mobile Archives - Page 14 of 23

Thinking Social

7 March 2011 by Clark 1 Comment

In talking about the 4C’s of Mobile, the last one I usually mention is ‘communicate’. Communicate isn’t last because it’s least, but instead because it leads us furthest afield, into the areas of social learning, which has many ramifications in many ways: organizationally, cognitively, culturally, and more. However, it is of importance for mobile in terms of thinking about how and when to take advantage of it. It is also something that the Internet Time Alliance is wrestling with.

We strongly believe in performance consulting, that is getting to the root cause of the organizational problem, and determining whether the problem is skill set, information, motivation, or whatever. This is a necessary step before you decide your intervention. However, the current models of performance consulting seem to be missing a couple of things. For one, they are not particularly good at engagement, at least in the formal learning setting, and trying to understand the audience’s interest. More importantly here, they also seem to lack consideration of when a social media solution might make sense.

As a preliminary step, I went back to some material I have from my workshop on mobile learning design. One of the activities is thinking about when you might want to consider a social solution, to connect to someone to communicate, rather than have a prepared solution. My initial thoughts were that you might want to connect when:

the content is highly volatile
the situation is likely unique
the cost of access is low
the need for personal touch or mentoring is high

These make sense to me, but I’ve no reason to believe the list is comprehensive. However, it is a starting point for thinking about when you might want to provide access to a social resource, whether a directory of appropriate people, or consider providing communication tools.

I might extend the list with:

when the situation is likely new
when there is an expert
when the situation is likely to be complex.

Here’s a tougher one: when would you think the situation would likely need a collaborator, instead of an expert? What’s the trigger?

As I said, I’m just starting to wrestle with this. What ideas do you have?

Reflections on the final day of TechKnowledge 11

7 February 2011 by Clark 1 Comment

Because of prior commitments, I only got to attend the last day of the TechKnowledge conference, to participate in two panels, one on mobile and one on instructional design, and then listen to the closing session. Some thoughts stuck with me:

The Mobile Panel

It’s clear to me that many folks are still thinking of mobile as content delivery in a course mode. There’s nothing wrong with content delivery, e.g. for performance support, and for course augmentation, but the panel (Kris Rockwell, Ed Prentice) was wisely arguing for a broader vision for mobile learning.

Kris mentioned the possibilities of just using voice, and I chimed in with the potential for using SMS. Again, you really want to think a little differently to take advantage of mobile. I also mentioned the other 3 C’s: Compute, Capture (images, videos, audio), and Communicate.

The possibilities provided by knowing where you are, that these devices have GPS in many cases, was also mentioned. The real point is you need to move beyond thinking of content for courses to really take advantage of the opportunities mobile presents.

Instructional Design Panel

With participants as widely experienced as Steve Villachica, Ellen Wagner, Karl Kapp, and Allison Rossett, you’d expect fun and irreverence in addition to sage advice, and that’s just what you got. Topics ranged from what should be taught in classes to the reality of practice in the field. There was some disagreement (I was a self-labeled contrarian a couple of times), but in general we were nodding at what others were saying.

One of the major points was that just understanding instructional design wasn’t enough. Ellen told the story of her journey out of academia and the wake-up call she received when having to work in an organization. Steve talked about how they wanted learners to understand business and project management, and Karl talked about the internships they use to ground their classes.

The counter came from the audience where instructional design departments of one were concerned about having time to take on a ‘consulting’ role in addition to meeting their required duties, and how to accommodate the need to add things like mobile to their repertoire. The need to move up to thinking at a higher level is easy to proselytize, but hard to accomplish in practice. However, I do argue for the bigger picture, asking you to avoid Learning Malpractice.

Closing Session

The closing session was a brave move by ASTD, and more credit to them for giving it a go; they had a BBC host conduct the session in a TV-style presentation, with rapid fire interviews mixed in with video footage, a quick SkypeCast with a UK-based expert, and tweeted questions. In the end it came across as a bit too much (the videos had gratuitous graphics and the soundtrack was too like an advertisement), but it was lively and I have to commend experimentation. It certainly was better than some alternatives I’ve seen (e.g. another conference that closed with a content-free motivational speaker).

One of the most contentious points was a face-off between the view that we’ve been using things like social learning for ever, and only the tools have changed to a contrary point that our learning fundamentally has changed. The latter point got cheers, but I think what’s changed is we’ve moved away from industrial age efficiency and back to matching our our brains really learn, but with new tools. So I disagree with both (there’s that contrarian thing again :).

I like the TechKnowledge conference, as I think they work hard to get mostly the right folks (tho’ I confess to being surprised to see a ‘learning styles’ workshop put on pre-conference), and many of our top colleagues have taken a shot at serving on the program committee. I think it’s in Las Vegas next year, and a good conference to attend regardless.

Learning Technologies UK wrap-up

31 January 2011 by Clark 4 Comments

I had the pleasure of speaking at the Learning Technologies ’11 conference, talking on the topic of games. I’ve already covered Roger Schank‘s keynote, but I want to pick up on a couple of other things. Overall, however, the conference was a success: good thinking (more below), good people, and well organized.

The conference was held on the 3rd floor of the conference hall, while floors 1 and ground hosted the exposition: the ground floor hosted the learning and skills (think: training) exhibits while the 1st floor held learning technology (read: elearning) vendors. I have to admit I was surprised (not unpleasantly) that things like the reception weren’t held in the exhibit halls. The conference was also split between learning technologies (Day 1) and learning and skills (day 2), so I have to admit being somewhat surprised that there weren’t receptions on the respective floors, to support the vendors, tho’ having a chance to chat easily with colleagues in a more concise environment was also nice.

I’m not the only one who commented on the difference between the floors: Steve Wheeler wrote a whole post about it, noting that the future was above, and the past showing below. At a post-conference review session, everyone commented on how the level of discussion was more advanced than expected (and gave me some ideas of what I’d love to cover if I got the chance again). I’d heard that Donald Taylor runs a nice conference, and was pleased to see that it more than lived up to the billing. There was also a very interesting crowd of people I was glad to meet or see again.

In addition to Roger’s great talk on what makes learning work, there were other stellar sessions. The afore-mentioned Steve did a advanced presentation on the future of technologies that kept me engaged despite a severe bout of jetlag, talking about things you’ve also heard here: semantics, social, and more. He has a web x.0 model that I want to hear more about, because I wasn’t sure I bought the premise, but I like his thinking very much. There was also a nice session on mobile, with some principles presented and then an interesting case study using iPads under somewhat severe(military) constraints on security.

It was hard to see everything I wanted to, with four tracks. To see Steve, I had to pass up Cathy Moore, who’s work I’ve admired, though it was a pleasure to meet her for sure. I got to see Jane Bozarth, but at the expense of missing my colleague Charles Jennings. I got to support our associate Paul Simbeck-Hampson, but at the cost of missing David Mallon talk on learning culture, and so on.

A great selection of talks to hear is better than not. There was also a very interesting crowd of people I was glad to meet or see again. A great experience, overall, and I can happily recommend the conference.

Continual Learning

20 January 2011 by Clark 4 Comments

A recent request for feedback on new learning technology research areas highlighted areas they thought were important, and a subset naturally struck me:

the connection between formal and informal learning: an interest of mine since I first noticed the gap in organizations
emotional and motivational aspects of technology-enhanced learning which was the topic of first book
informal learning: which is a major component of my work as a member of the Internet Time Alliance
personalization of learning: which was the focus of a project I led a decade ago and still an area of interest
ubiquitous and mobile technology and learning: given that I’ve just written a book about it :)

As academics are wont to do, this isn’t a surprising list (there were interesting others as well) because despite the overlap there’s reason to study each on their own. But what inspired me was the intersection.

I started thinking about a vision (PDF) I had about 8 years ago now, where your portable mobile device would know where you are and what you are doing, and coupling that with your learning goals, would layer on support for developing your learning goals opportunistically based upon your context. Think about how you’d learn if you had no limits at all: your ideal could be to have a personal mentor always with you looking for opportunities to develop you.

The learning benefits are severalfold, it’s customized for you, and it’s focused on your interests. It also ideally would bridge the gap between formality and informality, as it could be more formal for a new area but then become more informal gradually. Another way to think of it is as ‘slow learning‘, (like ‘slow food’, not like ‘slow learner’) based upon a long-term relationship with (and a long-term interest in) the learner.

The technology capabilities make this possible. What is still required would be the curricula, the content, the rules, and the business model. If nothing else, I think organizations should be thinking about this internally, mobile or not. It is another way to start thinking about workscapes/performance ecosystems and a broader perspective on learning. Anyone game?

Coming to a webinar near you!

14 January 2011 by Clark 1 Comment

Well, there’s a whole lotta webinar action going around around here. Let me fill you in and hope to see you online:

Rethinking eLearning

First, I’ll be talking next week as the closing speaker at the eLearning Guild’s January Online Forum on Instructional Design next week (I’m speaking at noon PT on Friday the 21st).

I’ll be talking on Beyond ID: Augmenting Performance, which caps a fabulous series of talks on Instructional Design (launched by the eminent Ruth Clark). The Guild always does a good job, so it’s a no brainer if you’re a Guild Member and looking to upgrade your ID thinking.

Mobile

Then I’ll be doing talks on mobile learning (naturally, promoting my forthcoming book) for several different groups . I’ll be covering why and how. You should pick the one that matches your group affiliation (and schedule):

I’ll be doing a mobile webinar for ASTD (free to members, I believe) on the 20th (next week) on Thursday the 2oth at 11 AM PT.

Training Industry Quarterly also is hosting one (free) on the 24th of February at 10 AM PT.

Finally, on March 8th 10:30 AM PT I’ll be doing an eLearning Guild Thought Leader webinar on mobile.

Hope to see you at one of them!

2011 Predictions

1 January 2011 by Clark

For the annual eLearn Mag predictions, this year I wrote:

I think we’ll see some important, but subtle, trends. Deeper uses of technology are going to surface: more data-driven interactions, complemented by both more structured content and more semantics. These trends are precursors to some very interesting nascent capabilities, essentially web 3.0: system-generated content. I also think we’ll see the further demise of “courses Ã¼ber allesâ€ and the â€˜all-singing all-dancing‘ solution, and movement towards performance support and learning facilitation driven via federated capabilities.

I think it’s worth elaborating on what I mean (I was limited to 75 words).

I’ve talked before about web 3.0, and what it takes is fine granularity and deep tagging of content, and some rules about what to present when. Those rules can be hand-crafted based upon good guesses or existing research, but new opportunities arise from having those rules capitalize on rich data of interactions. Both based upon some client work, and what I heard at the WCET conference, folks are finally waking up to the potential of collecting internet-scale data (e.g. Amazon and Netflix) and mining that as a basis for optimizing interactions. Taking the steps now have some immediate payoffs in terms of optimizing content development streams and looking anew at what are important interactions, but the big returns come in creating optimized learning and performance interactions.

The second part is a bit of evangelism hoping that more organizations will follow the path foreseen by my Internet Time Alliance colleagues, and move beyond just training to covering informal learning. I’ve talked before about looking at the bigger picture of learning, because I’m convinced that the coming differentiator will not be optimal execution but continuing innovation. That takes, in my mind, both an optimized infrastructure and ubiquitous access (c.f. mobile). It’s more, of course, because it also implies a culture supportive of learning, yet I think this is both an advantage for business competitiveness and a move that meets real human needs, which makes it an ideal as well as real goal.

The eLearning Mag predictions should be out soon, and I strongly encourage you to see what the bevy of prognosticators are proposing for the coming year. I welcome hearing your thoughts, too!

Update: Designing mLearning

31 December 2010 by Clark 5 Comments

Well, it’s been a bit of a saga, but there are some new developments about my forthcoming: Designing mLearning: Tapping Into the Mobile Revolution for Organizational Performance. It’s the usual good news/bad news scenario, but only mildly.

First, for the bad news. The book, which I’d been told would be available “around” January, will be available around January, if you agree that February counts. The book, I’m now assured, will ship on 2 February. I’m glad to have a firm date, and the only real problem with 2 Feb is that it makes a dodgy proposition of having the book available for the very good TechKnowledge conference (where I’m presenting a mobile learning workshop on 1 February). Though, of course, you’ll be able to order the book (and you can preorder now).

The good news is I’ve finally got a downloadable PDF sample of the book, including what I think is a clever cover design (caveat, my idea :), the ‘about the book’ section, Ellen Wagner‘s gracious foreword, and the short section introduction and first chapter. It tells the story of what the book’s about and why it should be of interest to the target audience (which hopefully includes you).

I’ll also be giving some webinars to promote the book to a variety of audiences, including the always great eLearning Guild, ASTD, and Training Industry Quarterly. Stay tuned to your usual channels, which includes the Quinnovation News page (which always points to what I’m up to).

For my sins, of course, it appears there’s more mobile writing in my near future, which will likely impact my blogging a bit, but as always I’ll try to keep a balance. At least the travel’s done and holidays are essentially past. Hope your holidays have been good so far!

Working Smarter Cracker Barrel

12 December 2010 by Clark Leave a Comment

My Internet Time Alliance colleague Harold Jarche is a clever guy. In preparation for an event, he makes a blog post to organize his thoughts. I like his thinking, so I’ll let him introduce my post:

Next week, at our Working Smarter event hosted by Tulser in Maastricht, NL, we will have a series of short sessions on selected topics. Each Principal of the Internet Time Alliance has three topics of 20 minutes to be discussed in small groups. My topics are listed below and include links to relevant posts as well as a short description of the core ideas behind each topic.

These are mine:

Mobile

Mobile ‘accessorizes‘ your brain. It is about complementing what your brain does well by providing the capabilities that it does not do well (rote computation, distance communication, and exact detail), but wherever and whenever you are. Given that our performers are increasingly mobile, it makes sense to deliver the capabilities where needed, not just at their desk. The 4 C’s of mobile give us a guide to the capabilities we have on tap.

Working smarter is not just mobile capabilities, however, but also combining them to do even more interesting things. The real win is when we capture the current situation, via GPS and clock/calendar, so we know where you are and what you are doing, to do things that are relevant in the context.

Even without that, however, there are big offerings on the table for informal learning, via access to resources and networks.

Social Formal Learning

Social learning is one of the big opportunities we are talking about in ‘working smarter’. Most people tend to think of social learning in terms of the informal opportunities, which are potentially huge. However, there are a couple of reasons to also think about the benefits of social learning from the formal learning perspective.

The first is the processing. When you are asked to engage with others on a topic, and you have designed the topic well, you get tight cycles of negotiating understand, which elaborates the associations to make them persist better and longer. You can have learners reflect and share those reflections, which is one meaningful form of processing, and then you can ask them to extend the relevant concepts by reviewing them in another situation together, asking them to come to a shared response. The best, of course, is when learners work together to discern how the concepts get applied in a particular context, by asking them to solve a problem together.

The additional benefit is the connection between formal and informal. You must use social learning tools, and by doing so you are developing the facility with the environment your performers should use in the workplace. You also have the opportunity to use the formal social learning as a way to introduce the learners into the communities of practice you can and should be building.

Performance Ecosystem (Workscape) Strategy

Looking at the individual components – performance support, formal learning, and informal learning – is valuable, but looking at them together is important as well, to consider the best path from where you are to where you want or need to go. Across a number of engagements, a pattern emerged that I’ve found helpful in thinking about what we term workscapes (what I’ve also called performance ecosystems, PDF) in a systemic way.

You want to end up where you have a seamless performance environment oriented around the tasks that need to be accomplished, and having the necessary layers and components. You don’t want to approach the steps individually, but with the bigger picture in mind, so everything you do is part of the path towards the end game. Realizing, of course, that it will be dynamic, and you’ll want to find ways to empower your performers to take ownership.

Brain damage

6 December 2010 by Clark 2 Comments

I’ve talked before about how mobile ‘accessorizes‘ the brain. Well, here I am in Europe, and I’m suffering brain damage. In short, the situation with cross-border data access is inexcusable.

It’s been several years since I lasted traveled overseas, and since then I’ve become increasingly mobile-enabled. I’ve got navigation apps, information apps, map apps, and app apps (ok, well maybe not that last one). I use them to google information in meetings so I don’t have to stop the flow, to maintain contact, to figure out where I am and how to get places, and more. It’s what’s mobile is about: solving problems in the moment.

Forget the calls: I paid extra to only pay a dollar a minute under a special plan. Ludicrous, but ok I’m not a big phone person, and I can usually use Skype. I’m also not a big texter, but again I set up a special plan to have 50 outgoing messages before I started paying $.50 a text. (Yes, $.50 a text!) So, I’m limiting my text messages because while the plan is in effect, incoming ones don’t cost. And I know many people coordinate things through text messages. Of course, stupidly, once the 50 are up the plan doesn’t have an option to pay another amount to get 50 more. Once you use those up, your back to the mind-numbing base rate. C’est la vie.

Now, I asked about data overseas, and the best price going was one dollar a megabyte. Do you know how fast you go through megabytes? A colleague got 50 MB, and went through 30 in the first day! At the rate I go through data, I’d be in the poorhouse before I got home! It’s just not on. I figured I’d find Wifi when needed, and not use cellular data, and turned it all off. Wifi, however, has been problematic. It’s not out and about with you, you kind of have to find it. And of course the conference wifi was pretty iffy, and the hotel wifi varies from practical to maniacially complex and expensive, and my colleagues have been dragging me hither and yon and free wifi isn’t quite as ubiquitous here as in other places.

So the crux of the matter is, when I’m out and about, needing to find information about where I am, what’s nearby, what that means (translation), and more, I’m functioning like someone’s taken part of my brain. I’ve come to depend on these capabilities, and yet our global infrastructure hasn’t kept up. I know that the providers think it’s not in their interest to work and play together well, but they’re missing the point that seamless data access benefits everyone. People will use more data overall, it will drive the growth of mobile business since everyone will be using it, and the world will be smarter place.

It really is an opportunity for governments to step in and demand action. In light of the many problems the world is facing right now this may seem like a trivial issue, but I’d also suggest that making information exchange easier is a step in the right direction towards solving those problems.

As it is, it’s practically criminal to commit brain damage to international travelers. Can we get the UN in on this or something?

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