Why is social messenger an app for work but not others that are customized for education?

Where is the engaging learning platform that was promised?

Is it ironic that the places for socializing and gossiping are becoming the place to do the group work and study? For example, students often come to Facebook for group work and discussion whereas teachers would use those groups as an effective channel to communicate to their students. In the mean time, most of the study systems provided by the schools are as empty and silent as deserts.

Oh wait! Actually deserts are teeming with lives such as insects, lizards and even small predators, etc. But it’s just not the case with learning systems. When do we ever go to the school’s learning system for other purposes than just downloading and uploading papers? I bet that without a second thought we’d hit that Facebook tab and begin chit chatting with our friends and groups. (well at least for me, sorry for my over-generalization)

Can it get any cuter and livelier than this? Well the desert can! I’m not sure about the other though.

Is the educational market always neglected?

We all know that educational app market is just as appealing just as others, especially when the demand for educational technology is on the rise. But whenever we go to the app store, the first thing that jumps to our eyes is the entertainment app section. The education section is always there at its humble spot inside the category tag. And don’t even bother compare the size and popularity between those two categories. All of these beg a question: Do we consciously regard study and work as boring?

So the battle for study engagement keeps raging on. Countless of time, manpower and money have been poured into the mixer in order to find the right remedy that should work better than caffeine. Companies have decided to tend to our future generations with numerous educational apps for children and K-12 students. At the same time in the higher education sector, universities are struggling to adapt to the quick growth of mobile apps and online communication. So there are lots of spaces waiting to be filled inside such a potential market.

Wow!! When do we adults get something like this??

Do students have a choice for their own study apps?

Surprisingly, there is a handful of communication apps just like Slack schools can implement and use it as a better platform for students.

In North America, Textmark, with a text messaging function across campus, can just simply get the job done.

Meanwhile in Northern Europe, Norwegian universities are pulling their resources with their own startup companies to develop the right product for their students. Differ, a sms app for universities, emerges in such a context with a promise of bringing every functions and services of both a messenger and a learning management system. Until now most of the universities only develop apps to improve their own school systems. They mostly stick to providing the basics information for students.

Rarely do many universities take greater initiative like Harvard university with their Harvard Mobile, an initiative app with the purpose of improving the mobile experience of students, faculty, staff, visitors, and neighbors who interact with Harvard’s campus and community.

University of Michigan also has their own Mobile App Center to encourage everyone, from school staffs, teachers to students to develop and distribute useful mobile apps for the university community. Productivity apps made by university developers, who perhaps understand the education system and student needs the most, are yet to make a major impact in the apps market.

We’re seeing more of this. But which development direction is the right one to head to in the future?

So what really happened in the educational market? We are swarmed by thousands of titles generated by thousands of unknown companies. Whenever we check “the top 5 or 10 apps that we must have for our study”, the same old 10 quality products always stand out from the rest. Yes we must admit that they are really small hidden gems, but not many school really endorse, encourage or support them for the official channel. As a result, students use it for their own sake without proper coordination or collaboration among their acquaintances. Kahoot is one of rare examples that the app got the endorsement from universities and then it becomes a useful tool for classroom. Simple and successful examples like that only linger on as flickering lights in the endless sea of darkness that is called app store.

So how can we respond to the fact that universities are lagging behind the mobile and technology market? Should we wait for the universities to start moving, or the big corporations to finish their meetings? Or should we let startup companies take over and get the job done?