Kris Shaffer, an instructional technology specialist at the University of Mary Washington, was recently quoted in Inside Higher Ed. In the article “Net Neutrality Rollback Concerns Colleges,” Shaffer said that many students working from home already have slow internet, making it difficult for them to access course materials. “If ISPs start charging customers more for content such as video, this issue may get worse,” he said.
At Mary Washington, said Shaffer, many students take part in an institutionwide initiative called Domain of One’s Own, in which they are encouraged to create their own websites and share the content with friends. He said that the university works with small companies to provide this service to students — companies that, he worries, wouldn’t have the cash to buy prioritization from ISPs, potentially making the websites less accessible to the public.
“The internet was invented for universities. If educational content is now going to take a back seat … it’s disheartening, to say the least,” said Shaffer.
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