DO YOU OWN A SMARTPHONE YET?

Smartphones’ market share is set to eventually take over the standard phone population. At a growth rate of 30% each year, their sales are even projected to pass global PC sales in the near future. You could be wondering, “Why is this information important to me?” You may think we are just a gadget-crazed society (rightfully so)—but it more accurately signifies our need for immediate information.

The amount of information created on the internet everyday is mind boggling. If you have a question—almost any question—the answer can be found online. Even that crazy thick yellow book is becoming more and more useless…  You know, that thing that still magically arrives at your doorstep every six months or so.

With a smartphone, accessing information anywhere at anytime becomes a dependency that people are realizing they can’t live without. The only problem we see with this “over-informed” generation, is filtering. How do you find information you’re interested in? How do you trust it?

This is where friends become more useful than a person you hang out with. They know you. They refer things to you. They inform you. How many times have you asked your friend, “Where’s a good place to eat… I feel like Chinese?” Or, “Who’s your doctor? Do you like them?” Or, “What’s a good movie you’ve seen lately?” Friends act as filters in this information overload.

Having a smartphone, allows your “friend-filter” to follow you anywhere.

With that said, smartphones still have a ways to go before they rule the world. The fun infographic below illustrates the popularity of iPhones and other smartphones.

Last week, Laura Oppenheimer, Marketing Manager for Ning, contacted Jack about writing a guest post for their blog:

Hi Jack,

Your post was really interesting to me, for a couple of reasons:

1) We know lots of educators use Ning, but don’t always know how they are using it.

2) You included some great metrics.

I’d love to see a post that echoes the one you tweeted (and I retweeted)—namely, how to use Ning as part of a course and your experiences with it.

For readers of the NIng Blog, they probably want to know most “how could I do this myself”, or “what are the steps for me as a network creator/teacher”. How did you structure it? How did you initially get your students involved? What are your lessons learned.

Thanks.

Here is a link to the post, published on Ning’s site today, April 16th: Create A University Class Ning Network

_________________________________