Thursday 20 October 2011

As Learning Goes Mobile

Last session today was from Lee Raine of the Pew Internet projects out mobility.

He started with the questions he couln't answer:
Who'll do the ebooks thing best
Are students attention spans shorter now
Are students brains being rewired
Are students more indifferent to privacy
What's the matter the kids today?

He then went on to give us some figure. All of them relate to US adults:

65% are social networking site users
55% share photos
26% post comments on sits and blogs
15% have personal web site
14% blog
13% use twitter
9% allow location awareness from social media

Blogging and twitter low percentages, but big in influence.

People getting more information, from more sources.  More filters being set up so they get what they want and regulate information flows.

50% of US adults and 80% of teenagers use social media. Not just a young people thing anymore.
Social networks and social media are becoming more important in people's learning strategies.
Social networks are more influential and are differently  segmented and layered. For example, people don't pay as much attention to news, as news which is important will find its way to them through networks.
People have trusted networks, and question their network about validity of information.
Social networks are the audience for the things they are creating.

More phone subscribers in US than people.
56% own laptops
12% own ebook readers
9% have iPads and rising. Early adopters, elite cohort.

Distinction between tablets and ebook readers getting blurred eg in kindle fire. Trend will continue

35% of US adults have smart phones. Higher percentage in younger groups. Majority connect to Internet wirelessly.

25% of smart phone users use it as their primary device for accessing the Internet.

17% have bumped into something or someone whilst paying more attention to the mobile device than their physical environment

1 in 4 adults use apps. Predict that both apps and web services will survive but for different things. Segmented applications for different needs.

Top apps functions:
Info updates
Communication
Learn about interests
Destinations

Text messaging integral part of the mobile story. Primary way young adults communicate with each other. Going up. Everything else going down.
Average is 109 texts a day for 18 to 24 yr olds


Mobile connectivity is changing social and information spaces by enhancing and enabling:

1 New access points to knowledge. Ebooks and the cloud. Sharing information.
Real time information sharing. Opportunism and pain avoidance. Eg hit a traffic jam and figure out alternative. Hyper coordination of group activities.

2 Just in time searches. Settle arguments. New cognition? Some evidence that this is emerging.

3 Augmented reality. Merger of real world and data. Esp in apps environment. Can simulate environments.

4 Perpetual, pervasive  awareness/access to social networks. Deeper connection and consultation. Can share more stuff and participate. Networks getting bigger and more diverse.

Ubiquitous small screens are changing attention and media zones. Continuous partial attention. All gadgets on. People live in information streams. Don't read in depth. Dip in and out of stream. Not linear or structured.
Info snacking. Quick doses of info.

Mobile connectivity is changing public and private space/time continuum.  Any device any time etc. Public life has invaded private life. "Alone together" New social norms are developing.

New kinds of learners are emerging.
Learning used to be a transaction, now its a process

What will future university look like in 10 years time?  They are looking at differnet scenarios, and you can vote on them here.
Http://survey.fs.elon.edu/surveys/

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