Many college students are dependent on digital technology in the classroom, according to a study released on Tuesday by etextbook seller CourseSmart and Wakefield Research.
The study surveyed 500 American college students. Seventy-three percent of them said they would not be able to study without some form of technology, and 38% said that they could not even go more than 10 minutes without checking their laptop, smartphone, tablet or ereader.
Many of the students said they used technology for learning tasks traditionally completed with paper. In addition to the unsurprisingly large majority of students who used it to research and write papers (81% and 82% respectively), 70% of the students said they use keyboards rather than paper to take notes and 65% said they use digital devices to create presentations. Technology was also a preferred method for getting in touch with teachers — 91% of the students cited email as a method for seeking extra help from their instructors.
Using an ereader for assigned reading hasn’t caught on quite as well. A 2010 study by OnCampus Research found that 74% of college students surveyed still preferred to use a printed textbook. But the CourseSmart survey suggests that further etextbook adoption might be on the way.
Nearly half of the 98% of students in the survey who owned a digital device said they regularly read etextbooks. Sixty-three percent had read an etextbook on their device at least once, and the majority of the survey group agreed that etextbooks are easier to carry, simpler to search, cheaper and better than traditional textbooks for reading on-the-go.
Renowned Kenyan crowdsourcing site, Ushahidi is set to launch a new site that will help monitor government effectiveness. The new site is called Huduma.
Huduma (which is a Swahili word for “service”) enables people to submit reports on the performance of services in their district by text, e-mail or Twitter. The reports are then mapped on the Huduma site for public viewing.
The service is a modification of the Ushahidi platform, an open source technology that crowdsources crisis information via SMS and the web and then maps the reports for viewers. Ushahidi is estimated to have been deployed about 12,000 times across the world including notably during the earthquakes in Haiti where it proved to be invaluable.
“There will be a dashboard which will compare one district with another. We will also layer in other information such as aid flows from, say, the World Bank. So, for example, if you pull up the profile of a school or clinic, you will have information about what aid it may have received as well as local reports on whether the teachers are turning up to work.”
International donors are reportedly excited about the service because it can serve as a useful tool for tracking international aid and ensuring that it is being put to good use. According to Hersman, the service will be launched in five constituencies and then spread to various parts of Kenya. The team plans to initially focus on the health and educational sector and later expand to include infrastructure, governance and water.
Huduma joins the growing number of technologies and tools dedicated towards solving African problems using African solutions.
For more information about the service, visit www.huduma.info.
To read more examples of ways in which Africans are putting tech to good use on the continent, check out this post.
David Douglas Stone is co-founder and CEO of the digital gifting and incentives company CashStar. Recently named a Prepaid Top 5 Entrepreneur, Stone has served as a senior executive in several emerging growth technology and financial services firms for the past 25 years, including American Express, where he pioneered the first universal prepaid product, the American Express Gift Cheque.
Over the past several years, gift cards have become the most popular kind of gift. They are the most widely-used addressable person-to-person payment method, totaling $91 billion in sales during the 2010 holiday shopping season. We love them because of their convenience. And we hate them because they don’t truly feel personal.
The mobile digital device will help to wipe away this awkward paradox. The days of plastic-based payment and gift cards are numbered. The ability to make a payment or send a gift from any device, anytime, anywhere, in any amount, dramatically shifts the convenience paradigm. And the gift card’s shift from plastic to digital may pave the way for other forms of digital payment.
Here, we’ll take a look at the three major factors driving this shift.
1. Embracing Digital Gifting
The first is the exponential growth of businesses that are embracing digital gifting. They are doing so to extend their revenue streams and to differentiate themselves from their competitors. RSR Research reported in late 2010 that half of the top 100 Internet retailers now offer digital gift cards. In January, Starbucks estimated that digital gift cards would represent as much as 20% of its gift card business in the near future.
But there are hundreds of others shifting away from plastic as well — from global brand names to smaller regional and local retailers. According to Urban Wallace Associates, more than 6 million U.S. shoppers bought digital gift cards within the past 6 months — a 150% increase since last measured three years ago.
2. Virtual Goods
The second key trend is increased purchasing and gifting of “virtual goods.” This market — already nearly $2 billion in the U.S., according to Inside Network Research — has millions of fans who love to buy and give gifts like virtual cakes, clothing, badges and FarmVille goods.
The next logical extension is for consumers to give digital gift cards that can actually be used to buy real stuff. Facebook already sells its credits as gift cards in retail stores. As the popularity of Zynga, Facebook and digital gift card currencies grow, they may well become major payment modes in both the virtual and physical worlds.
3. Personalization
The third major trend is personalization. The digital age not only enables it but stimulates it. Plastic is a form factor that knows nothing about you, nor can it easily express your personal gifting sentiments. Digital gifting is radically different. The Home Depot eGifting program, for example, enables consumers to upload not only photos but can now also capture live video on its digital gift cards.
Mobile apps are proliferating to support creative and new forms of retail promotion and value. Digital forms of stored value offer new experiences and opportunities never before possible with plastic. Three examples illustrate how versatile and pervasive the post-plastic era is becoming. These include:
Starbucks Foursquare checkin: To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Starbucks gave the first 600 customers to “check in” an instantly redeemable mobile gift card.
IntoNow: This social TV companion app partnered with Pepsi to give users instant digital gift cards for watching certain TV ads.
Chase GiftShelf: Chase’s iPhone app lets you redeem credit card points on the go for digital gift cards at Gap, Chili’s, Papa John’s, The Container Store and a dozen other retailers.
Conclusion
These developments provide only a glimpse of what is possible in the post-plastic card era. Digital gifting and payments are creating new possibilities of “instancy.” If you forgot to bring your nephew a present, you can order him a digital gift card for his birthday as you’re walking toward his house. Or you can send your niece one via Facebook and personalize it with a photo or short video telling her how proud you are of her.
It is no longer a question of “if” but rather of “how fast.” Market interest is clearly there. Starbucks’ new mobile card, for example, has already generated more than 3 million transactions, proving that mobile payments using digitally stored value can work.
Skeptics remain, but they’re of the same mind as those who said people would never prefer credit cards over cash. People, however, love convenience and immediacy. In 1975, one of the major credit card companies made a name for itself with the tagline “Don’t leave home without it.” Today, you will never have to leave home without a means of paying digitally. Those in the market who support that transition will be the winners.
Disclosure: Starbucks, The Home Depot, Gap, CVS, Chase, Chili’s, Papa John’s and The Container Store are clients of CashStar.
When it comes to our gadgets, we live by Moore’s law, which implies that as time goes by and tech gets better, the hardware we use gets smaller and more sophisticated.
Now that we’ve whittled machines that filled whole rooms down to an MP3 player the size of a Triscuit, it’s hard to say how much smaller our devices can get — but computing is continuing to evolve.
In ten or twenty years, what we now call “computers” and how we do our computing are both guaranteed to be radically different and almost unrecognizable.
In this REM-flavored infographic (which will surely get that song solidly stuck in your head for the rest of the day) we take a look at the progression of hardware from its beginnings in research to its future in quantum theory and even our own DNA.
Generating extra buzz around marketing campaigns worldwide is 3D projection mapping, a relatively new technology that animates stationary objects with 3D video. With added sound effects and music, the result is a remarkable and immersive experience.
“Projection mapping can provide a great double whammy if used right, because you get a great live event, followed by a compelling video and PR opportunities. But, if that’s the aim it’s important to think about the film when planning the projection — the sense of scale you get live won’t be replicated on YouTube,” cautions Matt Smith, director of strategy for The Viral Factory.
“Good camera work, slick editing, and a rocking soundtrack will all help drive the film, but if the projection is too detailed it will still get lost.”
So, while we wait to see if this a temporary craze or soon to become standard in the marketeer’s toolbox, take a look through our gallery of great examples of such projections on buildings. This list is by no means exhaustive, so please let us know about any impressive versions you’ve seen in the comments below.
1. Samsung 3D Projection
Samsung’s whimsical projection to promote its 3D TV products works well.
2. Vienna 3D Building Projection
Vienna’s Tourist Board gets in on the 3D projection action with this classy effort.
3. NuFormer
Sony turned two buildings into giant football-themed pinball machines in Madrid. The spectacle was watched by around 1500 people on the day, and by nearly 20,000 more since.
4. 3D Projection Mapped on Building
A perfectly synced soundtrack helps the effect as this building sings to the transfixed audience.
5. Hot Wheels Secret Race Battle
Customs House in Sydney, Australia gets virtually wrecked by Mattel’s “Hot Wheels Skull Racers.”
6. 3D Projection Mapping
The lucky residents of Sugarland, Texas got to witness this spectacle live on New Year’s Eve 2010.
7. 555 KUBIK
This arty German projection imagines “how it would be, if a house was dreaming”.
8. ACDC vs Iron Man 2
ACDC go up against Iron Man on the backdrop of front facade of the Great Keep at Rochester Castle.
9. BMW JOY 3D
BMW uses not one, but two office buildings in Singapore with its joy-themed projection.
10. Projection Mapping on the Kharkov State Building
You can hardly imagine a more impressive backdrop for a 3D projection than the Kharkov state building in the Ukraine. The building’s architectural features are used to great effect in this brilliant example.
