teachers confessions
How school really is
May I invite you to a game of ideas?
As a class teacher, I like to arrange my classroom the way I want it. On the wall I hang a big calendar, a colorful timetable, a table with the class services. And of course posters of my favorite companies: Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, Whatsapp, Booking.com.
On the first day of school, I tell the students about my vacation. I tell them that thanks to Airbnb I have "completely rediscovered chilling", so cheap and with beach view I have lived. I was actually broke, but the Commerzbank has given me a cheap loan. "Commerzbank, the bank by your side," I add and point my thumb upwards.
Advertising in the classroom, you do not find that right?
True, in Hamburg product advertising on advertising space in school is prohibited. However, in recent years, advertising has sneaked into the classroom. The big new advertising space is called Smartboard and has cost a few thousand euros.
I want to show a short interview with Donald Trump on climate change on YouTube and open the browser. While this starts, I explain the task to the children. But they stare past me and are completely distracted. Suddenly one of them starts bleating: "There will soon be three toilets, Digga!" Laughter. All the attention is focused on a message about the gender debate in the US ticking across the screen.
Above are the emblems of the largest American Internet companies and below a one and a half meter wide display of Commerzbank. We have already disabled the start page, but the browser recently also advertises itself.
Donald Trump is now explaining to the journalist on YouTube that he has his own scientists and studies on climate change when the article interrupts. "How was your vacation like this?" Airbnb asks. The attention is completely gone. I feel that the children did not understand anything.
"Finn, google times climate change!", I order. Again at the top: An ad, after all, the good guys this time - the WWF calls for donation. Can I do justice to my mission of political neutrality? As the lesson progresses, we look at a few reports and statistics from various newspapers, and this Adidas sneakers advertising banner keeps appearing.
Pitfalls of online shopping
Exactly those, as I have ordered during the break on my private Amazon account. I notice the students whispering about it. Good that I bought the drug for intestinal worms directly in the pharmacy.
In a similar way, today's lessons are taught in thousands of schools, and most colleagues are as unsophisticated about advertising as I am: those who want to enjoy the benefits of YouTube and Co must be living with advertising. Ad-blocker, even stricter mail filters, a commercial-free educational browser that only displays good, fun-free pages? If we were quite consistent, the Internet would probably be pretty empty for us.
Nevertheless, there is this gap between law and reality, in which only so long as no one falls until a resourceful lawyer wants evil. The Smartboard opens up many possibilities for us; At the same time, school has become more and more a promotional event.
I'm just wondering why so far there is no target-group advertising. For Internet operators, it's easy to find out what kind of device is at the end of the line.
But maybe an attentive marketing person will read along. If we get advertising for Clearasil, Fortnite and Bibis Beauty-Palace in the next few weeks, I'll know.