A number of years ago, I attended an ASTD International Conference and Exposition. I listened to a couple of sessions about designing Blackberry apps for learning. And I had an epiphany.
The future of learning is mobility!
I went back to the office and wrote what I thought was a somewhat eloquent, detailed proposal about creating and implementing learning apps for my employer. I 
was so proud of myself. Patted myself on the back for being all strategic and stuff. The reaction? My boss looked at me like I had three heads.
Now fast forward to today. Budgets are tight and training is necessary. More people have access to mobile phones than running water and toilets. There are an estimated 4.2 billion people who have a toothbrush and 4.6 billion who have a mobile subscription. (I know – sad, but very true.) And you can find a mobile app for just about everything from your banking to recipes to, well . . . farting noises.
So why not m-Learning? Has the time arrived? The statistics would suggest so:
The U.S. market for mobile learning products and services reached $632.2 million in 2009. And, demand is growing. It’s estimated that revenues will reach $14 billion by 2014.
What’s interesting about this data is the U.S. was a late adopter of mobile learning compared with Japan and South Korea. In 2009, the US passed Japan to become the top mobile learning purchaser in the world.
The popularity of mobile makes this an option worth exploring in a company’s training strategy. On an introductory level, just look at iTunes U – an entire catalog with over 350,000 lectures, films, language lessons, etc. Most of which are free BTW. Think of the resources you can share with your employees.
We all know one of the keys to successful training is creating the proper learning environment. I wonder if mobile learning has the acceptance and the capability to really take off. What do you think?
Image courtesy of gabofr
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Rick S. Pulito says
Sharlyn,
You are totally correct in your statements re: the emerging state of mobile learning. Our company, BI Worldwide, is migrating more and more to mobile platforms…for eLearning, for recognition and rewards (our patented RAVE mobile recognition platform is taking the retail world by storm), and a number of other applications (such as pushing all conference and meeting content to iPads which are distributed to all attendees…the iPads are wiped clean of distractions, they are personalized to the needs of the receipient, and turned back in following the session)…
We had a meeting just last week with an EVP of Retail Store Ops at one of America’s largest department store chains to discuss how they will be moving all of their learning and recognition to smartphones…
This is an exploding area of technology. Hope you will come visit me at http://ideationz.wordpress.com for more thoughts and updates on driving change using mobile devices!!
Thanks again for a great article!
Rick S. Pulito
Nikhil says
Hi Sharlyn,
Indeed Mobile Learning has gathered lot of moss. Here in India lot of corporates/ enterprises have started adopting, implementing & including m-learning in their Learning & Development budgets.
Infact its not just about utilizing content available on net, but enterprises have started strategizing and developing mobile content.
We offer some great mobile learning solutions for corporates & enterprises along with good content.
Looking forward to hear about more such experiences across the world.
Thanks
Nikhil