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.

Smartphones, PDA’s, semi-smartphones there is an overabundance of hand-held technology today.

But what we are not seeing are the education and professional communities picking up these, anyplace and anywhere enabling tools as a means to advancing personal/professional/directed information exchange.

And, by the way, advancing personal/professional/directed information exchangeis the cornerstone of effective education.

There are a few people riding the wave, and I am not sure they have it right, but there is some experimentation taking place.

GoKnow is a very interesting idea from 2 American professors that takes advantage of the mobile phone in an education setting.

Would the GoKnow platform work in my own classes? No.

What I am looking for is a platform that can capture my whiteboard, the audio of the conversation/lecture, and facilitate student interaction around the previous 2 and any readings that I have tacked onto the mix.

And then allow the student to make to content work for them!

If that can be done on a BlackBerry we are golden!

Enough of the phone wars lets start thinking of engaging the student in the content!

In fact the best content I have had in my classes is student mash-up!

Where is the future of education? Mobile devices!

We collectively think too much about the big picture and the latest and greatest technology FAILING to realize that we live, work and breath the small picture and that most of us are using old tech (over a year old) to do most everything!

Want to succeed?

1. look around, listen and watch

-try to get a feel for what people are doing and what they are using to do it

2. don’t be afraid of hype-local which also means hyper niche

-so many of us are blinded by the next best thing mentality that we forget that there are some old things that can be tweaked to be even better

3. play

-try stuff with people who are not afraid to experiment and fail at it, I find hanging around with students the best place to do this

This article from the New York Times really has me thinking about the 2 ideas of niche and simple and of course how we can bring, in my case education materials, to those right around where I live.

Are we back in the Commodore 64 era?

What we all see, I bet someone around you is using an old cellphone, is opportunity knocking on our niche and hyper-local application door.

Answer it!

The problem, as I see it, is that we have a classic disconnect taking place that needs to be addressed for serious change advancement to take place NOW and not well after the innovation train has left the station.

What we need is clear, concise mobile phone education!

We have lots of pieces BUT no whole.

Apple has itunes. TATA has a plan. And many schools are thinking about how.

But there is a disconnect between the handset developers, the handset operating system creators, the app community and the service providers, and don’t forget the very wide and divergent education community itself!

Why, why, why has mobile education not become a national priority of every government?

Has anyone noticed how many youth use mobile phones?

Has anyone noticed where and when our youth use their phones?

And has anyone noticed that whether our youth acknowledge the content delivered on the phone or not THEY DO CONSUME IT?

I firmly believe that a golden opportunity to reformat the DELIVERY of COMPONENTS of education today is being missed because, we adults, are being blinded by the glamour of mobile technology and not demanding applied functionality that can be rolled out as fast as a new handset comes onto the market.

The time is NOW to embrace aspects of mobile education.

Just like chalk boards have given way to white boards and hand passed notes have given way to sms and msn messenger, mobiles phones and have a place in the delivery of education today and we need to get onto it NOW.

MobileActive.org is a community of people and organizations using mobile phones for social impact. We are committed to increasing the effectiveness of NGOs around the world who recognize that the 3.5 billion mobile phones provide unprecedented opportunities for organizing, communications, and service and information delivery.

When was the last time you heard a person talk about using mobile apps for social good? Maybe what we are really talking about is innovation “from the edge”?

Mobile phones are not new but the application of the technology and sandwiching of this technology beyond low value storytelling could see the pushing of the next phase of the mobile revolution!

What we see happening is the mobile phone becoming the common denominator in the communication process.

But what is interesting is the amount of push for this “mobile revolution” from the developing world!

Africa is the 1st world of mobile phone social adaptation.

The west is the 3rd world when it comes to meaningful/real mobile phone social adaptation.

The west is show and Africa is go!

Increasingly I find my self dealing with managers who are dependent on technology, think BlackBerry, but are absolutely pathetic communicators!

If you do not plan to answer email please use the auto responder built into your email service to let me know that you have no plan to respond!  BUT if this is going to be the case please don’t read your email on that hand held treasure when we are meeting!

SMS!  If you don’t like it, don’t read it. or don’t plan to respond EVER can you let me know!

Why are so many companies, public and private, finding themselves in precarious situations today? Crap communication skills by those who will make the venture sink or swim!

The point?

COMMUNICATE! Set aside a specific time in the day to answer email and SMS or hey here is a good idea just pick up the phone!

COMMUNICATE!  And if you cannot then assign someone else to do that part of your job!  Outsource!

Enough is enough…