American teachers are spending more and more time telling students to put away their smartphones, but that didn’t stop Qualcomm from funding a program that gave free smartphones to 150 North Carolina algebra students. The students used the 3G phones to communicate with teachers and tutors, access supplemental math homework, and post videos showing one another how they worked problems. By the end of the first year, the students were outperforming their peers in the same class who did not get phones. By the end of the second year, the federal government had made a $2.5 million grant to expand mobile learning to all algebra 1 students in Onslow County, North Carolina. And by the end of the third year, more than half the students in the program said they were considering a career related to math.
Qualcomm is just one of the mobile industry thought leaders investing resources to prove the value of mobile education. Last month, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Education Secretary Arne Duncan jointly challenged states and technology companies to get digital textbooks to all American students within the next five years. Currently, US school districts spend about $8 billion a year on textbooks, money that could probably go further if spent on digital content. McKinsey & Company estimates that the annual global market for digital education content will hit $19 billion by 2020, and will be part of an overall $70 billion market for mobile education. In a report commissioned by GSMA, McKinsey projected that mobile education spending will break down roughly as follows in 8 years:
$32 billion for devices (with enterprises and schools as the main purchasers)
$19 billion for content
$15 billion for platforms, software and services
$4 billion for connectivity
Connectivity is of course the starting point for service providers in mobile education, but McKinsey says that some operators may start investing now with the goal of offering comprehensive mobile education solutions. T-Mobile is one of the operators at the forefront of the trend. America’s 4th-largest carrier has partnered with schools around the country to connect students to teachers and tutors, and is now starting to offer security services and device management, as well as billing and support services. “Partnering with T-Mobile has strengthened our ability to provide end-to-end mobility solutions to our campuses,” says Cliff Rallins, IT director of an Illinois charter school.
Charter schools are good places for pilot programs because they tend to have more autonomy that most schools. The vast majority of American public schools rely on district budgets that come with very strict spending guidelines. But some of that is starting to change. Some districts are already allowing money allocated for textbooks to be spent on technology. And federal tax dollars will almost certainly supplement district budgets in the years ahead, as evidenced by the FCC’s commitment to digital learning and by the $2.5 million federal grant for Qualcomm’s smartphone program. E-rate Program, which helps school-age children get access to cutting-edge mobile devices by providing a 20 to 90 percent subsidy to K-12 schools, depending on a district’s financial need. E-Rate reimbursements also help provide home internet access for students without.
Already countries from Turkey to Thailand have enacted government programs to provide access to mobile technology to their youngest citizens. These are not humanitarian efforts, but strategic national investments. “A lot of people have thought of mobile education as charity,” says Ana Lattibeaudiere, head of embedded mobile at GSMA, explaining why the association commissioned McKinsey to research mobile education. “We didn’t have the view that it was all just charity, and that’s why we saw a need for research that could address the revenue opportunity.”
