Designing #mlearning Book Review – Chapter 4

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I intend to provide a brief synopsis of each chapter of ‘Designing mlearning‘, but more importantly I intend to answer the questions that Clark poses at the end of each chapter and then pose those same questions back to you ‘Dear Reader‘

Chapter 4 – The technology it’s not about

We start this chapter with a nod to the fact that the iPad (1) was announced during the writing of this book. Given that this is still considered a ‘recent’ book, this shows very clearly how dynamic this market is.

From looking forward we take a look back at a brief history of mobile devices commencing at the Palm Pilot, skipping ahead to mobile phones, through media players to smartphones. From there we review the advent of handheld games, tablets and recording devices, before acknowledging that by the time many readers pick up this book some of the descriptions will already be out of date.

We then take a look at a trend that gives a fairly clear indication of how things are going at the moment – “convergence”. More and more devices are providing a 1-stop shop for much (if not all) of the functionality that we used to associate with multiple devices.

Towards the end of the chapter we are reminded just how quickly this field is developing as Clark suggests that we may even be moving towards wearing glasses with a Heads Up Display - imagine that!

We finish off the chapter with these questions being posed (along with my responses):

How can you take advantage of any of the dedicated devices (media player, camera, PDA, phone)?I’m not sure that we really need to go out of our way to take advantage of the plethora of dedicated devices, after all our learners are already using them within their day-to-day lives to take pictures, record video, access the web, read novels etc. Given that dedicated devices are in my opinion “High Street” what I think we need to do is to tap into learner’s familiarity with them and start to drip-feed examples of how they can use them within a workplace environment. Why not model some good examples using dedicated devices? Often when I facilitate face-to-face activities, I make a point of recording audio feedback, video voxpops and photographs of interactivity using dedicated devices in order to model good practice for the attendees to (hopefully) follow.How can you capitalize the increasing ubiquity of the converged devices?Let’s be honest most organisations (even now) are not providing converged devices (read phones and tablets) to support learning programmes or ‘overtly’ to maximise performance. I believe they are providing them so that you have little or no excuse for not responding to emails! But let’s not let this worry us, instead let’s leverage the growing distribution of mobile devices for our own ends and start to offer resources, assets etc that can benefit from the functionality of the converged device.Have you considered the tradeoffs of providing (devices) versus supporting devices ?I guess the provision of devices ensures (to a certain degree) greater control and in turn ‘peace of mind’ (wrongly in my opinion) to organisations, but hey, if it  increases the chances of mobile uptake then maybe it’s worth it? Of course, this approach no doubt brings significant expense with it in terms of providing the devices, however I’ve no doubt that it is easier to support 1 x device type as opposed to trying to support learners own devices. Of course allowing learners to use their own device means that they will be familiar with it and therefore more likely to use it and quite possibly less likely to need support, although the cost and logistics involved in trying to support multiple device types cannot be ignored.So folks, why not take a look at the questions above and provide your own responses in the comments below?

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Designing #mlearning Book Review – Chapter 2

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I intend to provide a brief synopsis of each chapter of ‘Designing mlearning‘, but more importantly I intend to answer the questions that Clark poses at the end of each chapter and then pose those same questions back to you ‘Dear Reader‘

Chapter 2 – The Details

In this chapter Clark shares a small exercise he undertakes when speaking on the subject of mobile devices, in which he allows people to acknowledge that cell phones, PDAs, iPods are ‘mobile learning devices’. I have to say that I’m surprised that there is anybody left on the surface of the planet that wouldn’t recognise those devices as mobile learning devices and wonder whether that is an exercise that may have lost its impact since the publishing of the book?

Some blisteringly high figures are shown as to how many hours a day the average American spend accessing the mobile web (and let’s not forget that these figures are 2-3 years old!!)

Next we take a look at, and dispel, some popular misconceptions around mlearning including (amongst others) such classics as

“we can’t provide mobile devices”

“courses on phones doesn’t seem like a good idea” (the response to which is thankfully used to introduce performance support)

“mlearning is limited to smartphones”

We then take a look at the business case for mobile learning and Clark explains that he believes that it should be the role of the learning function to take on the role of designing mobile performance – a point which I disagree on.

I believe that it should be the function with the clearest understanding of mobile learning and greatest passion to succeed that should take it on. In my previous organisation I spent the last 12 months as a member of the Comms team driving forward the organisations understanding of what mlearning was, wasn’t and how it could add value. I even pitched to the L&D team themselves and was met by some of the misconceptions that are included in this chapter. So I’m far from convinced that L&D should be the only potential champion of this.

We finish off the chapter with these questions being posed (along with my responses):

How many mobile employees are you supporting?This question raises an interesting point in my mind which is “what is a mobile employee”? Surely, unless you eat, sleep and live in your work environment then you are ‘mobile’? Admittedly there are some roles (such as mine) that have a very overt mobile nature to their role and as such attract the term ‘mobile employee’, but surely we should start to consider the effectiveness and value that all employees can add if they can maximise their mobility? Anyway, to answer the question we deploy 43 smartphones throughout the organisation.How widely distributed are mobile devices across your employee population?43 of ‘em, making about 30% distribution.What are the opportunities for improvement in mobile worker performance?Being able to complete web forms for various parts of our processes from mobile devices as opposed to Office docs from lap/desktops. Accessing client data immediately prior to a meeting. Accessing of network based data via VPN What are the benefits of mobile access to content for the employee population at large?Flexibility of working arrangements. Maximising ‘desk time’ by better utilising ‘dead time’ i.e. travelling, waiting for meetings to start etcPotential for less stress as they can call up info ‘as and when needed’ as opposed to waiting for ‘desk time’
So folks, why not take a look at the questions above provide your own responses in the comments below?

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Designing #mLearning Book Review – Chapter 1

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I intend to provide a brief synopsis of each chapter of ‘Designing mlearning‘, but more importantly I intend to answer the questions that Clark poses at the end of each chapter and then pose those same questions back to you ‘Dear Reader‘

;

Chapter 1 – Overview

OK, so I’m off to something of a false start here as I’ve just realised that there are no questions asked of ‘The Reader’ at the end of this short introductory chapter, but we are provided with a list of very realistic and pragmatic situations in which a range of ‘everyday’ roles and occupations can/could/do harness the benefits of a mobile device to increase their performance and value.

And guess what?

Only one of the examples is to undertake a compliance ‘course’! This (thankfully) fleeting mention of a ‘course’ provides me with a warm, fuzzy feeling that the rest of the book won’t be trying to convince me of the benefits of shrinking down desktop learning onto a smaller screen.

He also provides us with a definition for mlearning that he admits the eLearning Guild mobile learning research team struggled to come up with:

“Any activity that allows individuals to be more productive when consuming, interacting with, or creating information, mediated through a compact digital portable device that the individual carries on a regular basis, has reliable connectivity, and fits into a pocket or purse”

(eLearning Guild 360 Mobile Learning Research Report, 2007)

He finally reminds us that the pace of change in this area is so fast that any suggested, specific solutions would be unlikely to stand the test of the publishing process time, so instead explains what the book is really about; preparing the reader to take advantage of the mobile revolution.

I’m hooked.

I’m reading on…..

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My review of the #Encore #mlearning app

I recently attended this Kineo event. I had originally intended to produce a Storify from this event, but there were several different event hashtags in use throughout the day, so I rapidly gave up on the idea – sure I could’ve manually added the tweets but you know how it is…

Instead, over the next few posts I’d like to share with you a few tools and platforms that @DonaldClark referred to during his session, starting off with ‘Encore’.

Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of anything that can be done minimise the forgetting curve and automate the process of ‘forcing’ the act of recall around a subject so I was pleased to see Donald highlight ‘Encore‘.

In a nutshell, it’s a Moodle plugin that can be used to synchronise with a free app. The plugin is configured with certain content reminders / frequency etc and then pushes those to the app allowing a steady drip-drip-drip of ‘tasks’ directly to the employees / students mobile device.

Encore showing an alert on an iPhone

The FREE demo involves undertaking a SCORM piece of eLearning with a Moodle, completing  a ‘self assessment’ using Moodle’s inbuilt assessment tool which then unlocks the ‘Encore’ plugin. At this stage you can select to receive the automated ‘tasks’ by email or the Encore app (see below)

‘Tasks’ showing within the Encore app

As sound as the principle is, there are a few areas where I feel some improvement could be made. Having spoken to Learning Pool (the company behind the app) they were very vocal about their desire to receive feedback so I going to speak to them at the end of the 3-week ‘demo’ that is available and relay this feedback onto them.

Firstly (and this is not a criticism, just an observation) but if you’re not using Moodle (or possibly Totara?) then this obviously isn’t for you! Hopefully other LMS/VLE providers will latch onto the idea though??Despite this being a Moodle extension it’s not freely available. Having spoken to Learning Pool they said that even if your Moodle (possibly Totara?) isn’t supplied by them that that the Encore extension could probably be purchased from them.The Encore app is only available on iOS and Android, with Windows on the roadmap but a definite ‘No’ to Blackberries (possibly a stumbling block for corporates who currently use BB?Whilst the end user has the option of receiving the reminders via email or the app for me this still relies on (assuming that the organisation is wishing to tap into the mobility of the employee / student)  the end user having a smartphone. I’d like to see the option of using SMS as a delivery channel. Sure, some of the more media rich activities may not be accessible to feature phone users, but as I see it, at present, none of it is accessible to feature phone users.Some of the activities I undertook in the trial period were just tests of short term memory (see below), which for me, weren’t the best examples of spaced activation of learning, however I think with some thought around reflective questions (possibly with the option for ‘free text’ responses) and short videos there could be a real opportunity for this app to serve as a ‘trigger’ for deeper thought and processing. An example of a ‘task’ within the Encore app

All in all, I think this is a great step forward in terms of demonstrating that mobile learning can be and is so much more than responsive ‘click next’ elearning.

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My first book review…

I’ve always said to myself that I would never write a book review, until the day that I had pored in the (no doubt) significant effort that it would take write a book myself. A sort of ‘who am I to criticise‘ perspective.

That was until this weekend; allow me to explain.

I have been looking for a non-fiction, work-related book to read for some time, to break up the months of fiction reading I have been doing. I started to gravitate towards ‘Designing mlearning‘ by Clark Quinn, however I was out off by one of the 1-star rating comments that had been made. (I tweeted about this experience and since then the book has received 2 x positive reviews). Given that the book was quite expensive for a self-purchase (even on Kindle), I decided to look for something else….

Fortunately for me I popped into work the next day (it was a weekend) and lo-and-behold, it was sitting on our library bookshelf – Result!!

I’ve only got 2-3 chapters into the book, however I have decided to stop reading and start again.

Why?

Well because Clark has very cleverly asked a small number of questions at the end of each chapter, which I think is a great way of providing a period of self-reflection and ‘action planning’ for the reader. So great an idea in fact, that my plan is to write a blog post after each chapter in which I will briefly explain what the chapter covered, but more importantly I’ll answer the very questions (where possible) that Clark asks and will then turn the tables on you ‘Dear Reader’ and ask them of you..

…. stay tuned for Chapter 1.

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Designing #mlearning Book Review – Chapter 6

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I intend to provide a brief synopsis of each chapter of ‘Designing mlearning‘, but more importantly I intend to answer the questions that Clark poses at the end of each chapter and then pose those same questions back to you ‘Dear Reader‘

Chapter 6 – Getting Concrete

This chapter provides an insight into several real-world, concrete examples which demonstrate a range of mlearning possibilities and applications, each of them following this template. (which with a little tweaking, would make a nice business case template)

The organisation: Who was involved?The challenge: What was the need?Why mobile: What made mobile a solution?Making the case: How was the solution presented?The solution: What was actually done?The benefits: What was expected?The results: What was observed?Lessons learned: What recommendations came out of this project?

There were an impressive number of examples in this chapter and I won’t spoil your future reading by going into each one, however what I will highlight is a few surprises that some of these case studies held for me?

I had always assumed that Blackberry was a particularly crappy platform to develop for and in turn deliver content via, this assumption was based upon the low number of apps available for BB and the teeth-sucking and eye-rolling that took place whenever BB development was suggested to some former colleauges. This chapter helped to reshape my perceptions of what can be achieved via BB as a result of reading a case study which centered around the delivery of pharmaceutical sales training and performance support to field sales teams utilising their BB Bold 9000 and 9700 devices. This reshaping of my BB expectations will certainly be of use to me on in my new role within an organisation whose mobile solutions at this moment in time, is BB.

Reading many of these case studies also brought to light just how long many people/organisations/vendors have been developing mobile solutions (as we might define them today) with Hybrid Learning Systems developing XML SCORM compliant mobile solutions in 2006 – that’s 6 years ago folks!

There are no questions being posed at the end of this chapter, which was a little disappointing as I found that in previous chapters they had helped to focus my thoughts and gave me an opportunity to openly reflect and share.

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