sisomo - the future on screen

"If you can't deal with screen language, you aren't literate."
John Seely Brown (from "sisomo - the future on screen")

I have made a promise to myself to get away from "the screens" of my world and try to read a new book every 2 weeks (and that doesn't include a computer or software manual or all the tech magazines I read.) One book that I have raced through has been sisomo -the future on screen by Kevin Roberts.

sisomo = sight + sound + motion

This is one of those books that had me nodding and smiling as I went through almost every page. Even though this is a marketing and advertising book...it fit with who my clients presently are...students and teachers.

From what I have read about Mr. Roberts he is your typical successful ad man...a great speaker that could sell just about anything to anyone. It seems he has as many critics as his does fans. He was born in Britain and has adopted New Zealand as his home (ah, another that has seen the light.)

So what's different about this book? Roberts talks about the "screens" in our world and how they impact us from day to day. Such things as:

• television
• pda
• movie
• computer
• cellphone
• ATM
• iPod

The list above are just some of the screens we interact with on a daily or weekly basis. Some screens have almost replaced human interaction such as the ATM machine. I spoke about this in an earlier posting where I would now sooner stand in line at an ATM than get served immediately by a human teller at a bank? Why? I am not sure but that is now where my comfort level is....and I am sure I am not alone on this one.

Does screen interaction impact how we communicate in the classroom or develop our curriculum? Does it have an impact at all?

I challenge that it does! Our students have had screens influencing and impacting them most of their lives. Most sat in front of a computer since they could walk. Almost all young people today have cellphones and can text faster than the speed of light. More bullying happens through texting than it does on the playground. XBox, playstation and online games are usually the choice of entertainment in millions of homes worldwide.

Here are some other staggering facts (from: "sismo - the future on screen"

• 1.5 billion mobile phones are in use worldwide
• 14.2 billion video streams were served in 2004
• each month in 2005, 3 billion text messages were sent
• online retail sales in the US alone hit $141.4 billion in 2004
• the number of web pages exceeds 600 billion. That's 100 pages for everyone alive
• Google image search indexes more than 1 billion images

Now...you tell me if screens have an impact on our lives :)