Why AR for Education?
Part 1 — Market & Audience Overview
What are todays’ kids, parents and educators main frustrations, goals and needs?
Online safety, excessive screen-time, costs, socialization, alienation & distorted perception of real-world events and behaviors, quality of educational content.
How Covid-19 has impacted and accelerated the AR/MR Edutainment Market demand?
Research shows an increasing demand of Video Content (YouTube Kids), educational apps downloads and rocketing of Roblox platform, while AR/MR apps are taking their place at the top of the apps stores charts.
How 5G and the global growth of mobile devices will impact the industry?
The global 5G technology market size is expected to grow by 70.83% (CAGR)during the assessment period (2020–2025). Mobile and Internet access in Africa will quickly increase: 475M people in the Sub-Saharian region will be mobile internet users by 2025, while China and India are already leading the charts of Games and Educational Apps downloads.
Where Parents are concerned about online safety, Kids just want to have Fun!
However, the market still need to answer to many of the parents main worries and to the kids primary needs,which go far beyond the learning of educational skills only. Where parents are concerned about online safety, kids want to have fun and they increasingly spend time on YouTube, mesmerized by a variety of content. How much of that content truly helps them in growing their self-awareness and critical thinking, in order to be able to discern and behave in real-life contexts?
A possible answer is to create active participatory story-worlds that can engage kids with multi-sensory activities, combining traditional educational topics with socio-emotional skills.
Products like Roblox, Khan Academy Kids, Hopster-TV, Wisdom by BetterKids Apps are following this trend in their own specialties and with increasing success. However, they are also limited by the constraints set by their own business models and goals, currently preventing them to explore more immersive territories.
Trending AR VR Articles:
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3. ExpiCulture — Developing an Original World-Traveling VR Experience
AR Global Market
While the Games and Apps market is very competitive and crowded, the offer of high-quality, innovative and immersive educational products still doesn’t match the global growing demand. Research shows that:
Global AR in Education Market is projected to reach a post-Covid-19revised size of US$41.8 Billion by 2027, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate* (CAGR) of 77.2% over the period 2020–2027.
AR in K-12, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 74.1% CAGR and reach US$14.1 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After an early analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the AR in Higher Education segment is readjusted to a revised 79% CAGR for the next 7-year period. [Data by Research and Markets, (Aug 28, 2020)]
The AR Landscape mainly converges around iOS and Android Games and Applications.
For headsets, HoloLens and Magic Leap (coming soon) are the two options with traction, but their high cost positions them as a better fit for enterprise applications. Meanwhile, AR consumer devices are simply AR capable smartphones. Games or apps with AR features are distributed in the same fashion as traditional apps via Google Play or the App Store.
AR Potential Barrier: Lack of Innovative Content. An opportunity for content creators.
While most mobile phones are todays AR/VR ready, and Monetization follows the traditional path of Games and Apps Purchase options (Full download, InApps purchase and Subscription models), the lack of Innovative Content is slowing down the growth of the AR market. In Education, we can implement very interesting solutions if designed around the user experience as essential parts of the story-worlds. This is way PokemonGO is still on top of the charts since 2016.
“AR is a means for gamers to interact with their physical environment. Back in 2016, PokémonGO showed that the platform can give way to a fresh new genre one that resonated with many consumers, encouraging them to explore their local environments. More than two years after Pokémon GO’s release, gamers are still waiting for AR’s next big phenomenon. For the platform to continue to grow, more innovative new game types are required that make AR an integral part of the overall experience.”
Newzoo Report (2019)
Leveraging mobile-enabled social media for school-to-home communications across the generations.
Each of these generations have had different experiences using technology for learning, work and communications and thus carry those valuations into their expectations of digital communications with their child’s school.
Project Tomorrow’s Key Findings include:
While parent access to a smartphone is now virtually universal (97% of parents of school-aged children), use of emerging tools such as a smartwatch by one-quarter of Millennial parents indicate that school districts need to re-think their communications across different platforms to accommodate new tools.
As educators think about how to engage with parents via social media, it is advisable to look beyond Facebook or any single social media platform to meet the diverse needs of all parents in your community. For example, one-third of Millennial parents report using Instagram regularly in their personal lives but only 12% of Baby Boomer parents say the same.
The differentiation by message type is also important for parents. While 63% say that Facebook is a good tool for the dissemination of generalized information about school events or recognitions, only one-quarter of parents believe it is an effective tool for crisis communications.
Project Tomorrow: Speak Up. (Tomorrow.Org, 2020)
WHAT KIDS WANT? Roblox & YouTubeKids
Roblox Research Key Findings
Roblox is ranked as one of the top online entertainment platforms for audiences under the age of 18 based on average monthly visits and time spent (Comscore).
“Our popularity is driven purely by the community with millions of people signing up through word of mouth every month.” (Roblox, 2020)
Popular world building MMO Roblox from Roblox Corporation has surpassed $2 billion in player spending on mobile ahead of the developer’s impending initial public offering, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates show.
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