I wonder where we went wrong actually.

As you look around you there are so many aspects of our lives that speak to education or the lack of it.

-organizational communication

-visual ads

-wording in many contexts

-look of things like posters

-conflict

And those are just a few areas of our common lives that seem to have slipped through the cracks in our education system.

I came across a link to the book Type Matters and realized that this is a whole side of my education that has been ignored!

Yet I produce all sorts of documents and visual presentations relying on the default font or one or 2 I like.

In a sense I have left a whole side of my communication to chance!

Again I ask where did we go wrong as we reformed and continue to reform education?

I think we are so focused we are missing much of the obvious.

Not that TED videos aren’t interesting and enlightening but they could be even more powerful if they were specifically directed to students in a way that meshed with curriculum.

That day has arrived!

One of the things that excites me are the TEDEducation videos on YouTube.

It will be interesting to see where this goes and how educators here in Dubai use this new content.

And pretty much every time I read something on the Duarte blog I have a new door opened!

This week I was introduced to Dan Roam, how did I miss him is what I am wondering?

Dan is all about the thought process.

What is clear to me as I walk back into my University classes this week is we as teachers need to be doing more to conceptualize how our students think.

Honestly I am not sure I have given the thought process much though.

Well Dan has started me down a path that is sure to get very interesting fast!

Check out this video and tell me it doesn’t make you ask a few questions about your own approach to thinking.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/35270777[/vimeo]

What is a teacher?

Public education?

Smart?

Not?

Economics vs intellectual?

I am moving to a new school in September to help create the UAE’s leading mass communication program.

I say leading because if we are going to just do what is typical today there would be no point in moving to CUD from ZU.

We are going to put a program in motion that is in constant re-invention.

We are thinking of journalism in terms of the craft and the delivery.

We are thinking advertising in terms of what, who and where.

We are thinking about PR in terms of the story and delivery.

No more we need huge expensive pools of equipment to make media, WE DON’T NEED A HUGE SET OR A HUGE LAB.

What we need is people who are engaged as mentors and learners.

Watch this video this to me is where CUD’s mass communication program is going.

Of course we don’t or we like to say we are not innovative.

The biggest failure today in pretty much every industry is failing to see the ability to innovate what we do.

And education is top on my hit list of places and process that have failed to even scratch the surface of innovative thinking.

The problem for educators today is that the system has become so rooted around architecture, space and time that the innovation we need is simply the thing of fantasy dreams.

Columbia makes cloths BUT they are also leaders in personal innovation, really.

Check out this video.

Cool Hunting Video Presents: Omni Heat Electric from Cool Hunting on Vimeo.

If Columbia can be innovative with something as common as the boot, glove and coat what is stopping you from bringing innovation into your workplace?

You!

Communication can and does take many forms.

The ability to harness a variety of forms of communication through the creative process is something we are not doing so well in our education systems.

Don’t get me wrong there is lots of creativity and lots of communication but we are not doing a lot to connect the 2.

Here is a great example of that connection taking place.

My question is how do I get my creative advertising students to see the forest in spite of the trees?

In the past advertisers have liked to believe that you want to avoid consumer confusion by keeping messaged clear and single media based. Sure there may be messages across media but the logic has been that different screens being used simultaneously in multimedia messages will only confuse.

This is also the logic used in education.

While we like to use multimedia we do not want to promote confusion by sending the same message simultaneously via all available screens.

Maybe the opposite is true!

Here is an interesting report.

As part of the research, consumers visiting the CBS TV City Media Lab at MGM Las Vegas were asked to look at content on a TV set, a computer, a smartphone and a tablet.

Also, according to the report, people who saw the video on four screens almost always had more positive opinions about the car compared with those who watched only TV, in categories like reliability and power.

According to the data, consumers use computers and smartphones for searches throughout the work day; smartphone use increases during commuting times and in the evenings.

And the use of tablets for searches “spikes dramatically” in the evenings, according to the blog post.

“If you are an advertiser, you might be wondering which is the best screen to reach your customers on,” the post concludes. “The answer is: All of them. These screens are better together.”

Maybe, once again we need to throw our old conventions about getting attention and sharing information into the wind and start thinking about the user/consumer in a different way.

The reality from an educators point of view is we need to get our content onto every possible screen and now.

The other reality is educators, as a whole, are far from embracing the possibility being offered by technology even as it stares them in the face.

I would like to go for a starter!

The Cannes Creative Academy.

Now take a look at what it is all about.

Look at what the students are put through.

The learning programme

Students follow an intensive schedule of activities during the Festival week, under the leadership of course Dean Jim Stengel, Former Global Marketing Officer for P&G, andTutor Suzanne Tosolini.

A provisional framework for the learning programme includes, but is not limited to:

Why creativity matters for today’s successful brands
Reach a deeper understanding of the role of creativity and how brands are successfully integrating it into their strategies.

Creative effectiveness
A demonstration of the measurable nature of creativity and why it has a proven impact on a client’s business; creativity affects consumer behaviour, brand equity, sales and profit.

The impact of digital
How digital technology has revolutionised creativity in communications and changed the communication development process.

The modern brand
Delegates will hear from creatives from organisations representing the worlds of music, film production and design, among others. Creativity is at the heart of these industries.

Manage the creative process
How to get the best out of the creative relationship between clients and agencies.

Creative leadership
A session delivered by the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

Case study: a presentation of Gold and Titanium winners
Creatives who have produced some of today’s best known work present a unique insight into the creative thought process behind it.

Cannes Lions 2011 seminars
We will guide you through the relevant Festival seminars to help you make the most of the learning programme.

 

So, as an educator I am asking myself the simple question, why is all our education not like this?

Worldwide mobile advertising revenue forecast to reach $3.3 billion in 2011

The numbers are pretty amazing and if they are anywhere near target wow!

My question goes back to education.

Are our business schools, IT Colleges and Communication schools onto this idea?

Worldwide mobile advertising revenue is forecast to reach $3.3 billion in 2011, more than double the $1.6 billion generated in 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide revenue will reach $20.6 billion by 2015, but not all types of mobile advertising will generate the same opportunity. Search and maps will deliver the highest revenue, while video/audio ads will see the fastest growth through 2015.

Here is a chart that comes from this worth reading article.

What is for sure the landscape of media, advertising and PR is in a very clear transition and this is happening fast.

The question is who can keep up?

Or if you don’t keep up with the media transition what future do you have?

What is convergent journalism and is anyone really teaching it?

Sure there is a lot of talk but is there a lot of actual application?

And then there is the whole issue of whether convergent journalism simply further blurs the PR/journalism line altogether.

Here is a good place to start the conversation, a definition.

Criado and Kraeplin (2009) give a very functional definition. They define convergence journalism as, “print, broadcast, and online news staffs forging partnerships in which journalists work and distribute content across several news platforms” (p. 19).

So is convergent journalism the media, the message or a bit of both?

I opt for the second and then wonder, out loud, if we professors are actually teaching convergence or building our own media silos to protect our fields of interest!

I suspect the later.

The only thing getting in the way of students being taught how to be convergent storytellers is academia!

For instance check out this converged story.

You have not heard of Storify?

You need to watch this interview with the creators.

One of the guys was an AP reporter for close to 12 years.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvPBqON3yUQ[/youtube]

Convergent journalism is about tools and how we use them.

There has never been a better time than now to start talking about the media and the message being combined to tell the full and continuing story.

Journalism isn’t just telling anymore it is curating content.

Is today’s academia ready for convergence of the storytelling process?

Maybe the better question is does it really matter if academia is ready or not for the convergence process?