M-Learning or just Learning?

Call me a contrarian (people in my family do), but I think a statement like the following as the lead in to ASTD's Mobile Learning Certificate program does a great disservice.

The growing presence of mobile devices worldwide has resulted in a dramatic change in the way people learn.

The problem I have with this statement is that it's hyperbole at its best. Are they suggesting that people are:

• Turning more often to tablets and smartphones rather than other sources for learning?
• Deciding to learn just at the moment they need to know something?
• Opting not to follow the more traditional routes of gaining knowledge?

People have not changed the way they learn over night. What they may be doing with their tablets and smartphones they did in the past by asking people for information or picking up tablets. By making this dramatic statement, ASTD - like others in the industry - are doing the devices and the learning that can be obtained by review content on them.

There are new rules that have to be understood for developing content and interactions for these devices, but I think these rules can and have been applied to other learning environments. The plethora of short You Tube videos demonstrating how people can perform tasks ranging from how to bake a souffle to how to change a tire demonstrate that learning can be quick once you strip away the window dressing.

Similarly, the oldest form of m-learning - should we consider m-learning as something obtained at the time needed in a succint fashion - would be the first caveman to ask another caveman to explain how to make a tool. 

Bottom line: I think knowing how to use mobile devices to transact learning (both deliver content and provide a link with others to discuss the topic and ask questions) is important, but lets not oversell it like we did with e-learning.

It's all about the chunking

I've been thinking about mobile learning a lot lately. More specifically, how learning will occur on tablets and smartphones. (Ironically I initially wrote "will be delivered" where "will occur" in the previous line - many proponents do not think learning in this environment will fully be a "push" effort, but a combined "push-pull" effort.

I do believe that video will be a major ingredient, with links to other resources. I recently completed a Google three-week on-line training program called Power searching with Google. It consisted of six classes, a midterm exam, a final exam and two opportunities to "hang out" with the instructors.

Each of the classes consisted of a series of videos between 4 and 9 minutes in length followed by a series of questions or exercises that allowed you to test your understanding of the materials presented. Some of these activities required posting to a forum where others taking the class could review your work.

This, I think, is the model of training going forward with topics chunked to be no more than 10 to 15 minutes, including activities, in length that learners can take in increments with an understanding that they must complete all increments within a specified time period to receive credit.

Other things I think Google did right with this class was to provide not only the video, which was closed captioned so you could view it with the sound muted, but also links to a text version of the presentation as well as a link to the slides used by the instructor. They also maintained a forum for asynchronous discussions and three live "hang-outs" where Google experts answered learners questions.

The old model of "delivering" training needs to be reconsidered, and Google is demonstrating the approach that needs to be followed.

Just in Time Performance Support

It occurs to me that performance support, or what is really electronic performance support, is applicable for skills that are not frequently exercised by a person. Another way of referring to this is just-in-time learning.

As I think about bubbles

As I think about economic bubbles (housing, higher education, etc.) it started me thinking about how businesses go about buying and delivering training. As the economy tumbles it would seem that it would make sense for industries to pull their resources and develop training and communities or practice (think trade guilds) to assist their employees to develop their skills.

But as I consider the topic and the commercial world's increasing focus on protecting "intellectual property" it puts me in mind of mideavel feifdoms where every little duke, lord, or baron kept each other at arms length and did not cooperate unless there was a serious threat to all of them.

Second screens in Life and Learning

I have not thought of it before, but Elliot Masie's description of "second screens" defines what I find myself and my family doeing already, albiet I don't have access to an Ipad or a tablet PC, but his description does meet the bill.

I have a Second Screen in my life.  Well, actually I have several of them:

* My iPad is often on my lap as I watch TV at home. I’ll look up a reference in the news, locate an actor in a movie or read something different during the boring bits.
* My SmartPhone comes out during a webinar, serving as a back channel - either by text or IM - to someone across the world.  And, once or twice, I have used it when leading a webinar to get some background on the person asking a question in a session.
* My Tablet computer, with a 3G connection, gets me to places where a firewalled connection would not let me go, connecting on my own personal network rather than within the gated community of the host network.

And I have seen this in my workplace especially with our production folks. And I have to concur that it definitely has a place in the learning environment especially within corporate entities that lock down their computers to ensure that their networks are not compromised due to the use of third-party unapproved software.

To a certain extent this concept of second screens began before the advent of tablets, especially in the academic world where students bring laptop computers to the classroom to aid in taking notes.

He notes that there are great possibility for leveraging the use of these elements in the learning environment, but they are countered by the issues of bandwidth and firewall issues. I think another issue that still needs addressing is functionality and usability across all major brands of portable devices.

The one advantage paper-based books have over ebooks is that except for the language used to publish the book, they are pretty much universally functional for the bulk of society. The same cannot be said just yet for electronic formats.

No one uses the phone anymore

I have to wonder if this is a result of enforced socialization in our school systems…

They text, they email, they IM, but increasingly the phone call is too intrusive of a communication option for many.

"I literally never use the phone," Jonathan Adler, the interior designer, told me. (Alas, by phone, but it had to be.) "Sometimes I call my mother on the way to work because she'll be happy to chitty chat. But I just can't think of anyone else who'd want to talk to me." Then again, he doesn't want to be called, either. "I've learned not to press 'ignore' on my cellphone because then people know that you're there."

"I remember when I was growing up, the rule was, 'Don't call anyone after 10 p.m.,'" Mr. Adler said. "Now the rule is, 'Don't call anyone. Ever.'"

As a long-time hater of the phone call, this is good news.

Kids who want to be left alone are considered outsiders and suspected of being potential Columbine kids. What worries me is the increased risk of miscommunication due to the lack of personal contact. As a society we don’t seem to understand the desire for alone time.

Face-to-face communication transmits both verbal and non-verbal clues as to an individual’s message. A facial expression and body language can convey more information about the speaker’s mood and intent.

Voice communication over a telephone fails to transmit the non-verbal clues, but the tone of voice may still provide additional information.

Impersonal text messages and emails carry none of the non-verbal clues unless the writer is one of those people who use all upper case letters to SHOUT THEIR MESSAGE!!!!

One final thought is the move to ignore phone calls a growing response to the expectation that we be available 24-7. In a period of about 135 years we have developed a unspoken social response to a ringing telephone that it must be answered. This social response is now more than ever exploited by for-profit and non-profit organizations seeking to sell or collect money by the former and raise funds by the latter.

We are placed in a position of fighting an ingrained social response to answer the ringing telephone and are now rebelling and saying “No more, this is my time and you will not invade it.”

No one uses the phone anymore

Beware Social Media's Surprising Dark Side, Scholars Warn CEO's - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

This article is intriguing for two reasons.

• The presenters seemed to be trying to bait arguments by presenting blatantly broad-brush assumptions  based on scant details.
• Commentators to the article saw through this misdirection to recognize the presenters positions for what they were.

Beware Social Media's Surprising Dark Side, Scholars Warn CEO's - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Reading in the Dark Ages -- Campus Technology

Fascinating essay, but as commenters note it may not be the professor’s fault. There is something about paper-based reading that ebooks still cannot touch.

Plus there is still the issue of standardizing ebook file types. My local library offers ebook loans, but they don’t support my Amazon Kindle. It will support my Windows phone with Mobipocket reader.

Of course it is also disconcerting to see concerns over copyright and intellectual property spring up. It seems profits still trump pursuit of knowledge.

Reading in the Dark Ages -- Campus Technology

In the “info” age, everything gets a little shorter | Mercatus

No truer words are spoken.

That doesn’t mean that we’re all growing stupid, or losing our ability to think, or losing our appreciation of books, albums or other types of “long-form” content.  It just means we just don’t spend as much time with them as we used to.

What does this say about our current overall educational approach. Should we reconsider the one size fits all approach for learning. In academia, do all subjects warrant semester-long treatments? Should we break up content in shorter, one-week or two-week elements?

In the government and commercial world where training sessions equate to one- to five-day classroom sessions or one- to three-hour elearning page turners, should we look at more discreet methods of training sessions?

I could foresee one hour virtual presentations or brown-bag lunch roundtables if person-to-person training is required. And for elearning I would not venture beyond a half-hour and shoot for more like a maximum of 15 minutes. If elearning is running longer than that it has to be broken up. And maybe that is too long.

The big fear is the loss of continuity, if the broader picture is drawn out over a long period and presented in discreet elements. This is where educators would be forced out of their comfort zones and learn a new way of presenting their materials.

In the “info” age, everything gets a little shorter | Mercatus