As I mentioned in my bit on the general stage at mLearnCon, mobile is the fastest-growing giant industry in history (quoting Tomi Ahonen), reaching a billion dollars in the shortest time ever. This growth has been paralleled for mlearning as well. I’m seeing signs everywhere…
The eLearning Guild’s excellent mLearnCon mlearning conference has grown every year since it’s start 3 years ago. There are more vendors, more attendees, more interest. It’s been a very valuable conference for mlearning. And my mobile learning strategy workshop was so popular at mLearnCon that we’re running it again at DevLearn!
More people are contributing (and not just the bandwagon folks). Complementing pioneers like Judy Brown, David Metcalf, Jason Haag, Robert Gadd, Kris Rockwell, etc. are new folks with valuable perspectives like RJ Jacquez and Mayra Aixa Villar. (See the Designing mLearning resources page for twitter handles.)
New books are coming out too. Chad Udell’s new Learning Everywhere is a valuable addition to the canon, complementing Gary Woodill’s analyst take on the space in the Mobile Learning Edge and my own two books on design. It goes deeper into development as well as having a nice business perspective.
And Inge “Ignatia” de Waard is hosting a MOOC on mobile learning. All this is exciting stuff.
The capstone, to me, is that the first mobile learning conference in Asia is being launched this fall. In full disclosure, I’m honored to be keynoting (it’s becoming real, with my travel planned, and schedule set), but it looks like a great launch to what will hopefully be a continuing event. If you’re in the Asia Pacific region, and are interested in mLearning, it’s the place to be. There are a number of names I recognize and more to meet. If you do go, say hi!
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