mobile Archives - Page 7 of 23

2014 Directions

1 January 2014 by Clark Leave a Comment

In addition to time for reflection on the past, it’s also time to look forward. A number of things are already in the queue, and it’s also time to see what I expect and hope for.

The events already queued up include:

ASTD’s TechKnowledge 2014, January 22-24 in Las Vegas, where I’ll be talking on aligning L&D with organizational needs (hint hint).

NexLearn’s Immersive Learning University conference, January 27-30 in Charleston, SC, where I’ll be talking about the design of immersive learning experiences.

Training 2014, in San Diego February 2 – 5, where I’ll be running a workshop on advanced instructional design, and talking on learning myths.

The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions will be in Orlando March 17-21, where I’ll be running a 1 day elearning strategy workshop, as well as offering a session on informal elearning.

That’s all that is queued up so far, but stay tuned. And, of course, if you need someone to speak…

You can tell by the topics I’m speaking on as to what I think are going to be, or should be, the hot issues this year. And I’ll definitely be causing some trouble. Several areas I think are important and I hope that there’ll be some traction:

Obviously, I think it’s past time to be thinking mobile, and I should have a chapter on the topic in the forthcoming ASTD Handbook Ed.2. Which also is seen in my recent chapter on the topic in the Really Useful eLearning Instruction Manual. I think this is only going to get more important, going forward, as our tools catch up. It’s not like the devices aren’t already out there!

A second area I’m surprised we still have to worry about it good elearning design. I’m beginning to see more evidence that people are finally realizing that knowledge dump/test is a waste of time and money. I’m also part of a forthcoming effort to address it, which will also manifest in the aforementioned second edition of the ASTD Handbook.

I’m quite convinced that L&D has a bigger purpose than we’re seeing, which is naturally the topic of my next book. I think that the writing is on the wall, and what is needed is some solid grounding in important concepts and a path forward. The core point is that we should be looking from a perspective of not just supporting organizational performance via optimal execution, with (good) formal learning and performance support, but also facilitation of continual innovation and development. I think that L&D can, and must address this, strategically.

So, of course, I think that we still have quite a ways to go in terms of capitalizing on social, the work I’ve been advocating with my ITA colleagues. They’ve been a boon to my thinking in this space, and they’re driving forward (Charles with the 70:20:10 Forum, Jane with her next edition of the Social Learning Handbook, Harold with Change Agents Worldwide, and Jay continues with the Internet Time Group). Yet there is still a long ways to go, and lots of opportunity for improvement.

An area that I’m excited about is the instrumentation of what we do to start generating data we can investigate, and analytics to examine what we find. This is having a bit of a bubble (speaking of cutting through hype with affordances, my take is that “big data” isn’t the answer, big insights are), but the core idea is real. We need to be measuring what we’re doing against real business needs, and we now have the capability to do it.

And an area I hope we’ll make some inroads on are the opportunities provided by a sort-of ‘content engineering‘ and leveraging that for customized and contextual experiences. This is valuable for mobile, but does beyond to a much richer opportunity that we have the capability to take advantage of, if we can only muster the will. I expect this will lag a bit, but doing my best to help raise awareness.

There’s much more, so here’s to making things better in the coming year! I hope to have a chance to talk and work with you about positive changes. Here’s hoping your new year is a great one!

Categorizing mLearning

17 December 2013 by Clark Leave a Comment

In thinking about mlearning, I have characterized the possibilities of mobile as augmenting formal, performance support, social, and contextual. It occurs to me, as I continue to think mobile, that there is another way to view it.

The realization came from the fact that you can use social for both augmenting formal learning and performance support, just as you can with content (both media files and interactive experiences). Which leads to a different way of characterizing the space. Thus, social versus content is a different cut through mobile than is formal learning versus performance support.

An interesting other cut is that you can do something contextual for any or all of these areas as well: you could provide a contextually relevant or local directory of mentors for formal social or collaborators for performance support. For formal content, you could leverage contextual elements with associated content, or even create an alternate reality game playing off the context. And for performance support, you might customize job aids to point to local resources, or provide augmented reality to annotate the world.

What I’m doing here is revising the way I cut through the space. Social plays a role in both formal and performance support, as does content. Contextual is really a third dimension in addition to the other two dimensions.The older characterization was useful for thinking through design, but I think this is conceptually cleaner.

I’m always trying to get better, and this seems more accurate. So, does it make sense to you? More importantly does this help, or only confound the space from the point of view of doing good mDesign?

Really Useful eLearning Instruction Manual

14 November 2013 by Clark Leave a Comment

Rob Hubbard organized a suite of us to write chapters for a use-focused guide to elearning. And, now it’s out and available! Here’s the official blurb:

Technology has revolutionised every aspect of our lives and how we learn is no exception. The trouble is; the range of elearning technologies and the options available can seem bewildering. Even those who are highly experienced in one aspect of elearning will lack knowledge in some other areas. Wouldn‘t it be great if you could access the hard-won knowledge, practical guidance and helpful tips of world-leading experts in these fields? Edited by Rob Hubbard and featuring chapters written by global elearning experts: Clive Shepherd, Laura Overton, Jane Bozarth, Lars Hyland, Rob Hubbard, Julie Wedgwood, Jane Hart, Colin Steed, Clark Quinn, Ben Betts and Charles Jennings â€“ this book is a practical guide to all the key topics in elearning, including: getting the business on board, building it yourself, learning management, blended, social, informal, mobile and game-based learning, facilitating online learning, making the most of memory and more.

And here’s the Table of Contents, so you can see who wrote what:

So What is eLearning? – Clive Shepherd
Getting the Business on Board – Laura Overton
Build In-House, Buy Off -the-Shelf or Outsource? – Jane Bozarth
Production Processes â€“ Making it Happen! – Lars Hyland
Making the Most of Memory – Rob Hubbard
Blended Learning – Julie Wedgwood
Informal and Social Learning – Jane Hart
Facilitating Live Online Learning – Colin Steed
Mobile Learning – Clark Quinn
Game-Based Learning – Ben Betts
Learning Management – Charles Jennings

If you‘d like to purchase the book, VBF11 is the promotion code to get 15% discount when you buy the book at www.wiley.com, or you can get it through Amazon as a book or on Kindle. I look forward to getting my copy in the mail!

Thinking Context in the Design Process

12 November 2013 by Clark Leave a Comment

I was talking to the ADL Mobile folks about mobile design processes, and as usual I was going on about how mobile is not the sweet spot for courses (augmenting yes, full delivery no). When tablets are acting more like a laptop, sure, but otherwise. I had suggested that the real mobile opportunities are using sensors to do contextual things, and and I also opined that we really don’t have an instructional design model that adequately addresses taking context into account. I started riffing on what that might involve, and then continued it on a recent trip to speak in Minneapolis.

Naturally, I started diagramming. I am thinking specifically of augmenting formal learning here, not performance support. In this diagram, when it’s not a course you head off to consider contextual performance support, if indeed the context of performance is away from a computer.

When, however, it is a course, and you start embedding the key decisions into a setting, the first thing you might want to do is use their existing context (or contexts, it occurs to me now). Then we can wrap learning around where (or when) they are, turning that life event into a learning experience. Assuming, of course, we can detect and deliver things based upon context, but that’s increasingly doable.

Now if you can’t use their context, because it’s arguably not something that is located in their existing lives, we want to create a context (this is, really, the essence of serious game design). It might be fantastic (some conspiracy theory, say) or very real (e.g. the Red 7 sales demo, warning: large PDF), but it’s a setting in which the decisions are meaningfully embedded (that is, real application of the model and of interest to the learner). It might be desktop but if possible, could we distribute the experience into the learners’ world, e.g. transmedia? Here we’re beginning to talk Alternate Reality Game. (And we use exaggeration to ramp up the motivation.)

As an aside, I wondered when/how collaboration would fit in here, and I don’t yet have an answer: before setting, after, or in parallel? Regardless, that’s definitely another consideration, which may be driven by a variety of factors such as whether there are benefits to role-play or collaboration in this particular instance.

This is still very preliminary (thinking and learning out loud), but it has some initial resonance to me. For you too, or where am I going off track?

Voice Mobile Reflections

4 November 2013 by Clark Leave a Comment

I have only recently upgraded to a phone with any meaningful voice capabilities, an iPhone with Siri in my particular case. And I really hadn’t put it to the test, but that changed this past weekend. I had a long solo drive home and time to think.

When I headed out, I had some logistical details, so I asked Siri to call home. This I’d done before. Then, finding out m’lady was out and about, I decided to see if I could text by voice as well (which my brother assures me is how he always does it on his Android device). Sure enough, I could send text messages.

I’d deliberately set my mind around focusing on my current project and taking some ideas further. And, indeed, I had a revelation. What could I do? Could I take a note? Why, yes, I can. However, Siri stopped too early, so I tried speaking quicker. Which has it’s own problems, but I achieved a useful reminder.

Then I thought of a further text message. Remembering the last message, I spoke quickly, and this time Siri munged two words together. (“Call when free” became “Call Winfrey”, and I didn’t think Oprah would take my call). This time I had to try again, and pause more between my words. At least it didn’t end too quickly. (Wish she’d ask me, if I cancel, whether I want to try again.)

And, then I decided I’d write a blog post about my thoughts, and I wanted a reminder (there’ve been times in the past when I had a good topic, but by the time I got back I couldn’t remember what it was). By experimentation, I found that I could indeed also make a Reminder (aka ‘ToDo’). So I made one for that post (coming soon), and one to write this (see, it works!). I only wish Siri could diagram for me too, or at least drive so I can do the diagramming ;).

Two take home lessons:

For one, experiment! One of the ways I got on top of mobile was by trying everything I could to see how I could use mobile to make me more effective. As the lotteries would have it, you have to be in it to win it. (Social media is where I usually make this statement.)

For another, taking time for reflection is powerful, particularly if you seed yourself a goal. I turned off the radio to make sure I wasn’t distracted, and the miles flew by while I worked on my topic.

Coming in my next post, my revelation.

Busy at #DevLearn 13!

4 October 2013 by Clark Leave a Comment

Just looked at my commitments for the eLearning Guild’s always fun DevLearn conference, and I’m quite booked, all with fun and interesting stuff:

My mobile design workshop kicks off: how do you take advantage of these devices?
I’m doing two stages:
- a panel on the future on the mobile stage,
- talking ‘smart content’ on the emerging tech stage
I’m doing a session on L&D myths with Chad Udell
I’m part of a panel on the future of elearning
and I’m doing two Morning Buzz sessions:
- one on content models & architectures,
- and one on elearning strategy

It’s going to be busy and fun. In between I will attend sessions, walk the expo, attend the DemoFest, do #lrnchat, and talk to folks. I hope one of the folks I talk to is you! If you’re there, say hello. If not, stay tuned to the backchannel, it’s a great conference (I’ll try to post mind maps of the keynotes as usual).

Defining Mobile

25 June 2013 by Clark 11 Comments

At the recent Guild mLearnCon mobile learning event, I had a thought that seems to answer a long time debate. The debate centers on the definition of a mobile device. The feature/smart phone is obviously a candidate, and tablets seem pretty clearly included too, but the ongoing issue has been whether a laptop counts. And I may have finally discovered a way of looking at it that answers the question.

Eschewing the more abstract and academic definitions, the one that has most resonated with me has been Judy Brown’s. As I recall it, her characteristics are:

small enough to fit in a pocket or purse,
you’re familiar with it,
instant on,
and a battery that will last all day.

And this has been pretty good, because most laptops don’t fit the latter criteria, their batteries didn’t used to be able to go all day. However, this is a characteristic-based definition, e.g. about inherent properties of the device, and this can change. The new MacBook Airs, for instance, now have a battery that will last all day. And, even if the 13″ is too big, the 11″ or some other might soon fit the criteria. That is, we’re hitting a moving target.

What struck me the other day, however, was looking at it not from inherent properties of the devices, but from usage affordance, i.e. how one uses the device. Because it struck me: to me, it’s not really a mobile device unless you can use it with two hands, standing up or in motion. More importantly, it has to be a natural usage: holding up a netbook with one hand and hunt-and-peck with one hand doesn’t qualify. In short, if you can’t use it with two hands while moving, it’s not really mobile.

This strikes me as a way that will inherently allow new devices and new capabilities, yet still clearly distinguish what’s mobile and what’s not. So, for instance, devices with keyboard that turns around and becomes a tablet? A tablet’s mobile: hold with one hand, touch with the other. A two-handed keyboard is not. Will this fall apart? Probably, as the ultimate mobile test is whether it’s a device that goes with you everywhere: to the market, to a party, even to the bathroom. And some may be able to, but which ones really do? Regularly? If I had a small enough tablet, or iPod touch, probably, but the phone, yes! However, in some contexts, e.g. work, a tablet might go with me to all my work contexts, and then it qualifies if it meets the criteria: of being able to used naturally, standing up.

This, to me, seems to provide a better criteria, at least for now. What say you?

Christopher Pirie #mlearncon Keynote Mindmap

18 June 2013 by Clark 1 Comment

Christopher Pirie opened the eLearning Guild’s mLearnCon mobile learning conference with a fair overview of technology for learning. He talked about the usual trends, and pointed to some interesting game apps for learning. Kodu, in particular, is an interesting advancement on things like Scratch and StageCast’s Creator.

I was somewhat surprised by his pointer to Bloom as the turning point to modern learning design, as I’d be inclined to point more to Collins & Brown’s Cognitive Apprenticeship. I also think he should take a look at Donald Clark’s criticisms of Mitra’s Hole in the Wall. Finally, the characterization between the overhead projector as characteristic of 1991 and the Kinect for 2012 is a bit spurious: in 1991 we also had HyperCard, and in 2012 I don’t see the Kinect in many classrooms yet, but his point is apt about the potential for change we have at our fingertips.

Overall, a nice kickoff for the conference.

Extending Learning

23 May 2013 by Clark 9 Comments

At the just concluded ASTD International Conference and Exhibition, on exhibit were, finally, two instances of something that should’ve been obvious. And I’m not alone in having waited.

Several years ago, Dr. Will Thalheimer was touting a ‘learning follow-on’ solution, a mechanism to continue to reactivate knowledge after a learning experience. He’s talked about the spacing effect (even providing the basis for a diagram in Designing mLearning), drawing upon his experience as one of our best proponents of evidence-based learning design. We know that reactivation leads to better outcomes, whether seeing a re-representation of the concept, a new example (ideally in another context), and most usefully, having more practice. I’m not aware of how the solution he was touting at the time, but as we really haven’t seen any significant awareness raising, I’m not optimistic.

However, at the conference were two separate examples of such systems. They worked differently, but that they exist at all is a positive outcome. Both used diagrams (e.g. Ebbinghaus forgetting curve) to show the effects of memory over time, and it’s apt that the problem is real. If we just use the traditional event model, things are likely to be gone a few days later if it’s not immediately put into action. That doesn’t characterize many of our learning outcomes.

The solutions were different, of course. One used mobile technology to provide reminders and access to content. The other used the web. Both basically provided the same opportunity. I didn’t evaluate the relative costs, ease of integration, etc, but having such capability is great. It’s something that folks could arrange for themselves, but as yet I haven’t really seen it, at least not in a systematic way.

They still separate solutions, not integrated, but it’s reason for hope. It’s surprising no one’s baked it into their LMS, but there you go. At least we’re seeing the beginning of awareness, and hopefully we’ll get more.

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