What comes after the web for the students?

Few things keep on coming and going.

Few things remain.
- by Khandker Tarek
Ravensbourne, London, 7 Nov 2016
 Point of views
• For the given brief of ensuring skills for the
students, I think of two POVs:
• ‘Technical/schematic/for-the-time-being’
• ‘Universal/thematic/long-term’
• Teaching students = Creating future leaders
• Has to be the right blend of both.
 Technical/for-the-time-being
• What came after the web? The question is asked today – 7th Nov 2016
• Say for example, the exciting answer is Apps.
• Then, say, on 7th Nov 2018, the question will be – what came after the
apps?
• There will be some other exciting answer then.
• Then, again, on 7th Nov 2020, the question again will be, what came
after that?
• There will be, once again, another exciting answer.

Technical aspects change fast – making students too much

focused on a single technology won’t make them future proof.
 Things change
• Tools change, platforms change - fast.
• E-mails, messaging, VoIP
• The revolutionary web
• Websites, forums, blogs, social networks, e-
commerce, social-commerce
• Then, another revolution – apps.
• And, then there will be something else.
• Old things are forgotten.
• Remember, once upon a time we had typewriters.
 And, things also remain…
• And, once upon a time we had creative copywriters.
• We still have them – changing the world through
creativity.
• Typewriters came and gone. But copywriters remain.
• Telegraphs are forgotten, but the thought of a creative
message is forever.
• Tools can afford to be obsolete, students cannot be.
 The long-term elements
• For the students – instead of jumping into teaching
how to develop apps, let’s start by teaching:
• Creative understanding of the business problem/creative brief
• Creative ways of using the consumer/user insights
• Creative design and development
• Creative extendibility
• Creative monitoring
• Such methodological teaching will make the
students change-proof. That’s the advantage.
 The long-term elements
• These exercises can incorporate understanding and analysis
from a broad range of topics – media/comm, sociology,
culture, anthropology, history, technology and so on.
• Also, students should know the use of Unique Selling
Proposition (USP) and Emotional Selling Proposition (ESP) of
the brief to develop apps or the next big thing.
• I explain with my own examples
– USP/ESP.
 The technical aspects
• Then we can move to teach them the technical
aspects –
• Unique and appealing design
• Platform knowledge – Apple/Android/Amazon
• Ease of use, affordability
We can focus on other technical aspects –
Programing – Java/C+/Delphi, Android and other platforms etc. And, collaboration,
participation in the digital platform. NetSmart concepts. Media theories.

(I can analysis these from strategy, research and teaching aspects. And, creative
sides - I use Graphic Software suite all through my life. Coding/programming – will
need your guidance, if required – it is a teamwork.)
 May be a simple edu-model
Draft proposed educational model for students – learning apps or other new developments. Summarising the
previous slides.

User insights
Blend of USP/ESP
Brief And tools/platforms

Vast knowledge bases –

media/comm, sociology, culture,
Review/Monitoring anthro, history…
Output
 The holistic approach
• Why the holistic approach is important?
• Because technology is fast becoming do-it-yourself.
• There are plenty of online initiatives CoderDojo, MOOC courses
(Coursera/Udemy/Udacity), Java/XML, Github and many other open source
materials. Udacity’s Google approved Android Development courses, for
example.
• What requires complicated coding today, will be simply drag-and-drop
tomorrow
• So, when the mass users can develop their own web tools/items like apps,
sites – where is the competitive advantage of the students when they join the
industry?
• Students must be able to offer a holistic solution, must show the clients that
they have a much broader understanding which cannot be replaced by DIY
solutions.
 The holistic approach
• From my end, mind blowing creative ads and mind blowing
creative apps – same thought-process and mechanism can be
applied.
• That’s what I would like to offer – to do some best-practice
projects with the students – ads/apps/anything-creative!
• To leave behind something meaningful for the next generations.

moves on
 Note
• My professional background is creative advertising
• My academic/research background is media
• On-going PhD is broadly on digital media / advertising
• So, the focus here is more on teaching strategy,
curriculum, change management, research – as
explained rather than technical details of
tools/platforms.
• Would like to transfer my on-going research
knowledge to the classroom.
 Thank you!
• Questions/comment?
• Discussions?

tarek.researcher@gmail.com
+44 7448523561