the big picture

From collective to individual:
educational technology advertisements

Educational technology advertising has shifted from celebrating shared collective discovery to promoting personal academic advantage. Yet its core promise of securing children’s futures remains the same.

The 1981 Atari advertisement declares that a computer will “bring the computer age home,” coupling visionary language with a glowing scene of a united family around the machine (Atari, 1981). It also lists grand possibilities such as learning French and even checking stock prices, implying that computers facilitate effortless skill mastery.

Four decades later, Lenovo’s Ready, Set, Learn campaign adopts concise, motivational phrasing, whilst graphics show individual students wielding lightweight laptops in flexible spaces, highlighting mobility and independence (Lenovo, 2025). The focus has moved from collective transformation to personal performance and competitive edge, with an allure of back-to-school “freebies” to persuade the audience to have the latest accessories to fully realise the device’s benefits.

Both advertisements reflect what Selwyn (2016) calls the intertwining of technology with society’s hopes and attitudes: these advertisements leverage parents’ desire to provide “the best” for their children. However, classroom practice often changes far less dramatically than the marketing rhetoric suggests, creating a persistent “usage and outcome gap” between promise and reality (Lim, Zhao, Tondeur, Chai, & Tsai, 2013).

These advertisements remind us to look beyond the hype and technological advancements and to ask ourselves: will this enrich student learning?

References

Atari. (1981). Atari brings the computer age home [Advertisement].

Lenovo. (2025). Ready, set, learn: Lenovo back to school promo 2025 [Advertisement].       https://promotions.lenovo.com/ph/ph/promotions/phbtspromo2025

Lim, C. P., Zhao, Y., Tondeur, J., Chai, C. S., & Tsai, C. C. (2013). Bridging the gap: Technology trends and use of technology in schools. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 16(2), 59–68.

Selwyn, N. (2016). What do we mean by 'education' and 'technology'? In Education and technology: Key issues and debates (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing.