The Ecosystem Knows The Trend
I browsed some of the trend reports, and focused my eyes on the “Ambient Insight – Global Learning Technology Market Taxonomy”. It gave me a very clear panorama of the Educational Technology. According to it and other resources, I drafted a small “ET ecosystem” map. The biggest enlightenment it gave me is that “Learner != Customer”. That’s what I thought in the past! Apparently there are a bunch of more players involved in this big game. I like the Ambient Insight’s taxonomy for “Customer”: Buyer (who opens their wallets), Teachers (or end-users who open the package) and Learners (who open their mind). This makes me understand that we should design the ET products on a 3-level paradigm: 1) “The Pedagogic Level”, to satisfy the Learner with engagement and fast way to goal; 2) “The Product/Software Level”, to satisfy the Teacher with simplicity, usability and flexibility to control; and 3) “The Operational Level”, to satisfy the Buyer with low price in launching &maintenance and with high accountability.
There are some interesting trends can be detected from the ET ecosystem map. The first is the blending of Customer and Supplier. Today we have more learners contribute as prosumers, and more teachers produce as developers & content curators. This trend changes the game rules by splitting wholesaled ET packages/services to retailed programs/virtual parcels; and urges the demand for non-professional tools, and open channel for easier distribution and revenue-sharing. Examples of this trend are Web2.0-based Learning, AppStore, etc.
Another trend can be seen on the vertical direction of the map, i.e. the convergence of Customer of learning and the Non-learning Customer. That means, learning is jumping out of the traditional scenarios, and integrating into our daily lives. We’ve seen the trend of BYOD, Big Data and DLEs as proofs. Accordingly, this vertical merging happens on the supplier side. Vendors and operators of Channel are seeking to widen their realms by providing services/products specified for education, e.g. Google Ed, Amazon and so on. This merging is only on infrastructure level at present, but no one can tell what’s the front edge they will stop, given the vast data resided in their clouding assets.
In my opinion, the essential power beneath these trends is just the simple law of any ecosystem: to reduce the overall consumption of a life body meanwhile to increase its productivity as much as possible. This law can explain lots of trends we are faced. For example, the merging of learning and non-learning customers is on other facet just a reuse of the common infrastructure, that certainly saves the running cost of the ecosystem. It’s a value-adding process. ET ventures are expected to add values to any piece or link in the ecosystem, and they will get paid for the saving of consumption and the productive extra.
Besides the beautiful panorama I’ve learnt from the “Ambient Insight” report, I’d like to mention a little puzzle I found in it, that is when they emphasized the Mobile Learning as high as an “all roads leading to”, they excluded laptops and netbooks (with mobile capability) from their “handheld” taxonomy. Why is that? I don’t understand. I can’t see too many differences between a laptop and an iPad, except their keyboard are hard .vs. soft, and their Apps come from different channels. But as we noticed that channels are converging. So, when we talk about Mobile Learning, should we limit it as a process just to function when you stand or move, instead of that you can have time to sit down and pull out your laptop to learn with in hotels and coffee bars? I think that exclusion of laptops narrows the scope of the Mobile Learning and is unnecessary. I prefer to watch the road instead to watch the screen when I’m moving.
References:
1. Ambient Insight – Global Learning Technology Market Taxonomy
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Meggan Crawford 10:28 am on May 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Ping,
I loved your ET ecosystem map! It’s nice to see the article turned into a different form.
The idea of laptops not being included in the mobile category seems to be simply because you can’t hold them and operate them at the same time. You need to put a laptop down in order to type on it and, to Ambient Insight at least, that seems to be enough to exclude it! They do acknowledge that laptops are mobile, but suggest that they are defining their category as handheld as well. With the smaller laptops with longer battery lives it is strange to consider that they are not considered in this up and coming group. I agree that it is strange, but I think all they would need to do is re-title their category from mobile to handheld.
Either way I think the main takeaway thought from the article is more about the interactions and connections that you have identified than it is about the categories they divide the tools into!
Nice work, Ping!
-Meggan
ping 8:49 pm on May 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Meggan,
Thank you! You helped me to clarify the taxonomy. Yes “holding & operating” is a key point.
In my concept “mobile” is a big term stands for a system, which makes us reachable to the Internet any time and anywhere. Morgan Stanley even regards it as the next IT revolution in coming decade. In that height, I would like to include both “handheld” and “laptop” in my access list, because they cannot replace each other. As for the Mobile Learning, if a supplier wants to get interactions from the user, it might not care too much about whether the inputs were sent from one hand or two hands, sitting down or not. Of course, the “holding & operating” scenarios are very essential for our design, because people DO have more time to carry a handheld than to carry a laptop. We need their time!
Ping
gillian 11:42 am on May 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Ping,
I very much enjoyed your review of Ambient Insight. Your map was a very helpful starting point in grasping the essentials of this taxonomy. I can see how this article will be extremely valuable as we assess the various ‘players’ in the market for our ventures. Thank you for your insight on this as you have inspired me to take a closer look for myself.
As for your comments regarding laptops/netbooks as mobile technology, I completely agree that they should be included. I have tried typing on a tablet and found it as frustrating as using my phone. If I were to ever purchase a tablet, the first accessory I would buy would be an external keyboard – which essentially makes it a laptop.
gillian
ping 9:16 pm on May 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Gillian,
Happy to see that little map is useful to you. I think a map would be always helpful when we get to a strange place 🙂 I do recommend you to have a closer look at the Ambient Insight report. It’s good to have it in our reading list so early. I think I’ll come back to it over and over because I still missed a lot of information it tries to convey.
Ping
Denise 4:49 am on May 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
HI Ping,
Thanks for the map. I too found it a valuable way to see the article in a different form.
I wonder if what also separates mobile is that theya re gesture based compared to the traditional laptop, but the issue about mobile technology is probably going to blur soon enough. I just read about a phone that inserts into a tablet that then attaches to a keyboard.