Using Internet Bandwidth Responsibly

As we rely more and more on the Internet for our communication, daily interactions and research, having a reliable, fast Internet connections in school becomes increasingly important.  At one time we might want to have reliable Internet access in our schools; today we need it.

It stands to reason, then, that if we rely on something so much, we should treat it well and use it responsibly.  We do this with our cars, our home heating systems, and anything else we deem essential in our lives.  And, when we share a resource with others who need it as well, it becomes doubly important that we treat it well so that we don't have a negative impact on those around us.

Unfortunately, this doesn't always happen with school Internet connections.
It's not uncommon for me to walk into a school lab and see a half-dozen or more students streaming Youtube music videos so that they can listen to music.  Ironically, they often simultaneously complain that they can't get their work done because Internet response times are so slow.  Somehow they can't/don't/won't make the connection that their own behaviour is affecting their ability to do their work.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not a Youtube basher.  I think Youtube is a marvellous teaching resource, and I've lobbied steadily to prevent its being blocked in schools.  However, there is little doubt that streaming video taxes Internet bandwidth heavily.  Therefore, we need to make sure that when do so, we do it for educationally sound reasons.

My example above falls in the category of inappropriate use of Internet resources because:

1. There is no sound educational reason for the students to be listening to Youtube videos as background music.  Very few students are without MP3/media players these days.  If they want to listen to music, by all means let them listen to their own music collection.  That consumes no school resources at all.
2. In this case they are not even watching the Youtube video; they are only listening to the audio.  In other words many Kb/s of Internet traffic is being generated to stream the video without providing a single benefit to anyone in the building.

I believe it's time that we, as educators, began teaching our students about acceptable and responsible use of school resources.  It may be many educators are not aware that, since our school Internet connections are provided by the province's CommunityNet, we are bound by the CommunityNet Acceptable Use Policy. One of the behaviours deemed unacceptable within this policy is to "put unjustifiable demands on CNET's infrastructure."  In my mind needlessly streaming media merely for personal entertainment falls squarely within this realm.

The bottom line is this:  like it or not, Internet bandwidth is a limited resource.  Even if we expand our capacity, experience has shown that our behaviours and usage will very quickly adapt to consume whatever bandwidth is available.  If we use it irresponsibly, then those who are responsible for providing us with a reliable connection will have little choice but to limit our access in some way, such as site-blocking or bandwidth throttling.

If that happens, and they can point to our irresponsible use as the reason, we will have no one to thank but ourselves.