meekerpalooza 2017: how shifts in internet usage continue...

6/22/17, 1(15 AMMeekerpalooza 2017: How shifts in Internet usage continue to transform the education landscape

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Meekerpalooza 2017: How shifts inInternet usage continue to transformthe education landscapeRethinkEducation Jun 20

May 31st marked the annual release of one of the tech industry’s truetemperature takers: Mary Meeker’s report on global Internet trends (thisyear’s presentation checks in at a robust 355 pages). Mary is a partner atKleiner Perkins, one of the most elite venture capital firms in the world, andher insights on web developments are generally as respected as they come.Since 1995, her report on Internet trends has been the gold standard ingauging real world tech development (and cutting through the fluff of opinionand theory), leading some to even call it the “virtual bible for investors andCEOs alike.”

In 2012, I took a dive into the implications of some of the trends in the reporton the world of education. Some of the highlights included figures like “1.1Billion Smartphone Subscribers Worldwide” (note: in the five years since the2012 report, I have personally gone through approximately 1.1 billion iPhonesall by myself!) and “Mobile Monetization growing 67% annually for Apps”(safe to say we no longer need confirmation of the App Store business model).

The 2012 report was chock full of data reiterating the growth ofinfrastructure: hardware adoption rates, growing acceptance of on-demanddata consumption and sharing, digitization of previous brick-and-mortarpractices. Now, in 2017, the report echoes a period not of adoption, butinstead of fine tuning. The highway has been paved — adoption can only growso much when every corporation, government, and customer has bought in —

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http://dq756f9pzlyr3.cloudfront.net/file/Internet+Trends+2017+Report.pdf

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and we now find ourselves in a period of improving the speed, efficiency, anddynamism of the traffic.

What follows are some takeaways from the report as they relate to the digitalworld’s impact on education:

Apple was once the king of the operating system, especially in EDU. But as wesee in Slide 7, iOS units have remained relatively flat even as smartphoneshipments continue to grow (albeit at decelerating velocity). It’s an Androidworld, we are all just living in it.

One clear theme indicated early in the presentation: we have reached a pointof mass proliferation. Internet and smartphone usage is no longer a growing



phenomenon: it has permeated the globe from Silicon Valley to the outskirtsof Nairobi. We are here, the infrastructure of connectivity has been laid like avast digital railroad track — now, how can we better leverage this existingnetwork for intellectual development and knowledge sharing?

We are finally learning how to successfully advertise to the connected digitalworld. 2017 will see gross internet advertising eclipse that of television for thefirst time (Slide 14).

This is a good thing. We faced a dangerous proposition for several years whenthe kings of connectivity (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, and more) ran on majorlosses but garnered high valuations due to the presumed potential of theiruser base. That potential increasingly seems to be reality. If we can make



digital connection profitable, we can actually realize sustainability. Given thatmuch of the value of these social networks is derived from pattern recognitionand volume usage, the element of time is even more crucial. Each click from auser provides further clarity to data. Advertising models are crucial toachieving the volume necessary for true breakthroughs. And since much ofthis advertising awakening has come through mobile (Slide 12), which hasmuch higher rates of permeation for internet usage in the developing world,we can increasingly reach an audience in need of greater support. Trueimpact.

Of course, with Google and Facebook accounting for an 85% (and rising)share of this advertising spend, these two companies (alongside Amazon as a



procurement outlet) are increasingly becoming synonymous with the Internetitself. As such, common sense would dictate that these two companies, eachof whom has dabbled in direct EDU efforts without really diving in toodramatically, will continue to play a greater role in the education of themasses, both institutionally through K-12/Higher Ed and more informallythrough lifelong learning and skills development.

Speaking of Amazon, Meeker specifically praises their subscription hub as “ANew Kind of Store.” As we continue to see the unbundling of content that nolonger fits into an “ownership model” (something very much at the forefrontof the 2012 report), subscription models are the new king for everything frommusic to movies to data storage to news, and of course education (Slide 77specifically mentions The Princeton Review Homework Help as a service nowmanaged by the central Hub for subscriptions on Amazon).



While content itself may no longer be a statically managed entity, the tools tomanage these myriad access points to new content present a significantopportunity, one that Amazon is already keen on managing, much like theirdirect foray into cloud storage.

One of the major breakthroughs in the smartphone sphere has been in geo-targeted local advertising, which has yielded 5x year-over-year growth interms of brick-and-mortar store visits driven (Slide 25).



One of the obvious theoretical upsides of mobile connectivity has always beenleveraging geolocation in conjunction with internet consumption: real-timeunderstanding of time and place within the context of learning andcommunication. Meeker further highlights the powerful dynamic ofgeolocation by presenting examples of “hyperlocal targeting” (Slide 29) thatoften take the shape of in-app recommendations.



We are seeing this concept permeate the advertising world in a way thatactually enhances the offline procurement world. Digital can enhance theexperience of real world. The powers of geolocation are myriad in the contextof education. If mobile has real upside in the context of learning, I believe itresides in the space of seamless geolocation connectivity and automated dataprovision.

Pokemon Go showed the world just how influential geolocation can be interms of providing experiential learning (yes, chasing a Pikachu across thestreet was something of a trojan horse to get you to learn about thearchitecture and historical landmarks existing all around you!). In fact,Meeker specifically mentions the dynamic of gaming culture inherent in the



millennial experience that can “optimize learning and engagement” (Slide87).

She points to several disciplines gleaned by this generation of on-the-gogamers that are decidedly beneficial to the learning experience; disciplinesthat she deems “foundational for Internet Services,” including: repetition,dynamic difficulty adjustment, solving puzzles, planning workflows,completing projects, leveling up (language learning app Duolingo isspecifically highlighted), competing, exploring / discovering, following rules,collaborating, observing, interacting with / analyzing data, self optimizing,and creative storytelling. One of the pillars of this world of bridging gamingand learning is Minecraft, whose educational sandbox was worth $2.5 Billion

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2014-09-10-opinion-the-billionaire-s-club-minecraft-as-a-beacon-of-edtech-m-a


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to Microsoft.

Throughout the report, Meeker proposes that video games offer significantlearning experience through the power of simulation. Fields like militarytraining, pilot training, healthcare training, and athletics are increasinglyrelying on simulation as a mechanism to practice and grow through failure ina digital space devoid of negative consequence. The famous footballer ZlatanIbrahimovic (Slide 124) is quoted from his autobiography as saying: “I couldgo ten hours at a stretch [playing soccer video games] and I’d often spotsolutions in the games that I parlayed into real life.” If that isn’t a successfullearning experience, I’m not sure what is.

Furthering the idea of geolocation as a tool for efficiency in content, Meeker

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2014-09-10-opinion-the-billionaire-s-club-minecraft-as-a-beacon-of-edtech-m-a



focuses specifically on the concept of “Right Ad @ Right Place / Time,” butthe very same construct could seamlessly be applied to learning objectives,i.e. serving up the “right content” or “right exercise” at the right “place /time.” I would expect geolocation-enhancing learning apps to continue tobecome the norm in independent lifelong and continuing education, with theinstitutions following behind in adoption of these practices.

Another phenomenon with massive implications highlighted in the report isthe idea of brands and corporations leveraging user generated content tofurther engagement, particularly through social media (Slide 38).

This too presents a parallel to the education world, where the slow death ofcontent ownership (i.e. the static textbook and other relics of 20th Century



EDU practices) will continue to lose power in the face of dynamic,decentralized content creation and adoption. Even in the traditionally slow-moving world of K-12, outlets like TeachersPayTeachers have gained astronghold as resource marketplaces that can bypass the corporate publishersin fostering engaging learning experiences, and often represent a morethoroughly critiqued user experience at a granular level. In the digital worldof 2017, individuals can create and share valuable bits of content that can beassessed in real-time by an array of qualified power users, and the best of thiscream can and will rise to the top.

Further growing digital trends include the accelerated evolution oftechnologies like image and voice recognition, whose applications toeducation have the potential to be so vast and powerful that it is fairlypointless to even begin to hypothesize. Then again, I myself have been a bitguilty of getting ahead of my proverbial ski tips when it comes to suchtechnology integration into the institutional world of education…

These are just some of the digital trends from Mary Meeker’s latest reportthat have strong ties to EDU. What more do you think might be worthdiscussing or analyzing?

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/reimagining/2013/03/the_rise_of_smartglasses.html

meekerpalooza 2017: how shifts in internet usage continue...

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