I’m regularly trying to do two things: explore mobile capabilities, and get folks to think more broadly about how we can support performance in the organization. I was asked to flesh out a proposed title for a stage at the upcoming mLearnCon, and thought about trying to map the 4C’s of mobile to the major categories of mobile work opportunities. It’s a slightly different take than my previous meta-mobile post where I looked at performance support, formal learning, and meta-learning.
In this case I’m looking at the 4 C’s by work categories. I see augmenting formal learning as one, providing performance support as a second, social media as a 3rd area, and the unique mobile contribution of context-sensitive support as a 4th area.
I realize there are some problems in this, in that Social and Communicate are hard to discriminate (hence using the catchall phrase social network), and Capture is core to context-sensitivity. Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) don’t have to be social, but can be. And I hadn’t really thought through what context-sensitive computing and communicating might mean. Certainly you could have a focused directory that knows who knows about this context, and perhaps an app that presents different options for context-sensitive trouble-shooting or repair (e.g. knowing what device you’re liable to be working on), but I could be missing some options. And I’m not sure I’ve seen socially edited or maintained apps as opposed to content. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
So, as this is a first shot at this, I welcome feedback. What am I missing?
Hi Clark,
You have a great chart there. One question is where does 3D training simulations fit into the chart? Currently we’ve been building 3D training simulations (fully 3D) for the tablet, and iphone/android phones. These allow for the learners to do the simulation and also communicate with the learners in the virtual world through the phone (one world for many devices). So it adds a layer of collaboration between devices in one single world, but also allows them to take the training simulations via a tablet or phone rather than being on a computer. I just wanted to know from your perspective where those would fall into the chart? Let me know my friend!
Andrew, I’d put your simulations under Practice, at the intersection of Compute and Augment Formal. The communication makes them also show up in Discuss/Collaborate at the intersect of Communicate and Augment Formal. The 5th C is combinations thereof, and it sounds like you’re there :). Make sense to you?
Thinking about “performance support”, I think mobile tools could be exceptionally [sic] useful in recognizing and handling exceptions. Imagine an “exception handling” flow that starts at the bottom of your chart and runs up: capturing a picture of a questionable situation, communicating it to a source of help, getting assistance, and then having that information fed back into job aids and/or troubleshooting tools.
…Richard