XplanaZine

Web ad sales are up, eBay is reporting record increases in revenue, and Web news is starting to make fiscal sense. Are we still in 2003?
Since the dotcom crash, the biggest problem for e-commerce has been how to make money on the Web. Recent technological and sociological shifts, however, seem to be opening new avenues for profitability. They also point to possibilities for increased and improved uses for the Web in education.
While the recent Pew survey shows that roughly 25% of Americans do not know the Internet, 75% do. 66% of U.S. households are connected and the percentage is higher for businesses and schools. Not only is connectivity high and increasing, the type of connectivity has changed.
Broadband means that for users, getting to information is no longer tedious and frustrating. It is also always on, spurring viewers to check their favorite sites as many as 30-40 times a day instead of once or twice, as they would do with dial-up service.
The statistics become more interesting when considering how increased connectivity has begun affecting the workplace. In a study done in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal Online, titled “The Elephant in the Room”, eMarketer found that a lot of people in the office are using their computers for purposes other than work. Some 50 million to 60 million are online at the office in the US alone, of about 135 million total viewers. Some 60 percent of the 53 billion annual online consumer dollars are spent at the workplace. Of these at-work users, 45 percent notice ads online and say the ads influence them. The average total time spent online at the office per Internet visitor last November was an amazing 35.5 hours.
In addition to changes in user connectivity, e-commerce is also being affected dramatically by technological advances that have made it possible to embed ads in journalistic copy itself, as they are in newspapers and magazines, and to tie the ads to articles related to those interests, rather than having to resort to annoying pop-ups and banners. This “just-in-time” advertising has given advertisers narrowcasting capabilities without altering the way users interact with their favorite materials.
Greater connectivity and just-in-time are making the difference in e-commerce. It’s not difficult to see their impact in education as well.
Greater connectivity, wired and wireless, also promises to reduce the tedium and frustration for students and instructors. Fewer interruptions and seamless exchanges mean that technology gets in the way of learning. In addition, expanded connection capabilities give developers and publishers an improved palette of technologies to work with when creating new learning objects.
The secret behind just-in-time advertising is being able to separate technologies and apply them specifically and in an integrated fashion. This is a strategy that works in online learning as well — integrate specific tools for specific tasks instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Misapplied and overused technologies in teaching are every bit as annoying as pop-up ads on commercial Web sites. Embedded ads are agile and seamless marketing.
Agile and seamless online learning? Has a ring, doesn’t it?