Channel One announced they have dropped their year long effort to get teachers to sign up for free Channel One email. Obligation has monitored the Channel One “Teach 1” forums which were a side-by-side feature with their email. Hardly any teacher used the forum section and it is not surprising that few used the email feature.
It appears that Channel One’s web presence is of little concern to teachers and students. Channel One has three web sites at present: channelone.com for students; teach1.com for teachers; and channeloneparents.com for parents.
Jim Metrock said, “Since Obligation forced Channel One to drop the R-rated movie reviews and sex advice columns for kids, Channel One.com has been like a ghost town. They keep trying to put advertising on the site but they usually shoot themselves in the foot. There is no advertising on the site now and they would be wise to keep all ads off.”
“The Teach1.com site is a professional looking site, which is out of character for Channel One,” said Metrock. “This site is not so much for teachers as it is for the Channel One PR department. They are constantly selling themselves here. The parents site is a disaster. It hasn’t been changed for over six months. There is a feature called “Ask Dr. Folkemer” on this site that is suppose to help parents, but Dr. Folkemer told me this January that he never answers any questions. Why am I not shocked?”
