Mobile Technologies and Social Learning

A quick look around your workplace (or even the grocerystore) tells you that most of us are always connected. Internet and mobilecommunication technologies are everywhere. It’s now possible for us to connectto information (and to other people) in ways unimaginable only a few decadesago.

New technologies have led us not only to adjust ourexpectations about personal life, but more recently and equally dramatically tochange the ways we work. Many of us can do our work just about anywhere, and atany time. And sometimes—for better or worse—employers expect us to stayconnected to the workplace almost 24/7.

We’re more “social”

Social networking tools (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, andthe like) keep us connected to friends, colleagues, clients, and often, totalstrangers. We share a lot of information about ourselves and our activities (orat least we have the potential to), and we learn a lot from what others share.Informal learning has always been an important part of human development, andwith the power of technology the potential for continual learning is magnified.

Social learning and mobile technology

As learning and development professionals, how do we harnessthis potential? We know that the use of mobile technologies for learning is onthe rise. Training is no longer just sitting in a classroom or at a desktopcomputer. Professionals on the move need the right information, at the righttime, and in the right place. They need just-in-time performance support, micro-learningnuggets, and interaction with peers and mentors. And we, as instructionaldesigners, must be prepared to meet these needs.

We know that adult learners bring unique challenges to thelearning environment. Let’s be honest, we deal with not only our workresponsibilities, but also our family commitments, community activities, and soforth. Typically, we have little time to pursue formal learning. Adult learnersalso need the “What’s in it for me?” and “How do I get it now?” questionsanswered—learning must be relevant to their careers and personal interests.

We also know that we learn best together, throughcollaboration with peers, discussion with mentors, and by sharing our knowledgeand experiences with others. Mobile technology is a particularly powerful toolfor enabling and facilitating the power of social learning.

And, to bring it down to thebottom line, we know that learning in the workplace is driven by considerationsof time and efficiency. Training is time-consuming and expensive to develop andadminister. Employers want to minimize the amount of time spent in training,while employees want the time they spend in training to be short and ofimmediate value.

So … what are we waiting for?

Mobile solutions

How can we use technology to support mobile, sociallearning? Often in mobile learning, the traditional WBT-type course may not be theideal solution. No one is going to page through a 100-page course on asmartphone (though they might on a tablet), and none of us would really enjoythat. The most effective use of mobile learning is typically just-in-timetraining or performance support, such as brief video snippets, checklists, andreference tools.

Whether we work for a financial services company, run a highschool, lead a sales team, take care of newborns in a hospital—whatever wemight do, just about all of us have a smart phone in our pocket and we it fireup when we need to know something.

The question isn’t whether mobile or social learning is foryour learners. The questions are “What do your learners need to know on the go?”and “How do you deliver it to them?” A key component of addressing these issuesis the tools available for creating and delivering mobile content.

Mobile technology is open technology

What do you use to develop mobile courses and support tools?

In the old days (by which we mean about five years ago),your answer might have been Flash. And at the time, Flash was what most of usused. Just about every online course we developed relied on Flash to provideinteractive content. It was (and still is) a solid tool for eLearningdevelopment.

Today, however, the writing is on the wall for Flash, drivenin large part by Apple’s decision to stop supporting it in favor of HTML5. Andthe reasons for adopting HTML5 are sound. Flash is a proprietary, closedsystem. HTML5 is an open standard that everyone can use, free of charge. Flashis not touch-friendly; it was designed for using mice on PCs, not for usingfingers on touch screens.

What we need in a BYOD (bring your own devices) work cultureare open web standards and technologies that work seamlessly across a widespectrum of devices. A critical piece of the puzzle is finding content-authoringtools that output native HTML5. Here the choices are a mixed bag. Some toolsoutput mobile content that requires the learner to install a software plugin.Other tools can output to mobile but are complicated to use. Still other toolsare focused on app creation rather than specifically on learning contentdevelopment.

Tracking mobile learning

And what about the SCORM-driven LMS? We still need to managelearning records, of course, but the way we do that needs to adapt to changingtools and expectations as well. The answer, as with Flash, is open protocolsand technology.

The “mobile SCORM” to which LMS vendors are moving are thexAPI and cmi5 standards, which extend SCORM to support mobile applications. Onelimitation of SCORM is that content must be on the same domain as the LMS. WithxAPI, content can be anywhere on a Content Distribution Network (CDN), not juston the LMS. xAPI does not actually require an LMS; data can also be recorded ina stand-alone Learning Record Store (LRS). LRSs will be supported bythird-party suppliers (much like OpenIDidentity providers currently do). Someday, we’ll all have our own LRS that isportable, and so not tied to a specific organization’s LMS. Your transcriptwill travel!

With xAPI and CMI-5, you can record learning wherever ithappens, including events outside the course (for example, you can record a viewing-a-YouTube-videoevent). The possibilities for data collection and analytics are almostlimitless.

How do you get started?

In this article, I have very briefly highlighted some keyconsiderations for adopting mobile. If you want to dive into mobile, what are yournext steps? Here are some suggestions:

1. Analyze for mobile. Along with your usualanalysis tasks, add questions related to mobile: What does the typical employeein your industry do? Do they travel, or are they mostly in the office? Whatmobile devices to they use? Android, iOS, or a combination? Answers to thesequestions will inform your decisions about whether mobile learning isappropriate, and if so, what development or deployment tools to use.
2. Review solutions. As we mentionedearlier, mobile isn’t appropriate for all situations. Perhaps your sales teamneeds refresher training on product demos. In this case, a mobile tool withvideo snippets might be enough. If your learners are on the road most of thetime, perhaps micro-learning mini-courses could be the answer.
3. Learn the technology. Developing formobile requires changes in the tools we use. Learn more about HTML5, availablemobile authoring tools, and deployment strategies. See the following links toget you started.

Resources

Here are a few authoring tools to consider. The tool youselect will, of course, depend on your budget, existing toolset, and otherconstraints.

• gomo learning
• Claro (Joe Ganci’s review)
• Obsidian Black
• Articulate Storyline (Joe Ganci’s review)
• Adobe Captivate (Joe Ganci’s review)

Here are some references to help you learn more about HTML5and mobile content deployment.

• Dive Into HTML5
• For information on implementing xAPI and CMI-5,see this article from RISC (update here)
• From Float Learning, here’s a fun little interactive piece thatshows how xAPI/CMI-5 could work in practice
• Float has also published several articles on xAPI
• Even more information about using xAPI from Learning Solutions Magazine and TheeLearning Guild, here’s a list