After searching high and low for a mobile education technology app, and discovering that many (that interested me) were already included in the Mobile Education category, it prompted me to explore what the mobile education technology landscape currently looks like. According to EdSurge, educational technology companies raised more than $2.2-billion through 130 investment deals in the United States in 2020. The Online education market is forecast to grow to $350-billion by 2025 (Chernev, 2021).
Education ranks second in popularity on Google Play behind games and second most popular in the Apple App Store. Most of the top educational apps in 2020-21 were geared towards children including Mathway, Photomath, ABCmouse, Epic – Kids’ Books & Reading, and Kahoot! (Kalinin, 2021). While others in the SensorTower top 10 edtech apps were language or learning management system (LMS) applications.
Between the fourth quarter of 2019 and late 2020, worldwide downloads of educational apps grew by 90% (Sydow, 2020). With several countries seeing growth of over 100% including Australia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, the United States, India, Spain, and China.
Many of the top educational apps have been analyzed and reviewed within ETEC 523. A number of their key attributes were listed by Kalinin (2021):
- Social interactions
- User Profile
- Notifications
- AI Implementation
In such a competitive app marketplace, where are the openings for new players and applications? Many applications whether targeting students or teachers employ the same attributes as listed above. In some cases the user interface and experience are nearly identical. Chernev (2021) suggests that the mobile learning that incorporates augmented and virtual reality may drive the next big wave of mobile education apps.
If money wasn’t enough to prompt developers to develop new education apps then perhaps the environmental impact. “distance learning courses examined on average involved nearly 90% (87%) less energy consumption and produced 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student per 10 CAT points than the conventional campus based university courses” (Roy et al., 2005).
What areas do you foresee needing apps? What is missing in today’s educational application landscape? What key attributes do you prefer in educational mobile apps? Does an education app need to be social?
References
AgileTech Vietnam (2020, June 28). Educational App Development: How to Build Powerful Education Apps? AgileTech. https://agiletech.medium.com/educational-app-development-how-to-build-powerful-education-apps-da2f291d9785
Chernev, B. (2021, September 9). 29 Astonishing E-learning Statistics for 2021. Techjury. https://techjury.net/blog/elearning-statistics/
Kalinin, K. (2021, March 3). How to Develop an Educational App in 2021. Topflight. https://topflightapps.com/ideas/how-to-build-an-educational-app/
Roy, R., Potter, S., & Yarrow, K. (2008). Designing low carbon higher education systems: Environmental impacts of campus and distance learning systems. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(2), 116-130. https://doi.org/10.1108/14676370810856279
Sydow, L. (2020, April 8). Mobile Minute: Global Classrooms Rely on Education Apps As Remote Learning Accelerates. App Annie. https://www.appannie.com/en/insights/mobile-minute/education-apps-grow-remote-learning-coronavirus/