I was just reminded about the rate at which technology changes things. In preparing a unit about marketing, using some recently updated content from the Learning Federation, I displayed the question “How has advertising changed?” Have a look at gmail advertising. No catchy jingle or even so much as a picture, but very targeted. Each email you open brings up a different set of ads on the right hand side of the screen. The ads are based on key words or themes in the body of the text. This one has picked up that I’m a teacher, and that I may be interested in working overseas. I open another one and there is a new set of ads, based on exactly what I’m thinking about at that moment. As a teacher, I’m not going to pretend to be an authority on advertising, but I will be asking students to consider the implications of this type of advertising, and the possibilities. I’ll also be asking the students how to get image to the bottom of the post, because ideally the text would have come first.
