Location-Based Services Will Rock Higher Ed

Michael Staton

I must respectfully disagree with Seth O’Dell.  I don’t think he took the long view on Location-Based Services when he wrote why Higher Ed Can Forget about Location-Based Services.

Here’s two good reasons Location-Based Services will rock Higher Ed.

Students Make Friends Faster

The campus is a natural place for mobile-device mediated friend making.  People freely friend on Facebook and all of these services.  Increasing the frequency that students bump into one another in virtual spaces (which double as real ones with location-based services) drives how connected they feel to one another, even in real life.  They’ll see acquaintances at football games and other big events on these apps that they wouldn’t bump into in real ife.  They’ll see which of their friends and classmates are studying at the library or at the cafe.  They’ll see who else is in a giant lecture hall, etc.  After they see someone a few times, it creates a context for friendship and conversation.

Administrators Collect the Holy Grail of Student Retention Data

I argue all the time that new technology isn’t just a better way to gather, store, and analyze the same old data (like logins and grades), but it’s a way to create new and unimagined data that can give better insights into how a student behaves as a student.

Imagine if you could see check-ins to libraries and student activity centers; imagine if you could see trends in social habits.  Well, you will.  These services took a cue from Twitter – build a simple product and create an easy API and other people will do the work for you.  It will be a while, Higher Ed always moves slowly.  But there will be ways to hook up a student’s identity to their location-based social app, and it will provide a wealth of data that Higher Ed couldn’t even imagine getting. Imagine seeing increasing checkins to health services and decreasing checkins to the library and class. You would know that student was experiencing health problems that may set them back a semester, and you’ll be able to send them targeted suggestions on their mobile device.  Oh, the possibilities.

Even attendance will be gathered with these services.

Why Seth’s Right

Don’t get me wrong, Seth’s a New Media Ninja.  His arguments are correct:

1. There’s no clear winner (it will be Foursquare until Facebook or Twitter buys them or kills them, my prediction).
2. Only early adopters are on them.
3. They aren’t good tour guides yet.

Why Seth’s Wrong

Just because there’s short-term shortcomings, doesn’t mean you can discount location-based services.  They’re going to rock Higher Ed in the next five years, probably the next two or three.  Until then, you’re still going to be cool for having a Foursquare Campus Tour.  And, frankly, a lot of schools, UCLA not included, could use any cool points they can get :)