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Clark Quinn’s Learnings about Learning

eLearning 2.0

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During the 1st day of Mark and Brent’s Collaboration summer seminar, they got folks active: starting blogs, wikis, webtops, etc.   They’re doing a great job:

c2sss

Naturally, in addition to the tactical questions (“how do I move this tab”?), the conceptual questions started: when do you use a blog versus a wiki, how do you make sense of all the options out there.

Now, as part of my performance ecosystem, I think blogs are a personal reflection or a history (as I told an attendee, it would be great for capturing a ‘war story’), whereas wikis are for collaboration to create a unified view of something (e.g. the way to tune a network).   I don’t think blogs support a rich discussion and aren’t that collaborative.   Also, one of the problems I see is that we often forget old tools in the excitement of new tools: discussion boards are a great way to have an ongoing conversation; you don’t need some new tool for this. Yet wikis are really good for capturing the output of a collaboration.

Also recently I’ve been having conversations with folks about integrating tools to meet larger needs.   Ning is a tool that provides ways for individuals to have profiles, to have forums, to list events, etc.   Increasingly, LMSs also have these capabilities.

The interesting thing is the great spate of tools out there: Google, Central Desktop, Zoho, Wetpaint, PBWiki, an ever growing list. There are suites of web meeting apps, web-based productivity tools, etc. How do you make sense of it? I think there’s another ‘bubble’ with these, and eventually a bunch will fail and out of the ashes a few will persist.   The good thing, I think, is that by getting your hands dirty with a variety of these, you’ll access some generalized skills.   And web apps are not going away.

I believe training anybody on any particular tool (even the seemingly ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite), is the wrong way to go.   Talk to them about the skill (writing, creating presentations, etc), and then give some assignments across a couple of different tools.   This gives you transferrable skills, which will equip you to communicate and collaborate regardless of the latest wave of tools.   And that’s what’s important, in this day of increasing change.

Motivation by Behavior Change

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Clive Shepherd blogs this idea from Richard Middleton, about two possible dimensions that might affect your learning goals: how motivated your learners are, and how ‘big’ the behavior change is:

The quick notion is that if you’ve a small change and high motivation, it can be very lean.   Lower motivation requires more engaging presentation, and once you start having big changes you’ll need lots of practice, and when the learner isn’t interested or is resistant, you’ll really have to ramp up the engagement (tuning it into a game).

There are lots of other dimensions (e.g. maybe it doesn’t even require rapid elearning, but just an information update), but this is certainly a good way to look more richly at the design task and how it might be addressed.   And looking richly at your learning task is where you get more creative learning solutions (read: learning experience designs).

(Really) Mobile Games

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There have been some interesting experiments with location-specific games (see the work David Metcalf talks about), but this article really is interesting, talking about GPS equipped phones.   I recall an early game for the Treo that placed aliens around you virtually (laid the images over your camera image), and you had to pan around with your Treo, spot, and shoot them. This is much more.

Now, imagine the learning potential: games for onboarding that have you and your cohorts running around the campus or plant and solving puzzles; having to try to sell to virtual customers, and tracking their effectiveness in both space and time; the rest are left as an exercise for the reader (I’m on vacation, after all… :) ).   A topic for the Summer Seminar Series next week?

DevLearn ’08

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Up in the mountains, there’s lots to reflect on, little time to capture it. However, I do want to note that DevLearn is again on the horizon (November), which will include keynote, preconference sessions, concurrent sessions, and more.

I’m really looking forward to Tim O’Reilly’s keynote, as his description of Web 2.0 is fairly definitive.   I reckon I’ll again be part of the pre-conference sessions on Serious Games, er, Immersive Learning Simulations, and Mobile Learning as well.   I have a concurrent session on deeper instructional design which is stuff I really believe is fundamental yet seemingly not widespread, and fortunately has been well received in a few prior instances.

The real excitement for me is having a chance to catch up with some of the brightest folks in the business, like Tony Karrer, Will Thalheimer, Ruth Clark, Judy Brown, David Metcalf, Mark Oehlert, Brent Schenkler, Frank Nguyen, Lance Dublin, Karen Hyder, Michelle Lentz, and more, as well as the new folks I’ll meet.

The Guild’s conferences have always been a highlight of the year for me, so I hope I’ll see you there!

Going Mobile

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I found out that where I’m going this week didn’t have coverage by Sprint. We’d be in the mountains (‘rustic’ cabins) but there is power, and I didn’t want to be completely out of touch as I was a couple of weeks ago.

I’d been waiting a year and half since my two year contract had expired, but wasn’t completely happy with any new mobile phone solutions.   At first I hoped the iPhone was the solution, but it wasn’t quite ready for primetime.   As a Palm fan (simplicity, solidity, great story about it’s design), the Centro was appealing, having full PIM (notes & ToDos as well as contacts and calendar), cut/copy/paste, a real keyboard, lots of apps, etc, but the browser’s weak, and no GPS or wi-fi is kind of a bummer.   The Treo 800W is mighty appealing, except for Windows Mobile.   I just *can’t* go there.   It’s got to be dead reliable.   Blackberry‘s just too closed for me, and Symbian‘s too odd (these are mobile OSs).

So, the iPhone 3G appealed (ok, maybe I’m an Apple fanboy, but I was a grad student in an interface design group when the Mac came out, and you had to love the leadership in user experience which has stayed market leading from then ’til this day), and the fact that ATT does claim to have coverage in the area was the kicker that got me to go wait in line Friday morning.   And, yes, I know that the iPhone 3G does not have full syncing PIM yet, nor copy/paste.   But it’s software upgradeable, and all the hooks are there. So, we’ll see.

So far, my experience is mixed.   The screen is simply awesome, and the interface is quite cool. It does sometimes take a lot of work to get to various things. It’s got a non-standard jack, so suddenly all my hands-free wires are worthless (grumble mumble); I may be forced to get a bluetooth headset for driving!   Typing’s OK.   I’ve got music loaded, and photos (but dual copies of the folder I want, and can’t figure how to delete one).   It gets email, but I managed to tap-dance over the push account I’d set up, and one of my accounts keeps complaining about connection ( I got one message only on the phone, not on my computer, and can’t forward it #$%^&!)

So, something (else) to keep me busy in the mountains. Besides prepping.   In a week, I fly off to Chicago for the Guild’s summer seminar series on Collaborative Learning, and the one on Immersive Learning Simulations.   I expect to learn heaps in the former, and think we’ve managed to design a great experience for the latter.     I do believe it will be good value, good learning, and good fun.

BTW, my brother and family stopped thru on their way back from the mountains.   Their boys have matured well of late, and it was great to see them and have them here.   Pool, wildlife museum (live fox, owls, raptors, snakes, coyote, all wounded and saved), ultimate frisbee in the park, eating, drinking.   Family is important to us.   I reckon it’s something that’s wired-in, and to be nurtured.   As well as having fun!   Hope your summer is turning out fun too.

Future of the Book?

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Last nite was the NextNow event on the future of the book/publishing/? Jay Cross really helped by adding significant data around and input to the discussion; a very public thanks.   He’s also blogged it, with video.   We had a very diverse audience of around 30 or so; many were authors, there were CEOs & entrepeneurs, artists and musicians, noted scientists, and more. Many shared one or more of my own publishing experiences, including as author, board member of a not-for-profit that publishes, editorial board member of a journal, and, of course, as a blogger.

After introductions, which already raised many issues, Jay walked us through the history of the book (Guttenberg was an entrepreneur, the first totable book was sized to fit in saddle bags), and we talked about the pros and cons of books.   We discussed our varied experiences with publishers, and there were quite a few unhappy ones.   Then we got into the issues.

As I mentioned earlier, Jay and I had come up with a few, including editorial ‘voice’ (who’s vetting the information), interactivity, volatility, ownership, and money.   Interestingly, as the discussion continued, others emerged.   Michael Carter raised an interesting point, that we were conversing about books and publishers, and they’re not the same things, and that it was really about matching ignorance with knowledge.   He also mentioned that the current chapter and book size is arbitrary, which is something I’ve seen in textbooks.   Christine Walker mentioned how our cognition might change without the book experience.   There was considerable optimism about setting information free, which I didn’t squelch with my concern about the need for ‘filters’.

We covered the ‘collected papers’ model, where proactive instructors or good editors choose appropriate contributions to a definitive compilation (with my note that most instructors just want to choose a text, and there are compilations that are just vanity projects without a representative or definitive sampling for the topic).   We also talked about marketplaces, and Laleh Shahidi mentioned a learning object model of content, of which there’ve been several experiments (including Propagate, a system that Peter Higgs launched way back around 1998!).   One of the ideas would be to have several authors to choose from, but then you’d need ‘templates’ for topics, with agreed structure.   One of the current situations is that authors present totally different takes on subjects.

At the end, it appeared that publishing is about 4 things:

  • development: the right choice of message and author for the knowledge gap
  • production: the right choice of presentation of the information
  • marketing: the right marketing of availability to need
  • money: the business model that surrounds the first three

The interesting thing is that with the internet (and on-demand printing), the production costs have essentially hit zero. There’s clearly a role for editorial choice, but at some point everyone can publish, and we need ways to find what we want, which is really about the marketing, which was clearly where many authors (including yours truly) felt that they were let down.   We heard of an interesting experiment in viral marketing, with Amy Jussell mentioning a blog-produced book. The question is whether such an effort is replicable. Of course, there’s still the cachet that comes with having a publisher choosing.   The flip-side is tha traditional publishers still take months from final manuscript to final print.

So, no answers, but lots of interesting issues.

A Moving Experience…

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Yesterday, we moved furniture (OK, so bad puns are an occupational hazard :) ).   More specifically, a large solid wood entertainment center piece that even empty is surprisingly heavy.   And had to come down six steps and then up three.   Just my wife and myself (and for those who don’t know me or us, we’re not large people).   We seriously debated hiring two or four laborers to assist moving it.   However, we found another way…

Sitting down and thinking, we decided we could break it down into little steps.   First, we waltzed it over to the top of the steps. This was the most scary part, controlling it going down.   We put it on it’s back, and slid it down the carpeted steps onto some blankets, controlling the slide.

Now, the harder part, getting it up the three steps to the next room.   We stood it back up rather than take it up on the back; that had been important going down, but wasn’t for the upward trip.   We got my son to push from the back (didn’t really need it, but he was hanging around…), and we each took the front up a step at a shot.   Finally, I went to the back, lifted it up, and pushed while my wife tugged it forward.   Success!

The reason to recite this is not the impress you with our meager strength and effort (as if), but instead to highlight the lesson that taking a monumental task and breaking it down into littler steps is a really useful meta-learning technique.   Sitting down, working through the alternatives, imagining how you’d manage that particular approach and what you’d need.   With patience, a willingness to stop and rethink, and a little bit of courage, you can move mountains!

Wild Learning

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I’m a fan of the wilderness, because I believe that the genetic source of diversity found in wildness is critical to a sustainable world.   And, as I’ve mentioned before, I believe it’s important to pass this on to my kids.   So, just like last year, we went up to Yosemite for a couple of days, backpacking up to May Lake High Sierra Camp (HSC).

A lot was the same, staying in Tuolomne Meadows lodge the night before, packing in a little over a mile with our tents and sleeping bags (letting the May Lake staff handle breakfast and dinner), and doing a day hike between the two nights.   This was because the (younger) girl’s backpack was a wee bit big last time, and we wanted to make sure this year that they both were capable before taking on something bigger next year (it jumps from 1.2 to 5.x miles for the next shortest hike to a HSC).

Again, the goal was to minimize the exertion for the kids, having them get a chance to appreciate nature in a fun way.   While it wasn’t any more difficult, really, they did experience it as a bit more challenging as our day hike had the uphill bit on the way back.   Amazing how that little change affects their perspective!

The real important learning about learning, however, is something my better half picked up on first.   We weren’t doing enough to ensure that their learning steps were at the appropriate stage!   We quickly did focus on ensuring that they were getting support and guidance in making everything easier.   For instance, mentioning that ‘little steps’, at a pace that was sustainable, was better than trying to charge up and then stopping for a long time.

They came back positive, and while a wee bit uncertain about a substantially longer hike, I reckon they’re actually ready to handle it.   So, again a success, and a learning experience for me about how better to make it a positive learning experience for them!

The point being that there are ways to help individuals see the bigger benefit picture, scaffold their expectations, and manage the experience to make learning fun and effective.   Which is the goal, after all!

Future of Publishing?

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Based on a strange twist of circumstance, Jay Cross and I will be leading a discussion on the future of publishing in an online era here in the Bay Area next Monday (July 28).   He and I prepared some days ago, and came up with several issues, including who owns IP, new business models, moving from content to experience, increasing rates of change, and more.

The fact of the matter is that the day of the (non-fiction) book is at an inflection point.   That’s not to say we won’t still want to read books from time to time, at least those of us ‘of an age’ ;).   But what, where, when, and how will be our primary sources of information, moving forward?   My book cover

Certainly there are some interesting experiments going on.   On ITFORUM, Bev Ferrell and others have been citing a number of initiatives of self-publishing and open textbooks.   Certainly fodder for thought (particularly when I’m working with publishers on several projects, and have had a book published!).

We aren’t providing answers, but we’ll be with a very knowledgeable cohort and hope to work through to some interesting ideas.   If you’re in the area, and are interested, let me know and I’ll lob coordinates at you.