Akoo International announced plans to develop a web site optimized for the iPhone’s Safari browser that will allow customers to use their iPhones to control in-store media displays. Presumably, store displays will announce their “m-Venue” URL and invite customers to trigger advertisements with their iPhones. According to Akoo, this “real-time consumer-to-brand interactivity” gives mobile users the ability to “search, select, and activate songs, music videos, memorable sports moments, pre-approved user generated content, and additional programming for shared public performance over standard audio/video systems.”

While that’s pretty slick for advertisers, such a technology might have interesting possibilities for higher education, too. Using location-based services, the iPhone could be used to trigger a particular presentation or a particular file download depending on where a student was standing in the classroom (or any other learning space), or it could help a student find the perfect resource material in the university library (”cold… warmer… warmer… HOT!”). This application’s tremendous potential to engage people with location-dependent content could easily be appropriated by academia to engage students at that all-so-critical teachable moment…