Tech Note: Mobile Apps for Higher Ed

As higher education institutions go global... and mobile... it's interesting to see the companies behind the apps. MobilEdu is an arm of Terriblyclever Design which is an off-shoot from Stanford. The company was launched by students and now extends its products and services to other universities.

As the MobilEdu site indicates, clients include Duke, UC San Diego, Medical College of Georgia, Stanford, and Texas A&M.

The mobile apps range from campus maps to course lists to videos. Creation of apps has exploded with the iPhone and developers are, of course, working across smartphone boundaries. It will be interesting to see how the field grows in the next few years. Using Terriblyclever as example: the company has grown its client list very quickly as its first product (iStanford) launched in October 2008.

The branding of an app for a university or college is easy today, compared with how campuses struggled with web branding. With considerable marketing wisdom developed since the 1990s, administrators are more open to the use of mobile devices to support students and also to market the institution. The closest comparison to app development in higher ed may be the adoption of or contribution to iTunes University. Some institutions took to iTunes with energy and enthusiasm; others began multi-year legal analyses of the implications of contracting with the web site. Today, the debate would be very different. Or at least some different.

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.