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Colleges: MySpace crowds out learning

By PATRICK GIBLIN - BEE STAFF WRITER

April 28, 2006

Hundreds of local community college students have complained they aren't able to use campus computers for homework because others are hogging machines to browse a social networking site.

San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton has blocked access to the site MySpace.com, and Modesto Junior College officials are studying the issue.

MySpace is the fifth most popular English-language Web site in the world, according to Internet monitoring site Alexa.com. The site's 72 million users can leave messages for friends, post photos, music and video clips, and share diary entries.

Many high schools already block MySpace from their computers; four-year-universities, however, haven't had problems with it.

Local community college officials said they are targeting MySpace because it's taking up too many resources.

"I've come into the lab on several occasions to type up an essay and couldn't get a computer because half the people in the room were looking at MySpace," said MJC student Melanie Carlton, 19, of Patterson. "It consumes you. You can easily spend hours on the site and not know it."

But she admitted that she, too, checks out MySpace on campus.

"I'll have a two-hour gap between classes, which isn't enough time to go home," Carlton said. "Sometimes when I'm writing a paper, I'll check the site to give myself a brief break."

MySpace is accessed so often at MJC, there are concerns that it could reduce funding if state officials audited the campus, said George Railey, dean of instructional services.

"The state reimburses us for the time that students spend on the computers in pursuit of their studies," he said. "It will be hard to justify that reimbursement if it turns out that a great percentage of that time is spent on MySpace."

MJC's Task Force on Computer Use in College Labs has met several times in the past few months to discuss the issue. The group of students and faculty has asked the school's computer technicians to find out how much traffic is going to MySpace as well as other sites.

The task force is updating MJC's rules for computer use. The modified statement would include asking students not to browse MySpace unless it's for educational purposes. MySpace has been criticized for hosting pornography, photos of young people taking drugs or alcohol, and having pages filled with profanity. But, Railey noted, some professors use the site to post homework assignments and notes for students.

Officials also are studying the idea of setting up a separate area where computers could be used for recreation, he said.

Last year, Delta College tried warning students to stay off MySpace, said campus spokesman B.R. Brown.

That didn't work, he said, and Delta blocked the site in February.

"We are cognizant that there's an issue about the freedom to access any information, especially on a college campus," Brown said. "But this is a world of reality. The reality is we need to let other students use the computers for their education."

Last week, Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas, blocked access to MySpace.

August Alfonso, Del Mar's chief of technology, said that about 40 percent of the school's Internet traffic was going to MySpace. That was slowing other Internet connections.

Bakersfield Community College officials blocked the site this year because its traffic was taking up too many resources.

Most high schools block access to MySpace, said Stan Trevena, director of information and technology services for Modesto City Schools. Modesto schools are no exception, he said.

Some pages include pornography and other inappropriate material, Trevena said. There have been problems with students posting libelous statements about other students and teachers, he said.

The issue of MySpace's popularity has reached beyond schools. Several Apple Stores — outlets owned by Apple Computers — announced this week that they have blocked access to MySpace because too many people were browsing it for long periods instead of shopping.

Not every college has issues with MySpace.

Officials with the University of California at Merced, the University of the Pacific in Stockton and California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock said they have not had problems with students browsing MySpace.

That's probably because most four-year students own computers and live near campus, said Maithreyi Manoharan, associate vice president for information technology at Stanislaus State. It's easier for them to go home during breaks between classes to browse the Web. Community college students, on the other hand, often live miles from campus and don't have easy access to computers during the day.

Bee staff writer Patrick Giblin can be reached at 578-2347 or pgiblin@modbee.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.