In a move sure to be emulated (and copied) by competitors, Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Bing search engine has announced it will launch a new program later this year aimed directly at students, in order to become their preferred search site of choice.
According to the software giant, “Bing for Schools” will offer educational institutions in the U.S. the option to tailor what it calls “the Bing experience” for K-12 students by removing all advertisements from search results, enhancing privacy protections and the filtering of adult content, and adding specialized learning features to enhance digital literacy.
Microsoft hasn’t released all details of the program just yet, but did hint in a release at what it hopes to offer including:
- Keeping Kids Focused on Learning: Bing For Schools removes ads from the search experience, holding to the belief that schools are for learning, and not selling;
- Protecting Kids: Bing already offers the ability to filter out adult content with SafeSearch, but with Bing for Schools, SafeSearch will automatically default to the strict setting and remove kids’ ability to change it;
- Educating Kids: Bing For Schools will offer short lesson plans that teach digital literacy skills that are related to search and tied to the Common Core, or state standards for education.
The announcement of the new initiative came Monday, June 24, in San Antonio, Tex., where Microsoft was a presenter at the International Society for Technology in Education. Along with other technology leaders, the company hopes to grab a piece of the huge education market that a recent government report valued at about $625 billion, according to PCWorld. To that end, it also confirmed it would hand out 10,000 Surface RT tablets to needy schools across the country. Attendees of the conference were encouraged to apply for the tablets, and Microsoft said it would notify the lucky recipients in coming weeks.
More updates on the Bing for Schools program will be made as opening day for the next school year approaches.
Edited by Jamie Epstein
View all articles