Jane Hart runs a great list of Top Learning Tools compiled from top learning professionals, and is updating the list for 2008. She includes performance support as part of her requirements. I had a list last year, but fortunately this year she’s given more structure and I like my new list better. Rather than repeat it, you can find both here.

However, I struggled to figure out how to put my mobile tools in (I cheated and lumped them under PalmOS), so I decided to do that here. Note that I’m still on my old Treo (I won’t go on yet again about how the iPhone isn’t yet ready for primetime :), and hope to switch this year to a new/faster one, or an iPhone, or an Android phone, or… Palm OS, while creaky (a new OS is in the works, but won’t appear ’til ’09), has heaps of apps that let you do most anything. So here’re the ones I find that I use a lot to make me more productive or to learn:

1. The basic PIM functions: ToDo, Contacts, Calendar, Memos (since it’s my list, I can cheat and cram several under one item :). Makes me way more productive (if I make a promise and it doesn’t get in here, we never had the conversation)
2. VersaMail: the included email application. It’s not great, but it’s good enough to preclude me spending my money on another one. I’ve got to be in touch. I probably use my phone more for email than to talk! (I’m not a great phone person)
3. Opera Mini: the built-in browser, Blazer, pales compared to Opera, though Opera’s not as well integrated. Being able to search the web while in conversations or meetings is really useful!
4. SplashPhoto: I put not only pictures of my family, but also my diagrams, and a portfolio of applications I’ve developed. I can talk about applications, but also talk to the diagrams in problem-solving
5. SplashID: I need all those passwords, card numbers, logins, etc, with me when I’m on the road (rather than carry the cards or attempt to memorize them), but after almost losing my phone I realized that they’ve got to be secure
6. Missing Sync: the better synching solution that keeps my desktop and mobile in line, and keeps me together
7. Google Maps: I use this all the time for directions and to find nearby locations I want to visit
8. Adobe Reader: I can bring documents along to read or for reference
9. Documents to Go: I can bring Powerpoints along to practice my talks
10. Clicker: this application turns my phone into a bluetooth presentation controller, so I can stroll around the room and not have to be tethered to my laptop

I’m not mentioning more personal things like the Bart schedule application that I use to know when to go catch a train. I’ve also just downloaded a Flight Status application that will let me check on flights, so it’s too early to say, but it seems like a potential win. So, what do you use to make yourself a better learner or more productive?

Clive Shepherd seconds Donald Clark’s call for Get Things Done. What struck me is this quote, so near and dear to my heart:

You may think lists are only for nerds, and maybe they are, but if you want a happier life, please do just this one thing: keep some recording device (paper and pen, flip chart, whiteboard, voice recorder, PDA, computer) with you at all times. When you have an idea or remember something you have to do, record it. Then relax and move on.

This is why I carry my Treo with me at all times, and why the iPhone still is not ready for primetime (though I expect it to change soon; the OS is ready, it just needs the firmware upgraded with the right capability). I used to carry the little black book that my uni gave me as a yearly calendar. However, I didn’t remember to check it. When I finally got a Palm Pilot, it changed my life, because it was there in my face, reminding me. I could set calendar events, but more importantly I could take and refer to notes, and I could set myself ToDos. These are keys to my productivity.

I have a saying that if I promise to do something, and it doesn’t get into my device, we never had the conversation. But when I do put it in there, it will happen. I’m much more effective with what I call my ‘external memory‘, leaving the device to remember arbitrary details and saving my brain for useful pattern matching, which is the right balance of tasks given the architecture of our brains and the capabilities of these devices.

This is the big argument, to me, for the benefits of mobile performance (including learning, but more focused on performance support and communication), a useful adjunct to our capabilities. As I’ve said elsewhere, it’s not about learning, it’s about doing, and from the problem’s point of view, the solver is more capable if it’s an augmented person, whether by technology or collaborator(s).

So, any device not only has to have the four elements Jeff Hawkins first identified: memos/notes, todos/tasks, contacts/address book, and calendar, but it has to sync it with my computer. Then it needs to have other things: phone, camera, email, web-browser. It makes me more effective, essentially smarter. Heck, sometimes it even makes me wiser! Are you using your devices optimally? Personally and professionally? Is your organization?

And the news just keeps on coming. Of the “well yeah” variety, ATT has announced that the next generation 3G-capable iPhone (which currently runs on the not-latest/fastest approach, EDGE) will come in ’08. Steve Jobs, Apple’s head honcho, promised late ’08, but the ATT announcement was without that qualifier (hope someone didn’t get in trouble for that :). Sooner is better here, with everyone making technology leaps every few months.

The more interesting news is that Verizon has announced that their next generation technology will be LTE (Long Term Evolution, a 4th generation of mobile phone technology). The reason this is interesting is that LTE is GSM, not CDMA. In case this is acronym soup to you, let me explain it practically. Currently in the US, there are two competing standards, CDMA (Sprint and Verizon to date) and GSM (ATT and T-Mobile). This is unlike most of the world, which runs on GSM. If Verizon moves to GSM, that will leave Sprint alone, which probably won’t be a good place to be.

They also used to not play well together, even on the same technology. With Verizon’s other recent announcement of opening their standards to allow phones they don’t control to play on their network, and Google’s announcement of their Open Handset Alliance and the Android standard, we’re really changing the market for mobile.

Despite the disadvantages that the US mobile market has had between the proprietary approaches, we’ve had cheap data. If we also get broad coverage, high speed networks, and an open playing field to supplement that opportunity, mobile could really take a quantum leap in capability and consequently in opportunity.

The US has a real chance here to become a mobile trend-setter instead of a laggard over the course of a few years, and the pressure will be on other countries to start freeing up data bandwidth as well. The winner should be the consumer. Of course, it will still take time to play out, and who knows what sorts of other barriers they’ll try to put in, but there’s reason for optimism, and for innovative ideas to have a better chance to come to fruition. Fingers crossed….

Well, Brent Schenkler beat me to it, passing on the announcement that Verizon’s opening up their network (it’s hard to post from a plane, and I’ve been on a lot of planes this month). This seems a reaction to the Open Handset Alliance announced by Google earlier this month (in the middle of our Mobile Learning Symposium). Regardless, it’s a positive move, I reckon.

It reminds me on the Bart back from the airport late last nite that I assisted a gent trying to get to a particular station. Using my Bart schedule application on my Treo, I could tell him when the next train would arrive. And how I used Google Maps in New Jersey earlier this week to guide me from the airport to my hotel in my rented car. Just ways I use my device to make me smarter and more effective.

I use Opera’s mobile browser (very good, almost iPhone good) in addition to Maps and Bart, as well as a timer (4 minutes for tea, thank you). I probably use the built-in email (Versamail) more than the phone! I use Documents to Go to review Powerpoints I’ll be presenting, and occasionally to view a document I download. Unfortunately, PDFs don’t work (I’ve an older version) since they need special rendering. I’ve got an app (SplashID) to keep my data encrypted (web logins, etc), and one that lets me keep images (my diagrams, some work portfolio shots) to share with people when working.

Google’s coming up with a new beta called My Location that uses cell-phone triangulation to actually replace a GPS (though with less accuracy), but it doesn’t yet run on my Treo. Sigh. Hopefully soon.

What do you use on your mobile device to make you more effective?

Exhausted from the day, we wanted to head back to the hotel to work and/or rest before dinner. They found an intepreter for us, and off we went in a cab. Sometime later, it appeared we didn’t know where we were going. Turns out it was a new taxi driver, and didn’t know the city well enough (!?!).

Lance (Dublin) mentioned something about having the address that made me remember I’d put it in the Memos of my Treo (I try to always put the address and phone number of a hotel I’m staying at in the Memos), and I pulled it up to show to our intepreter (who apologized, but she’s from Bogota, not Medellin) to show the driver, and started us back in the direction we’d come. The phone number came in handy as she called to double check that we were heading in the right direction.

The three of us (Lance, Eric Parks, and myself) were crammed in the back seat, and it was hot and uncomfortable. Given the heavy traffic (rush hour) and the, ahem, scenic tour, it took an hour to go three miles. Fortunately, it wasn’t any longer (Lance was ready to abandon ship at the next hotel and get a real cab!).

So, ok, maybe I’m a bit retentive, but on the other hand it sure came in handy. I also put the reservation code in the calendar for my hotels, rental cars, and airplanes, and my parking spot at the airport lot. I’ve heard of folks who take snapshots of their hotel room numbers to remember them. Just some of the ways I make myself more effective through the use of technology, mobile in this case. How about you?

Yesterday, in our symposium on Mobile Learning (with Judy Brown and David Metcalf), Ellen Wagner was talking about how fast the landscape is changing. I was able to provide a timely example.

At the same time we were convening, Google was announcing their new mobile platform, Android. There’d been talk of the gPhone (Google’s mobile phone), but this was a totally different, and important, move. The elements are an operating system, middleware, and software development kit (SDK) that are being developed by the Open Handset Alliance. Note the key word is ‘open’. That is, anyone can build phones that meet the requirements and run the OS, or develop applications that will run on it.

This is a much bigger play than the iPhone in that it’s an open environment which can open up the currently very restricted US phone market. Apple managed to get great concessions from ATT, but there’re constraints on software development (their SKD will be announced in February, but it’s not clear how much control Apple will exert). Obviously, it’s still to be seen how well anyone will be able to emulate the innovative UI of Apple, which was game-changing as well, but the openness will present a very appealing environment, not just a platform.

This is a very volatile environment, but this is a real big change in the environment and it will be interesting to watch the waves that result. Time to go surfing…

I’m here at DevLearn (if you’re here, say hello!), helping run the Mobile Learning Symposium. I was reminded of the SmartPhone Round Robin, and Brent Schenkler asked me to post the link. Done.

What’s happening is that the various bloggers of the top SmartPhones (Treo, iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile), are making serious commitments to try out each of the other solutions for a week, and blog about their experiences. It’s quite enlightening to hear the admissions, but also just what’s important to different people and therefore what capabilities end up mattering.

I’ve always found it illuminating to listen to other folks talk about how they use their mobile devices to make them more efficient and effective, and this is a great opportunity to eavesdrop. How do you make yourself more effective?