And, indeed, many teachers claim the ad-free searches helped the classroom environment and improved children’s ability to learn digital literacy skills. Since the launch of the pilot, the program has swelled to include hundreds of US school districts with more than 4.5 million children in 5,000 schools. This has resulted in more than 35 million ad-free queries during this school year. Now, Bing’s ad-less search is available to all eligible K-12 US schools for free. Along with being ad-free, Bing in the Classroom also lets teachers set up filters to block adult content and ad targeting. Additionally, educators can add various learning features to Bing that promote students’ digital literacy. Parents can see if their children’s school has ad-free Bing on Microsoft’s Bing in the Classroom Web site.
