Dr. Steve Yuen's blog on the use of emerging technologies in teaching and learning.

Mobile Year in Review 2010

It is not surprising that 2010 was the year mobile connected the world. Armed with stunning statistics, facts, and visual cues, Mobile Future produced this informative video. The video takes a tour of key consumer and technology mobile trends across an eventful year. Some highlights of the video include:

Massive increase in apps downloaded:

5 billion apps downloaded – up from 300 million in 2009

Whopping expansion of location-based services

5 million Foursquare users – up from 200,000 users in 2009

Surge in mobile social media platforms

347 percent growth in Twitter mobile usage

200 million mobile Facebook Users

100 million YouTube videos played on mobile devices everyday

It is anticipated that mobile data traffic and apps will continue this phenomenal growth in 2011. I think the mobile future is full of excitement and opportunity.

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In this blog entry, Dr. Yuen discussed a YouTube video, Mobile Year in Review 2010. The video showed that mobile industry seems to have a little impact regarding the current economic situation. In my opinion, the number of Smartphone shipped in 2010 showed that people value and willing to pay for a device that offers more than ability to call or talk to someone. Mobile has become a multi-functional device including several gadgets (e.g., advanced computing tool, digital camera, video camera, portable media player, games, and GPS navigation). Therefore, I agree with Dr. Yuen that 2010 was the year that mobile connected the world.

Even though the focus of the video was on key consumer and technology mobile trends in 2010, the growth of the use in mobile social media platforms, the expansion of location-based services, and the developing of countless applications broaden a window of opportunity in mobile learning and education. These facts and statistics showed that we may overcome several challenges (e.g. better Internet connectivity, restriction of learning timetable, accessibility, and learning apps) in mobile learning and education. Additionally, mobile social media platforms and applications will serve as powerful tools that enhance mobile learning experience as well as traditional learning modes. However, I believe that it is a duty of teachers to instruct students on how to use these tools wisely. There are several issues that students need to be aware of in using social media and other technologies (e.g., personal and private information, etiquette, and proper use of technology/information). Yet, the benefits of these tools outweigh the challenges.

In conclusion, I agree with Dr. Yuen that the future of mobile is full of excitement and opportunity and so do the future of mobile learning and education.

The video Mobile Year in Review 2010 was a fascinating video chronicling how mobile media is growing by leaps and bounds each year. There were so many fascinating statistics that surprised me in the video such as:

*76% of people used their phone for taking pictures in 2010

*3 million Mobile Apps downloaded in 2009, compared to 5 billion in 2010

*347% growth in Twitter

*50% page views in 2010 were to social media sites

I agree with Dr. Yuen that this was a great year for the
mobile phone and social media. PC and mobile connectivity just this year was 1 billion people and devices, and it expected to by 40x that by the year 2015. At the rate of growth we are experiencing who can possibly imagine what our application usage and connectivity will be like in 2015. Technology and connectivity are already ubiquitous that it is difficult to imagine us growing even more.

Social media is growing so rapidly that it is really transforming how we communicate with one another. It is similar to how E-mail replaced the handwritten notes/cards, but on a much larger scale. One could debate, with social media as prevalent as it is “Are we more connected to friends and family now than we have been in the past or not?” With the prevalence of social media this has also created problems such as cyberbulling, car wrecks resulting from texting and cell phone usage, and spamming.