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Clark Quinn’s Learnings about Learning

Greater Integration

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In my elearning strategy approach, I have a step called “greater integration”. While it encompasses several steps, at core it’s about consolidating your content development and knowledge management. And the key is single-sourcing, coupled with semantics, writing once to populate multiple outputs, with structure and tags indicating what the content is in multiple ways. It’s become a theme in the content community, and is beginning to be explored in elearning as well.

The benefits are that you write less, and you get more flexibility, such as auto-populating your help systems, customer and employee training, and manuals. You also can deliver web, print, and mobile. The costs are up-front analysis and content management, which should be done anyway, and tighter constraints around elements, which requires more discipline.

XML of course helps here, and SCORM does too, but there’s another layer which adds meaning on top of the content: DITA. This allows you to define what things are and are about, which isn’t intrinsic to SCORM, and provides an elegant structure on top of XML. I’ve recognized the potential from work on Intellectricity, an adaptive learning system we built from ’99 to ’01, on a subsequent performance support system that we populated from the same content that was going into the print manual, and most recently on a project moving an organization from content development to online experience. What I didn’t have was any real evidence of it being applied to elearning content, though I know it should.

Reuben Tozman from edCetra Training spoke on the use of DITA at the DevLearn conference last month. I didn’t get to attend his session (too many interesting things at once), but I followed up with him and had a great conversation. His firm did early work on structuring content into models using DITA that got picked up on in several places and got him invited to join the OASIS DITA Learning and Training Content Specialization SC. This is a group working on developing DITA standards for elearning. He was kind enough to help clarify my understanding of DITA’s role vs SCORM (semantics vs packaging), and to mention several examples. Not surprisingly, IBM is working here, but apparently Sun is also.

What with flexible components of software systems being coupled by web services, similarly flexible content components (including media and interactivity, we’re not talking static here) can be coupled by tags and business rules to create custom/personalized/optimized content for individuals based upon roles, tasks, context, etc (see Delivering the Dream white paper, PDF). Even without the customization, however, we can stop the redundant development of content that means that sales training, customer training, and support systems are rewriting the same marketing and engineering material.

The benefits start with efficiency, but the flexibility is the real win. It requires breaking down some organizational silos, but that’s something that should be happening anyway.

I suggest we’ll see more of this in the future. I was touting games a number of years ago, and finally saw it cross the chasm into the mainstream. I’m thinking mobile’s there now. I predict that smart content will be there in maybe a year or two. Who’s ready for the future?

Climbing the expertise ladder

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Tony Karrer picked up on the Knowledge Planet + Shared Insights = Mzinga (means ‘beehive’ in Swahili) merger, and said “points to another direction – combination of LMS capability + community / social networking. I’m not sure I quite get what that means yet”. He got an explanation he liked from Dave Wilkins (KP, now Mzinga), but I have what I think is a somewhat different one.

To me, courses are at the bottom of Tony O’Driscoll’s map of the transition from novice to expertise. Communities are at the top. What I haven’t previously seen is an elegant transition between the two. I’ve argued that you really should wrap community around the courses at the bottom to support the transition from learner to participant/practitioner to expert/innovator. There are nuances about how it should be done, of course, like so much of what we do. Whether that’s in Mzinga’s direction is an open question.

Tony mentions Q2 Learning as someone else working in the space of learning and community, though while their one product meets the need of learning wrapped with community it’s not clear how that segues from there to their community product. And he cites Wilkin’s pointer to Gartner’s guess that “Enterprise social software will be the biggest new workplace technology success story of this decade.” Which resonates with my previous post about knowledge management.

I really believe that eCommunity and eLearning need to be integrated (it’s part of my eLearning strategy, after all), and I’m pleased to see some initial steps in this space, but as usual I have some specific ideas about how that should happen and I’ll be on the fence until it looks like someone’s really ‘getting’ it. Same with elearning and performance support & portals. LearningGuide seems to be doing it, but is it enough?   Eventually, you want courses, performance support, and community working together, and any two is only a partial step.

The opportunity to elegantly integrate the necessary components is sweet, but maybe loosely coupled components through web services (ala Jay Cross) will ultimately make more sense than a monolithic system. More flexibility, the ability to elegantly do each component rather than try to have a Swiss Army knife…

Knowledge marketing

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Brent Schenkler points out this connection: using web 2.0 tracking software to find out who’s commenting to whom. It’s about a company with a technology that lets you track who’s talking about what and identify the top talkers (for marketing purposes; presumably to know who to seed with information/product). Brent’s interesting point is that such technology could be used internally to track who’s talking about what within the company, and it’s a great idea. He’s talking about measuring learning outcomes but I see it more as a knowledge management tool to see who knows what.

The problem I see is that the technology first requires you to identify a topic that you want to track. Of course, you could put in a series of words or phrases of interest to the company, but how do you find what’s emergent and new in the conversations? There are KM tools that check your email to see what you know (and with ways to avoid the obvious concern about having your email checked), but your blog posts and comments, wiki edits, etc are another way to look at what you talk about (and, presumably, know).

So, a very interesting and eye-opening perspective on how we might look for who really knows what.

What did I learn about learning in 2007?

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This is the Learning Circuit‘s Blog Big Question of the Month. It caused me to go back and look at what I blogged about this past year. I talked a lot about mobile (rightly so), and of course about games, but what struck me as I read was the regular occurrence of talking about models. When I got near the beginning of the year, I found that I’d suggested that it should be the Year of the Model, so that’s it, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The point is that we don’t use conceptual/mental models enough in our learning and training (as I was just complaining in a project on training call answering). And we can. Increasingly, the power of visualization is being understood and taken advantage of. But that’s only part of the benefit. The notion of thinking in terms of systems and causal relationships is at core. I knew it before, but it’s been something I’ve been thinking about more, and wishing I had a way to work on more.

The potential benefits are big: while we might need to spend a bit more time to ensure we get the models, and communicate them, what we stand to gain are reduced time in training (fewer examples and practice needed), and what should be big wins in terms of retention and transfer, as well as flexibility to deal with situations that we didn’t anticipate.

As Karyn Romeis points out, it’s not like it’s a big new thing I learned, it’s just an increasing awareness that it’s a big untapped opportunity.

On the radio

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On Sunday I drove down to the San Francisco studios of KALW 91.7 FM here in the Bay Area to talk with Marty Nemko about simulations and games. He runs a show about workplace issues (and anything else he wants to talk about), has years of experience, and turns out is quite well known. He’d gotten interested in simulations and games, and asked me to appear to talk about the issues for the first half hour of his show. (The second half hour he answers callers and gives 3 minute ‘career makeovers’; I stuck around to listen and it’s very interesting.)

Now, I’ve been on the radio before, interviewed over the phone from Tasmania when I was living in Australia. And I’d been in a TV studio before (for reasons I can no longer recall!), and was interviewed for TV in a makeshift studio while in Colombia. But this was my first visit to a working radio studio with a live broadcast. Two guys were holding a philosophy talk show before Marty’s show, while we talked and then taped Marty’s intro for the next week.

We’d intended to have him go through simulations during the session, with him verbalizing the experience, but it didn’t work out well, so we ended up just talking about simulations. We talked through lots of issues in the half hour. You can actually listen to it as they record it and Marty makes it available (NB: it requires Real Player). It’s always strange to hear one’s voice played back.

He welcomed me to ask questions, and my main one was “what do you to keep from getting too nervous”. It’s funny, I speak alot and am usually not nervous, but for some reason the novelty of the format caused a few butterflies. His answer was insightful, about how in the end it really won’t matter. You always make mistakes and wish you said things differently but it won’t really make a difference in the bigger picture. Quite right.   I started a bit tentatively, but got going.   Also forgot it was being broadcast (and recorded) and talked with less diplomacy than would’ve been ideal.   C’est la vie.

Overall, it was quite the learning experience. It’s part of my learning strategy to push myself into new situations, and this certainly qualified! Interestingly, too often we forget our old technologies in the excitement of new ones (people seem to forget about discussion boards, but they’re great for certain types of eCommunity, as is happening with ITFORUM). Radio’s a case in point, as we know from podcasts sometimes audio is a great channel.

more mobile moves

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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….

Good news bad news…

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…and it’s the same news. The online certificate in game design (based on my book, Engaging Learning) that Training’s Live+Online was offering was cancelled due to insufficient signups. It’s a relief, in that having done so many presentations in the past month, I’m exhausted. It’s disappointing, in that I was looking forward to the challenge!

It works so well face to face, it’s even survived cross-cultural delivery. I’d designed it to work well online too, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see another time whether it’d have worked. Thanks and apologies to those who did sign up. I will be running the face-to-face workshop at TechKnowledge in San Antonio at the end of February, so that’ll be the next opportunity (and last, as it currently stands, it’s the only remaining one scheduled!)

eLearning architecture, and design

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I was responding to a friend who asked what I meant by suggesting she could play a role in architecting a learning solution. I frankly don’t recall saying it, but I generated an explanation that on reflection seems to have more resonance than I originally expected.

Coming from the background of applied cognition and doing my thesis work in Don Norman’s lab when he was really into the usability stuff (e.g. The Design of Everyday Things; which anyone who designs for others should read) and subsequently hired to teach it (though my heart remained in learning technology; fortunately they let me research whatever the heck I wanted), I was steeped in user interface processes. I subsequently wrote in several different ways about how usability processes are ahead of the instructional design field (e.g. testing), and tried to incorporate them into my own design processes.

I’ve been a fan of Jesse James Garrett’s Elements of User Experience (PDF) diagram (you know how I am about diagrams), with his structure of working down from strategy, through architecture and experience design, down to the navigation and finally the visual design. In answering her, it struck me as an apt way to think about learning design too.

I realize that many designers start with an outline and start writing, but one of the roles I play with my clients is coming in and suggesting an outline of a pedagogical approach that then is developed as an outline of the pages and then finally is actually filled in. It’s a level above even the outlining, as well as the actual writing (though I’ll often model how to trim that down, too, and where and how to use visuals). It’s an approach that can be applied beforehand lightly, and I believe leads to better outputs.

As I say “if you get the design right, there are lots of ways to implement it; if you don’t get the design right it doesn’t matter how you implement it”. I know it’s recommended to take a structured approach, but I can’t say I’ve seen it implemented near as often as I hear it touted. I’ve been working on a project where they’ve brought in an interface design team and their systematicity tops what I see in the elearning field. The closest is where we start with the objectives, design the assessment and metrics, all before we actually get down to writing the content. How often do you actually see that? I think we could use a bit more rigor, frankly. It can come from templates for SMEs (e.g. in rapid development), to prototypical content, and reviews against guidelines afterward.

What we do crosses paths with usability, and we shouldn’t be unaware.

Mobile moves on…

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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?

Strong Culture

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As a consequence of my past few days in Colombia and Denmark, I’ve seen again that there are some benefits to having a strong culture. In Colombia, the countryside was quite clean. There’s a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and they self-describe as being resourceful. I can believe it! They find a way to get things done. They also self-describe as tough negotiators. I see some real benefits to their ‘can do’ attitude in turning around some of the perceptions they’re quite aware of.

In Denmark, on the other hand, I see a different factor that I very much admire. They seem committed to ‘doing it right’. By and large not only is the place clean, but it’s efficient. There seems to be very little waste, people follow the traffic rules, everything is just so. And they’re not too rushed. They want to enjoy life. I think there’s a strong concern to make sure that everyone’s getting a fair opportunity to be taken care of, and they do what so many countries do pretty well: providing national health care. Of course, their government is pushing more privatization, as the US is going the other way. Sorry, health care is my personal hot button and major impediment to financial peace of mind (400% increase in 4.5 years!). I’ve lived in Australia where they had national health care and it worked. It may not be perfect, but everyone was covered to some extent, unlike the situation people can be in in the US.

Let me add that it was delightful to spend time with Lisa Gjedde and Helle Meldgaard again; we had a great conversation about games and mobile learning over dinner with their partner-in-crime Robin after I talked about those two things in a seminar. They’re doing some very interesting stuff with it. I found some colleagues from the Narrative in Interactive Learning Environment conference (NILE), including Lisa, Paul Brna, and Judy Robertson are writing a book on narrative in learning, and writing it as a narrative. I look forward to seeing it.

I also found out about an initiative going beyond what I knew the iPod can do, having branching available through hot links on notes. I’ll point you to David Seume’s Video iPod project and you can look up his blog as well. Not all the bugs are out, but it opens up some really interesting new opportunities.

I really enjoy the way the culture in academia is so oriented towards sharing in many ways. So, having brought the conversation full circle, I’ll stop here!