In the final paragraph of my recent article, The Screen Time Debate Rages into 2016, I asked the reader “How should the display industry address the screen-time debate, especially since the concerns [about screen safety] are coming from ‘experts we trust’”? I suggested “with clear thinking, messaging, and marketing, this new challenge is surmountable.”
In a promised return to this topic, here are my thoughts on some of the strategies the display industry can pursue to attenuate the negative sales side effects of screen-time critics in the education market:
Demonstrate active versus passive uses. In exhibit hall, try to demonstrate active learning models as opposed to passive teaching models. In my recent exhibit hall walkthroughs at the large FETC educational conferences, again I noticed almost every booth was focused on pouring information into the minds of empty-vessel students, using displays, computers, projectors, or the technology du jour. With today’s educators, that’s simply anachronistic. Try to partner with content providers that emphasize active learning content. Hire hall presenters with teaching background who know how to demonstrate active learning strategies. School principals will continuously give your products a thumbs-down if you cannot beat this rap.
Leverage available science. If your newest product design or screen technology is easier on the eyes, over time—and you have the science to prove it—let folks know. Explain exactly how your product reduces excessive screen-time concerns.
Enjoin the “cooperative learning spaces” theme. Saddle up to the current popularity of the “cooperative learning spaces” movement: showcase your display in a huddle or team space environment. And consider booth demonstrations of collaboration activities, showing how students often interact more with each other than with the display. See my previous article.
Collaborative learning spaces feature displays
Diversify the use cases. Perceived issues of educational hollowness often arise from excessive screen time concerns, so show uses that really matter. Create pilot and showcase projects in schools that demonstrate the real learning possible with great visual tools and accompanying teaching strategies.
Emphasize Thinking Skills. In an article I wrote dissecting the 2015 Horizon Report, cited the report: “…digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking, and thus skills and standards based on tools and platforms have proven to be somewhat ephemeral.” The report goes on to say: “Another key skill of complex thinking is the ability for students to make complex ideas understandable, using data visualization, media, and other communications techniques.” The trick for the display industry is to help schools understand that, in terms of complex thinking, visual technologies should be a leading argument, not a lagging one—and definitely not a footnote.
Go Creational. In a recent posting on the ISTE online community, Dion Lim, CEO of NextLesson suggested that one of the best antidotes to the destructive malady of screen-time excess involves using displays for creational activities. ”How are we fostering the use of creational technology?” He continues: “Creational [activity] is the best way to prepare your kids for the future.” This makes sense. More and more, teachers are shifting their thinking away from students as consumers of technology. Instead, educators value students being able to produce creatively with technology. Actually, it’s the pathway to extinction, because more and more educators are making the shift to “students as creators” with technology. What message does your booth suggest? What about your sales literature? Can you speak the educators’ language of ‘producer’ versus the past paradigm of “consumer”?
Show results. In the education world, nothing removes the oxygen and starves the fire of destructive potential like showing academic results. Critics gather for retreat when they hear the bugling advance of academic success. Showing the benefits of visualization and evidence of academic progress that come from using your products will always trump screen-time concerns.
Each of these strategies can help mitigate any potential damage coming to your doorstep due to the screen-time debate. In a way, each demonstrates both your understanding of and respect for the challenges your educational customers face. They provide vivid evidence that your firm is working to soften the challenges your customers will inevitably experience. Pursuing these strategies will set your company on a very positive footing. –Len Scrogan
