We marked this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Week with a study of the Armenian Genocide. Using the nifty “lists” feature of Diigo, complete with section headings, I shared bookmarks with other teachers. In the rush and tumble of a busy week, I never got the chance to share this list with students. I didn’t realize how fortunate this oversight was until I looked at the list a couple of days later.
You would think that the big brains had Google would calibrate their algorithms so as to keep the sexy ads away from anything labeled “Genocide”. In the mean time, Diigo may have to take a powder. If I send students to an online resource, especially on a regular basis, I am expanding my classroom to include those online environments. The class website, the Moodle page and even the template for my e-mails are as much a creation of a learning environment as the decorations in the classroom. I don’t think I would even post something like this on the bulletin board, so I’m not sending them to Diigo.
It’s frightening to think of the long list inappropriate ads that could accompany history bookmark lists. It’s also (secretly), hilarious.
Our sincere apology. We are in discussion with Google Adsense to see if further refinement / matching / filtering is possible.
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation 🙂 Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Bucolically!
@Maggie – no problem, unfortunately (or not), few students looked at the site.
@Bucolically – If you’re a teacher try this experiment: Hang a poster advertising “Sexy Armenian Girls” on the bulletin board in your classroom. Then other teachers, the principal and your students’ parents can help with the translation.
In defense of Google and Diigo and such, all I can think to say is that while it is obvious that “genocide” and “sexy” don’t go together, I wouldn’t blame anybody per se for not thinking of preventing that particular combination. Perhaps AdSense should come up with special rules for most terms ending in “-cide”, given that most of them don’t go with any ads I can think of, except maybe for books about the topic.
@Lenoxus – Perhaps it’s just the marketing model that embeds advertisements in the tool that’s the problem. I also use Spurl for bookmarks and it provides a neat javascript cut’n’paste that will put links into any html page sans advertisements.
These services may consider taking the “good corporate citizen” route and ripping the ads out of accounts that are used for education. They could follow the lead of the Wetpaint, which is a social network/wiki tool (alternative to Ning?), that removes ads upon request.
Anytime we use these services or send students to sites that have advertisements we are making the same deal with the devil made by schools who subscribe for ChannelOne. I guess we each have to ask ourselves if its worth it. Do we endorse products by putting kids in front of their ads? Is it any different than hanging those ads on the door of our classroom?