical means like PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) as well as legal and social means make it possible for individuals to safeguard personal information. She further suggested that corporations take the initiative to educate consumers.

Gary Chapman opened his remarks by relaying two personal stories that illustrated for him the promise of information technology. His first experience was in Russia where he saw firsthand the potential and appeal of the Internet in a crumbling economy. Chapman also told the story of a benefit dinner that he had attended the night before. The dinner was announced, planned and broadcast over the Internet as a community came together to help an injured friend. Experiences like these convinced Chapman of the exciting potential that exists in this revolutionary technology.

Chapman asked Dyson for her prediction on the next big technological breakthrough. Dyson responded quickly that it would most likely be genetic engineering, but cautioned against pursuing innovation simply for the pursuit of excitement. She then asked Chapman the same question.

Chapman predicted a major backlash against technology. He argued that the pace of technological development, coupled with media hype and competitive pressures would compel a significant number of technology workers to either drop out altogether or downshift. He cited a range of magazine articles, books, and anecdotes for support of this outlook. Chapman felt the US was repeating the experience of the 50's when society was tied to the singular goal of making money that ultimately led to a crisis of faith and the social unrest of the 1960's. He argued that the dominance of the market metaphor has degraded our value systems and eroded our spiritual base. Dyson countered that there was no real alternative to the market system and that it was preferable to a system of government regulation. Chapman responded by noting that the lack of an alternative to the market was exactly the reason change was so necessary and despair so prevalent. Dyson concluded by noting that the best method to resolve these problems was to engage in open and prolific discussion about these problems in a manner exemplified by the ACM Policy '98 Conference.

Audience discussion centered around the degree of alienation and despair that existed among young people and whether this was a unique situation in history. Chapman concluded the session by quoting advice from social philosopher Antonio Gramsci, "pessimism of the mind, optimism of the heart."