“Father, it’s been too many days since my last blog”, but it’s been a bit hectic. I’ve been dealing with some presentations, and more to come. Yesterday, one of them was a video conference for the Graduate School of Education (if I understand correctly!) at ITESM (Institute Technologica).

Here you can see the setup, I was in a video conference center, and I could control whether they saw me or my slides, and I could see them. Well, actually, some of them, as others were at satellite centers. I’m not an experienced video presenter (I do a lot of webinars, like tomorrow’s eLearning Guild Online Forum introducing eLearning, but it’s my first videoconference), but tried to balance some of me talking to them directly (they had a translator, I don’t speak Spanish unfortunately) with my usual diagrams and voice over (their system wouldn’t allow them to see both me and my slides at the same time). They’re quite advanced technologically, even telling me before we began that they’re making mobile a part of their learning solutions, with vidcasts and audcasts as well as quizzes.

Which was relevant, as they’d asked me to speak on mobile learning. I spoke to mobile design, my pet passion, and emphasized as I have in the eLearning Guild’s mobile research report that you have to ‘think different’, not about courses, but about performance support. They asked some very good questions afterwards, including what competencies learners should have (to be effective self-directed learners, and not to take that for granted but scaffold it), how mobile could be incorporated into universities (separate content from display, while using more open tools), and what content makes sense for mobile (interactive, reactivating, not content dump).

In one sense, I missed that I didn’t get a trip to Monterrey, Mexico (love to see new places, particularly ones with good food!), but it was a learning experience both in the new medium for me, and of course in thinking anew about the topic. Every time I present, there’re always new thoughts, even if it’s the same topic, though I try to get to speak on new things to challenge myself (one of my learning strategies). Of course, I also offer to host one of my well-reviewed workshops on game or mobile design, as well.   For instance, I’m talking about emotional elearning and mapping tools to learning needs at the eLearning Guild’s DevLearn (in San Jose CA), about eLearning Strategy for SENA (in Columbia, this time I do get a trip), and on learning technology futures in Copenhagen for the Danish Research Network (another trip!). What would you like to hear about?

In addition to working on the mobile learning report, I’m speaking on mobile to Mexico’s Tecnológico de Monterrey via videoconference next week on mobile. As an part of my ongoing efforts to capture my thinking as graphics (for lots of reasons including my visual conceptualization approach, making my powerpoints more worthwhile, communicating, etc), I took a stab at graphically representing my generic model of a mobile device:

In this model, I’m trying to show that a mobile device is, at core, a processor and memory unit with a variety of possible means of connection (personal, local, and wide-area ways to network), input to the device (e.g. keys, touchscreen), output from the device (e.g. screen, speakers), and sensors that can do things like take pictures, capture audio, and sense position both in the larger context (e.g. GPS), and relative (like whether it’s tilted sideways or upright). Also, we have certain types of prototypical software that can be included: Personal Information Management, data viewing, capture, editing, communication, etc.

The point is that there are lots of form factors, but at heart we have this digital communication device with certain affordances (there’s that word again :) that we can map to our learning needs and goals.   I think it’s valuable to try to abstract away from particular devices as they are continually changing (well, increasingly multi-capable), and consider more fundamentally what capabilities are available and how they might be used. What do you think?

You’ve heard me rant about the iPhone’s lack of cut/copy/paste. Well, someone’s come up with a brilliant video that shows how it could be done in the parameters of their existing interface, and does it as a spoof of their current tutorial. Brilliant. Which doesn’t cover some other gaps I’ve railed about. Others have noted gaps, too.

Which brings me to this eloquent lambasting of Palm’s lack of innovation around the Treo (the major iPhone competitor, IMHO). It does a great job of pointing out how the Treo (my current smartphone) hasn’t really been updated in any significant way in several years (which is an eon in tech circles). Lack of multi-tasking, weak browser, no wi-fi are just a few of very reasonable complaints.

It has been a bee in my bonnet that I can’t select text on the Treo with the jog-dial (four direction arrows and center button) and the keyboard (and of course it could, if you used the shift key like you do on a laptop). In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the Treo should be *completely* operable from the buttons, and never need the touchscreen (except as a backup option for speed in certain circumstances).

Which would be an interesting contrast: the total keyboard control of a Treo versus a total touchscreen experience of the iPhone. One for ‘the rest of us’, one for the powerusers, for instance. There’s lots of space in this market, I reckon…

An update: there’s a free webinar you can sign up for to hear (most of) us talk about the report.   I don’t know if it’s eLearning Guild members only, but you should be one anyway!

The eLearning Guild’s just released their Mobile Learning report (disclaimer: I’m one of the authors). They’re really cranking out an impressive suite of elearning research reports, and in addition to the articles by the chosen authors (a who’s who, present company excepted), which include case studies and resources, there’s the ability to access data collected from and regularly updated by the eLearning Guild’s membership (typically covering over a 1000 respondents with representation across industries, sectors, and nations).

You can download the abstract from the link at the bottom. The report and access is not free, but if you’re in the mobile learning business, or looking to take advantage of the powerful learning opportunity mobile learning provides, I do want to encourage you to see if it’s for you. And I get nothing based upon how well it sells, so I have no vested interest in encouraging this other than that I know Steve Wexler, their director of research, puts great effort into making sure that the reports are as good a piece of work as can be done. Check it out!

There have been some great discussions swirling around the eLearning Guild’s mobile learning 360 research report team (along with the relative merits and flaws of the iPhone ;). The question came up as to whether the fact that mobile devices focus on communication means that they can’t really deliver learning. My response to this was:

Don’t think about formal learning when you think about mLearning. As David (Metcalf) points out in his mLearning book, think of a mobile device as a learning *adjunct*. It’s a broader view of learning, where we take our learning process and augment it with mobile components. And take a performance focus: what will make people perform better!

It’s NOT about delivering an entire motivating learning experience through a 2″ screen (it *can* be, but that’s not the point). Which typically only is needed when you have a full skill-set change needed. Practitioners and experts can get away with just the facts, ma’am.

SO, we might ‘communicate’ concepts, examples, even practice (though interactivity is still the big barrier in mobile, re: the standards issue Judy (Brown) rightly raised) as *part* of a learning experience.

Or ‘communicate’ job aids/information as performance support.

It’s useful, it can lead to learning, but we need a broader definition of learning when we talk about mobile learning.

And, as the discussion re: Treo/iPhone illustrates, as we asymptotically approach the full capability of a desktop, the cognitive capability asymptotically approaches a full learning experience.

What do you think?

Well, I found I posted a lot about games when writing for the eLearning Guild’s research report on Immersive Learning Simulations. Now my thoughts are turning to mlearning as we’re preparing that report for a subsequent 360 report.

It’s been fun, as I’ve had to expand my thinking on how to ‘think different‘ to accommodate mobile learning. And you really do need to think differently, as traditional instructional design won’t likely lead you to the opportunities. Yes, you might get job aids, and even distributed applications (capturing data from the field), but the whole ‘learning adjunct’ thing might well be skipped, for example.

That is, while you probably shouldn’t think of delivering a whole course on a mobile device (what I call eLearning Lite[tm]), you could and should think about how you can make a course more effective by augmenting it with mobile support. Using Allison Rossett‘s useful framework of planner and sidekick, two simple ideas are to wrap the learning experience with some awareness raising beforehand, and to provide job support during the learning experience. Of course, there’s learning follow-on (providing subsequent examples and practice over time), too.

Other ways to think differently include minimalism, “because I can versus because I’m here“, push versus pull, content versus connection, design ‘right’ versus design for reuse, and more. It’s been fun thinking through what are useful ways to break out of the traps our mental architecture provides. How do we break out of functional fixedness and set effects? We need representations, tools, and processes that keep us from prematurely converging.

mLearning has great potential: the devices are becoming ubiquitous, the tools are maturing, and the needs are increasing. The only limits, as my friend Carl used to say, are between our ears. So go forth and mobilize!

In the mobile research report we‘re doing for the eLearning Guild, we‘ve been debating the relative merits of the new iPhone from Apple. I‘ve already talked about it, but the discussion that‘s been of interest is how the iPhone is a fundamental switch. And the point that my colleagues are making is that it‘s no longer a device, it‘s a platform.

The distinction is that you can change the software, and make it a different device. You can load software to do maps, stocks, weather, and there‘re web apps that can deliver custom applications. It‘s got a general purpose (read: touch) interface, a real operating system (OS), and a way to load new software on to it.

And I agree that a platform is a fundamental switch. It‘s what the computer really is, a platform, the ultimate customizable environment. Phones with some pre-selected capabilities, rich as those capabilities may be, are not platforms. So, for instance, the Blackberry, with its limited 3rd party market, isn‘t really a platform. I‘ve been frustrated that the iPod, with all its ubiquity, isn‘t a platform. Apple controls it too tightly, and only applications meeting their determination of appropriateness are available.

My reaction to my colleagues viewpoint is two-fold. The iPhone is not yet a platform, and there are existing platforms already.

First, the iPhone is not yet open. Apple‘s not controlling it as badly as they have the iPod, but currently the only way to get third party-capability is through web applications. That‘s not effective where I am now, 35K feet in the air. Steve Jobs has promised he‘s working on a solution, and that will change the game if indeed they do produce a way. I understand Apple‘s desire to control the quality to ensure a great customer experience, but it‘s a tradeoff. As of now, however, it‘s not a platform.

That‘s why I‘m still with another, earlier platform. The Treo not only has a general purpose interface (keyboard, jog-dial, and touchscreen), but is open to 3rd party development, allowing you to find apps to do almost anything, or create your own (ok, if you can program). Yes, the OS is old, not multi-tasking.

Windows Mobile is a platform as well, supported on another wide variety of devices, also with general-purpose interfaces, and a somewhat more modern OS (though also the inherent Windows problems…).

So, I‘m eagerly awaiting my chance to get an iPhone, but it‘s not time yet. We‘ll see if they solve some basic capability issues, and open it up. I can always upgrade to a newer Treo…

As I was for simulations/games (er, immersive learning simulations), I’m on the eLearning Guild’s 360 report on mobile learning as well. And, again, they’re conducting the survey that’ll populate the data component. So…

If you’re a member of the eLearning Guild, go fill out the survey!

If you’re not a member of the eLearning Guild, why not? Yes, I’m biased, but I truly think that if you want to learn about the field or be active (certainly if you’re in an organization), it’s a good society with valuable articles, great conferences, and overall good value.