People in the advertising industry still talk about a commercial for Apple Computers that aired once — and never again — during the 1984 Super Bowl. Even if you weren’t alive then, you know it: Bald, colorless drones march in and sit listening to a projected image of Big Brother addressing them from a huge screen. An athletic young woman chased by uniformed guards runs in carrying a large hammer. She hurls it, and the projected image explodes in a blaze of light. “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh,” the ad concludes. “And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.“
Have you seen the new ads for Kaplan University? They may not be of the artistic calibre of “1984,” which was directed by Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, but they certainly stop you in your tracks. A professor stands before his students in a college lecture hall and apologizes. “The system has failed you. I have failed you,” he intones. “I have failed to help you share your talent with the world, and the world needs talent more than ever. Yet it’s being wasted by an educational system steeped in tradition and old ideas.” He continues to speak, but now we’re watching his moving image on laptops and iPods. He is speaking to students who are seated at a kitchen table, on a living room couch and a rooftop. “It’s time to use technology to rewrite the rules of education,” the professor says. Like the 1984 ad, it’s not until the very last second that you find out the spot is for Kaplan.
Kaplan University's "Desks" TV Ad
A second ad, called “Desks,” consists of a series of images of old-fashioned school desks, either alone or arrayed in visually arresting settings – on a beach, lined up on a subway platform, on the lanes of a bowling alley, on city streets, and winding their way up a mountain trail. ”Where is it written that the old way is the right way? Where is it written that a traditional education is the only way to get an education? Where is it written that classes only take place in a classroom?” an unseen narrator asks. ”That’s just the thing. It isn’t written anywhere.”
Whether these ads are successful or not for Kaplan may be beside the point. What makes them interesting and compelling is what they say about education at large. They challenge you to look at something familiar with fresh eyes: Where does it say classes have to take place in a classroom? Why can’t college come to me? What’s the point of parking in a lecture hall for hours on end? This may be familiar stuff for educators, but for consumers conditioned to having every itch scratched on demand, I suspect the message behind the ads will seem simple, compelling and new. Very new.
Are we seeing online education’s 1984? It’s all but impossible to see watershed moments as they happen, but it’s sure easy with the hindsight of 25 years: Trivia fans will be interested to learn the Apple spot was not the only commercial for computers to run during the 1984 Super Bowl. Bill Bixby pitched RadioShack personal computers in one; Alan Alda hawked Atari computers in the other.
The George Plimpton ads for Intellivision were better.
The professor in the new Kaplan ads played Uncle Phil on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Comment by Ms. Miller — January 15, 2009 @ 2:21 pm
Did anyone else find it funny that the despite the talk of “using technology to rewrite the rules of education” and the criticism of “education steeped in tradition,” the ad depicts a professor standing in front of a class, talking. . .and that the apparently revolutionary part is that you watch that on an ipod? Maybe Kaplan will do something more interesting than that. . .but I sort of doubt it. I think that, based on U of Phoenix’s success, they think they see an opportunity.
Comment by Dan Willingham — January 15, 2009 @ 4:31 pm
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/01/09/04mobile.h02.html
On the other hand:
Does differential access to computer technology at home compound the educational disparities
between rich and poor? Would a program of government provision of computers to secondary
students reduce these disparities? We use administrative data on North Carolina public school students to corroborate earlier surveys which document broad racial and socioeconomic gaps in home computer access and use. Using within-student variation in home computer access, and across-ZIP code variation in the timing of the introduction of high-speed internet service, we also demonstrate that the introduction of home computer technology is associated with modest but statistically significant and persistent negative impacts on student math and reading test scores.
Further evidence suggests that providing universal access to home computers and high-speed internet access would broaden, rather than narrow, math and reading achievement gaps.
Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement
Charles T. Clotfelter, Helen F. Ladd and Jacob L. Vigdor*
Duke University
July 29, 2008
Abstract
Comment by tmwillemse — January 15, 2009 @ 8:56 pm
Great post Robert.
Comment by Mike G — January 16, 2009 @ 12:35 pm