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Clark Quinn’s Learnings about Learning

Mobile Madness…

23 October 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

Walt Mossberg has concisely and elegantly laid out the problems affecting the mobile phone industry in the US (where I’m located). He talks about our carriers and how they have the ability to dictate what phones we can use with their services, and even the software that we can use.

It’s not that way elsewhere.   Anyone can buy a GSM phone in Europe and then choose a carrier. In Australia when I visited a couple of years ago, my friends loaned me one of their old phones, and I went a bought a SIM card (the hardware you change to run with one carrier versus another) with a fixed amount of minutes that let me call for the 2 weeks we were there. I brought my Treo, but only to use as a PDA, since it was a CDMA not a GSM phone (we have two systems in this country that don’t play well together), and even if it’d been a GSM phone, the card probably would’ve been inaccessible.

Why is this important? Mobile learning will advance faster if there’s more interoperability, as investments will amortize farther. Moreover, many possibilities will not see the light of day due to the requirements of working with the carriers who’s short term profits demand onerous fees to use their capabilities. Several of us had a new service to offer until we realized what it would cost to try to make it work with the carriers. Or, as Walt puts it:

“It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world…”

Oof!   I’ve seen similar problems elsewhere: the cost of data in Taiwan, for instance, keeps them from really taking advantage of their concentrated population and opening up new commerce areas. There are amazing things happening in places where there is an open field, and even amazing things happening despite these barriers. I just wonder what could be done without these self-defeating approaches…

SimGrail

18 October 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

One of the questions that continually comes up is what tool to use. Particularly for model-driven games, where the interactions are driven from an underlying simulation instead of from fixed branches (where the relationships are implicit in the links, not explicit in a model), everyone wants a tool to make it easier. And I’m pretty sure that can’t happen. Sure, you can use a tool for modeling a specific domain, e.g. Excel for business sims, but there can’t be anything more general than a programming language (e.g. Flash) for building any game you might need. From a response I sent to a correspondent:

Basically, there’re so many different types of relationships you’d want to model that any tool would have to be focused on a subset, otherwise it’s so general that there’s no advantage. Not sure what Stottler-Henke’s claim on SimVentive is, but the overhead looks pretty heavy to me. Other than that, Stella might be general enough, but for instance Excel will work as an engine for business models and other numerics, but could have trouble with softskills, etc. So I still think a high-level programming language is the best tool. Even game engines (e.g. Unreal) are optimized for certain things, and shoe-horning other types of games into them may compromise the learning goals or add unnecessary overhead (read: cost).

There are tools for branching sims (Captivate has added that capability since 2 and advanced it in 3 as I understand, and SimWriter is potentially the best ‘industrial-strength’ tool focused on that capability), but for model-driven interactions I haven’t seen it and am pretty convinced for principled reasons that you can’t have it. Hey, I’d like to have such tools available, for everybody, so I’m not pushing a negativity barrow here.

And I don’t want this to put you off going the extra level to get a model/simulation-driven interaction. When lots of practice is necessary, it’s the best way (branching scenarios have limited replay, and at some point it gets cheaper to do a model-driven interaction that multiple branching scenarios). Further, if you focus tightly on the decisions that will have the biggest impact, and focus on design rather than production, it’s not that hard and not that expensive.

Of course, match your needs to the solutions available, work with knowledgeable partners, but consider deeply immersive practice when it really matters.

Labeling Games

17 October 2007 by Clark 3 Comments

I’ve mentioned before how I got into this field, and back then what we were doing was creating educational computer games. Playing the original Colossal Cave adventure, I realized how we could put meaningful skills into these environments (not really what we were doing at DesignWare). Still, I thought of them as games.

Later, when I built a game requiring analogical reasoning (based upon my PhD thesis) and then with Quest, and more, I continued to think of them as games. When I finally wrote about how to design them, I used the phrase Simulation Games in the title, partly at the prodding of my publisher. So it’s been interesting to see the recent struggles with naming that are going on.

Ben Sawyer, moderator of the Serious Games discussion list, recently had a post discussing the various nuances of the term ‘serious games’. He differentiated his interpretation from what the eLearning Guild has called Immersive Learning Simulations (ILS). Interesting, the Guild chose that name when they received serious feedback (1784 respondents represented here) from their great research tool that the phrase ‘game’ was seriously problematic:

eLearning Guild ILS research report findings on naming fieldAs you can see, there was a strong feeling that the name had to change. On the other hand, there was speculation that the reason the ILS symposium at the upcoming DevLearn conference was cancelled due to low signups may well be because of the label. So, what’s going on?

It is true that some of us are focused on the corporate space with these, while others are almost definitely not interested in that space, instead being in, for the lack of a better term, the political/social action space. I like to think that my design principles work for either, but Ben’s message made clear that using games to ease kids pain, to exercise, etc, don’t qualify in his mind. I don’t quite agree, as my approach starts with an objective and provides systematic steps to achieve that objective, but there are things that wouldn’t qualify.

The issue for labeling in corporate learning is that some companies are concerned enough (concerned being a diplomatic euphemism) to actually block the term ‘game’ from any search through their firewall (!). As I’ve said before, a simulation is just a model, when you put the simulation in a particular state and ask the learner to take it to a goal state it’s a scenario, and when you tune that experience until engagement is achieved it’s a game. Clark Aldrich says it slightly differently, putting ILS at the intersection (think ‘Venn Diagram’, I can’t find a copy on his site) of Simulation, Games, and Pedagogy (I agree if you essentially equate the word ‘games’ with ‘engagement’ :).

Regardless, if you’re not at least considering deeply immersive practice through scenarios (though the one connotation that scenarios mean branching is too limited), you’re missing a powerful learning experience. More, there are very good reasons to think that tuning the experience, at least to some degree, makes the learning even more powerful. Finally, as I’ve said before, they’re not as expensive as you might fear.

So, regardless of name, consider the outcome, and make your learning practice as powerful as possible!

FALLing down…and picking up

16 October 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

My wife always insists that fall is my busy time, and I never get it. This year I am so getting it. In addition to speaking all over the place next month (and the attendant house-keeping details like actually creating the presentations!), people have been asking for assistance with grant applications & proposals, the list goes on.

The good thing is I can’t complain about being bored. The bad thing is that attempting to keep up with the surge in workload means I find it harder to blog. Not just to find time, but it’s hard to be reflective when you’re in active cognition mode. AKA “when you’re up to your a** in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp”.

So for one thing it’s an apology, but it’s also a recognition that this curse is hurting organizations. Several years ago, when Jay Cross and I were pushing the notion of ‘learning to learn‘ (still one of the best cost/benefit values I can think of), people would say “we don’t have time to reflect”. And I can see it is still true.

Yet, it’s not wise. You need to take time to reflect, and companies that have built it into their DNA are reaping the benefits (Google being the poster-child). Yes, there’s increasing competition, and pressure, but the way you succeed is by out-thinking, not outworking. Are you freeing up your innovators and problem-solvers to think ahead, as opposed to addressing other people’s concerns? Are they in tune with the organization’s mission and thinking how to take it to the next level?

Sow what do you do? I think you go beyond the Theory of Constraints type of management and create a learning culture, inspire people, and them empower them with a performance ecosystem. Are you taking the time you need now to get the advantage you’ll need tomorrow? Yes, it’s an investment, but one I think you can’t afford to miss if you want to still be here the day after…

…which is when I head off to a board meeting, so I better get back to work (he says, bringing the conversation full circle).

A business blind spot?

13 October 2007 by Clark 2 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that I think there’s a strategic framework behind elearning implementation, and have been talking about it a bit here and there. Of course, the real test is if anyone says “hey, that’s me”. I’m not seeing it, and I’m curious why, as I believe I see it all over the place.

I got into the space through a partner organization, where their clients who’d been doing tactical stuff started asking for assistance with the longer-term picture. It became obvious there is a higher level, and an emergent way to look at it. I increasingly see organizations who’d benefit, but getting to the right person, and getting them to see the need, and of course most importantly getting them to actually buy into trying a solution has been difficult. An earlier post talked about someone who needed it, but was looking for free assistance. Probably worth every cent it cost.

I’m actually wondering if this is an unseen need. That is, organizations need it and don’t realize it. I’ll be talking about it in various ways at several upcoming events, , but I’d welcome your feedback on whether it’s too early, too obvious, too obtuse, or what.

A sleazy tactic

11 October 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

Because of the blog, I occasionally (increasingly?) get pointed to check out some things. Some of them clearly are marketing/PR but not labeled as such, others are just clueless (asking me to support a paper-writing service?). This one was clearly marketing, but they were offering value. It’s a game where you drag and drop countries onto a European Map.

The game itself is interesting: the countries are identified by shape and two letter URL code. Even when you get it in the right place, you’re not told what the country is by name. At the end you get feedback about what you missed. It’s hard at first, when you get a country that’s landlocked and there’re no boundaries shown. Also, I confess I didn’t know what country .by was (still don’t).

So I missed several because I have no idea where they are (never studied European geography, but I’m one who survived his schooling), and others because I didn’t get them in quite the right spot with no other countries to line up. It’s got some flaws from helping you learn the countries, but it’s fun and it will help you learn their relative locations. The order seems to be the same each time, which isn’t good. If you could put in the ones you know, you might be able to build up to the ones you don’t know. Still, it seemed some interest, some value, some fun.

And I was going to give you the link, but then I found they’d a sneaky way to get their code into my blog. I’m sure they thought it’d be cool to embed the link and the game right in my blog, but I prefer to choose what appears on the page. If they’d said that I could get a link and embed, I might have, but not having it done when I was trying to cut and paste the countries I’d missed (I’m was willing to own up about them).

I had to edit the code to get it out! That’s sleazy. So, no link for them, just an object lesson on what not to do.

See you in Colombia?

10 October 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

I recently mentioned my rather hectic upcoming schedule, including the fact that I’ll be speaking in Colombia at the eLearning 07 event (note: the site’s in Spanish, and I can’t read it). I’m in good company, with other speakers including Lance Dublin, Eric Parks, and Ray Jimenez, all of whom I know and respect.

There’ll apparently be simultaneous translation (a good thing, I can’t speak Spanish either). If you’re interested in eLearning, speak Spanish, and can get to Colombia Nov 13-14, I recommend it. Ray and Lance have done it before and say very nice things about the conference and organizers. I’ll be running my mobile and game design workshops as well (don’t know if they’ll be translated or they’ll suffer my English), if that’s of interest.

If you get there, say hello (or hola)!

Philip Dodds, RIP

10 October 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

Mark Oehlert reminds me that Philip Dodds passed on, and it’s a loss to the elearning community. I didn’t know him like Mark did, but I did meet him through the learning object work I was involved in for a couple of years. Very gracious, genuinely smart and working hard on infrastructure issues and standards that help liberate us from proprietary approaches.

(What with the recent passing of Claude Ostyn, I’m almost tempted to believe that learning object work is truly dangerous, but it’s probably too flippant.)

It’s worth reflecting that there has been a lot of work through the years that has been largely unheralded that has set the foundation for our industry. Yes, there are the stars who’s work has been recognized, but many others for whom too little is known. Here’s a tribute to one.

Formal, informal, and information foraging

9 October 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

When I read the description of Pirolli’s Information Foraging book, I immediately sent the description to Jay Cross, guru of informal learning, because the principles of information foraging are key descriptors of informal learning on the web. Then I went and googled the concept.

You see, when you take the broader picture of elearning (see Tony Karrer’s current discussion), beyond courses to populating the ‘learnscape’ or performance ecosystem with eCommunity and portals as well, you want to make sure that your learners can get to the information they need. This means good information architecture as well as powerful search.

I was thrilled to see Jakob Nielsen’s information foraging page, where he covers simply not only the theory, but the implications for site design. It’s information we should use in designing our portals and resources for our learners. Will they quickly be able to find what they need because we’ve designed the clues to lead them to it? Or will they find incomprehensible barriers?

I’m biased, as by circumstance my background has been steeped in information architecture and interface design, but it’s a component we need to be aware of to truly support performance in our organizations. It’s needed in the systems so we’re not training around bad interface design, but also to meet needs whether it’s customers, our own employees, or our students. Check it out!

Future of Corporate Learning Freevent

8 October 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

George Siemens is organizing a free event: Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations – Nov. 15 – 20, 2007. I’m one of the speakers, others include:

  • David Snowden
  • Jay Cross
  • Rebecca Stromeyer
  • Richard Straub
  • Donald H. Taylor
  • Janet Clarey
  • David Wilson
  • Bill Bruck
  • George Siemens
  • Tony Karrer

I don’t know all of them, but I know enough to know that this should be really good. Moreover, they’re using a wiki to start discussion beforehand and continue afterwards, and other innovative things.

And, while you have to register, the conference is free. Sounds worthwhile; I hope we can cross virtual paths through the conference!

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