Say goodbye to ads, and why it matters for educators

Firstly, before you read any further, if you have Chrome and don’t have this extension installed already, go get Ublock origin. It’s free, and it works. Goodbye to 90% of the ads you see on the net. Be careful, there are a lot of imitators out there, but this one is by far the best.

As a Ublock Origin user, I cringe when I jump on someone else’s computer and visit a site without this extension installed. The internet seems so noisy, so commercial. It feels like everywhere there are neon signs flashing  ‘buy, buy, buy’.

Now, why does this matter to educators, in particular those who specialize in instructional design?

When we design instruction, we are hyper aware of the cognitive considerations of what we include in our materials. Should I add audio to this diagram, or would that be distracting? Should I include the extra step in the process on this section, or is that too much cognitive load?

Now we don’t always get these answers right, but we certainly take time to ask the question. However, in the Web 2.0 environment, many of the free tools we use to create and distribute content to our learners rely on advertisement revenue.

I think an important consideration needs to be how these ads can distract from learning. They have been specifically designed to be visually appealing, and are likely targeting  the learner using an algorithm which is generating content of likely interest and relevance to the individual.

For example, a learner who loves cycling has just finished watching the latest leg of the Tour de France on Youtube. They sit down to continue there university study. The content has been posted on a free wiki site by the teacher. Everything is text-base (which works well for the activity), but at the bottom of the page, there is a colorful ad from Ebay saying ‘25% off all cycling accessories this weekend’. The ad cycles through images of bike parts and their reduced price.

Even if the learner does not follow the link, how distracting must that ad be? This is why I would advocate that learners install Ublock Orgin, or something similar, to try and  reduce the amount of advertising they will be exposed to.