Inspired by the original Star Wars movies, I used that as a visual.  “Imagine if you will, a small hologram figure that would appear near your desktop.  And imagine that it looked something like Princess Leia being projected by R2D2.  Then consider if we could hook that hologram up to an endless supply of knowledge.  Then imagine that your profile had been loaded, so that the program knows a lot about you.  And finally, imagine that you could ask any questions that you wanted, any time you wanted, and any number of different ways that you wanted – and the hologram would ‘tirelessly’ give you your answers.  To me, that would be the perfect tutor.”

I went on to say that I thought walking with my dad when I was young, and asking him millions of questions – which he always attempted to answer – was the very best “learning experience” in the world.  After that, it just seemed ‘wrong’ to have to sit in a classroom seat, be quiet, and raise my hand to ask a question – if it didn’t disrupt the class.

Well, that got some smiles of course – some seemed very critical, and some seemed very thoughtful.  Consider, however, that a lot has happened since the early 1990′s when that question was asked.  Namely that vast body of knowledge has become the Internet.   The wonderful search engine, Google, and all of its competitors are here.  Holograms are around, but they never seemed to take.

With that as a preamble, I thought you might like to consider what this new “personal tutor” of the future would really be like, by introducing you to our youngest ever speaker at our ELCE conference, coming up on September 25th-27th at the Hyatt Irvine in California.  Bina-48 is now 3 years old.

Here’s how it happened:  When I called the Managing Director for the Terasem Movement Foundation, Bruce Duncan, I told him the above story.  Now remember, Bruce is one of the creators and guardians of the most advanced social robot in the world: Bina-48.  Well little did I know that Bruce’s ‘roots’ where in education and filmmaking.  He was not only totally in tune with the concept, he said that they had been toying around with this “teaching attribute” since Bina-48 was created.  So I got him to come – with Bina-48.  Our plan is for him to demonstrate to our attendees what the “personal tutor” of tomorrow might look like.  Of course, it could just as easily be a favorite teacher of yours, a family member, or Albert Einstein.  If you go to the LifeNaut site at www.LifeNaut.com, you can actually upload your own “mindfile” for potential use in the future.  Pretty neat.

Bina-48 will be adapted to this new role, but I offer you the following video for your consideration and thoughts.  And if you’d like to watch what’s coming to ELCE you can go to our early show link at www.ELCEShow.com.  You can sign up at the top of the left column for email reminders when we open registration, and there’s also a link to put ELCE in your calendar.  Hope to see you there!

This article is copyright © 2012 

Taking Social Learning to the Next Level

submitted & written by guest blogger and Enterprise Learning! Summit speaker Marcello Hunter

Today, the technology industry is challenged with delivering talent development, training and certifications to evolve the current workforce to meet the demands of tomorrow and to shrink the global technology skills gap.

As sophistication of the network increases, the skill requirements for network professionals are also increasing. Traditional positions within the network such as network architects, engineers, and administrators require employees with more specialized skills and greater levels of experience. At the same time, new job skills related to security, voice, wireless, and remote office work are becoming critical to the functionality of the network.

The industry needs to take a holistic view of how to address the need for technical talent worldwide for organizations, their customers, partners, and other technology professionals by providing the educational training, certifications, communities and consulting services necessary to accelerate productivity, opportunity and growth.

Prior to the introduction of the Cisco Learning Network, learning resources and communities at Cisco were decentralized on the web, with significant resources spread across websites and communities. It was clear that this traditional web approach (Web 1.0) to presenting information about certifications would not be adequate for training Cisco’s employees, partners or customers.

In order to increase talent development efforts, a virtual team was created to develop a social learning network site that uses Web 2.0 tools and online content to empower employees as they start or enhance their careers. This online community is open to all Cisco employees, partners and customers regardless of certification level.

The site is the technology industry’s first social learning network. The online community uses Web 2.0 tools to expand information sharing and collaboration among networking professionals related to certification programs. Employees can draw on real-world experience to help support relevant enterprise needs. The site contains a mix of newly developed and legacy content migrated from existing Cisco certification webpages and prep centers.

Since its launch on June 24, 2008, the Cisco Learning Network has seen explosive growth from its employees, customers and partners, with more than 79 million page views and more than 500,000 registered members from 230 countries.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Graphic Credit: Mobile Learning Handbook from ADLNet.gov

One of the upcoming panelists at our Enterprise Learning! Summit – Tom Archibald – pointed me to this great guide for mobile learning that Advanced Distance Learning published.   It’s entitled the Mobile Learning Handbook.   This is a free government publication that I’ll tell you how to get later, and it’s a great guide for getting started with mobile learning.  Going through it, I decided to highlight some of the great uses mentioned.  They were categorized into 8 areas:

1. Learning Modules
2. Performance Support
3. Access to Information, Education and References
4. Collaboration
5. Assessment
6. Innovated Approaches
7. User-Generated Content
8. E-Books

Of course, you need to put the “horse in front of the cart” and answer the question, “What do you need to do, that requires a mobile learning solution?”  But of course, there is that element of “I didn’t think about that!”  And it’s that latter element that is driving this Top 20 list:

1. On-the-Job Support
2. Just-in-Time Learning
3. Reporting
4. Manuals & References
5. Conferencing & Webinars
6. Augmented Reality
7. Note-Taking and Data Capture
8. Social Networking & Collaboration
9. Podcasts
10. Audio & Video Content
11. Audio & Video Capture
12. Text Books
13. Translation
14. Real-Time Updates
15. Field Guides
16. Certification and Tests
17. Surveys and Polls
18. Mentoring and Coaching
19. Job Aids
20. Location Specific Content

Dr. Gary Woodill, author of The Mobile Learning Edge, says that there are more than 90 mobile devices that he’s recorded, so when you start thinking about mobile, your thinking needs to take into consideration everything from laptops to iPads to Smartphones.  And then there are the company-owned mobile devices as well as personal mobile devices to consider.  And of course, they’re not all compatible.

If you want to know more, you can view The Mobil Learning Handbook online at: http://mlhandbook.adlnet.gov or you can download it soon from our ‘Resources’ tab under “Research & White Papers” at www.2Elearning.com or even better, join us at the Enterprise Learning! Summit 2012 to hear both Dr. Gary Woodill and Tom Archibald, plus 3 other of our Learning! 100 Award winners that are on this informative panel: Learning! 100: Mobilizing Learning.

This article is copyright © 2012 

The Enterprise Learning! Summit DC focuses on how executives can build smarter organizations. Over the 2 day conference, executive can access 66 experts, across 16 sessions and 20 sponsors. Executives should attend the Summit to share, network and learn from top learning leaders, analysts and experts.

The Enterprise Learning! Summit will be held March 20th & 21st at the Old Town Hilton in Alexandria, VA. Attend the Summit and expand your horizons. Take home new ideas, new perspectives, and re-ignite the learning passion in your enterprise. Hear Leland Melvin, Astronaut and U.S. Rep., NASA, Dave Carey, Ret. Navy Captain, Karie Willyerd, CLO, SuccessFactors, Nick van Dam, Global CLO Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and Jay Cross, principal, Internet Time Alliance.

I’m looking forward to this event.

Last year I decided to drop out of most training conferences in favor of small gatherings focused on working smarter and innovation. The upside is that I’ve managed to sidestep discussions of ADDIE, learning styles, competency frameworks, and LMS minutiae. The downside is that I haven’t seen friends in the business face to face in a long time, and I’m looking forward to reconnecting with them in Alexandria.

Returning to Alexandria will be fun. My father was a career Army officer – youngest member of the General Staff in Army history — and when he served at the Pentagon, our family lived in Alexandria. I attended the first three primary grades at Alexandria’s Charles Barrett School. During my first two years at college, I summered in Alexandria. My folks bought a townhouse in Old Town when the neighborhood became gentrified. They retired to near-by Fort Belvoir, and I revisited Alexandria whenever I saw them.

Alexandria is chock full of history. George Washington slept here. Often. It’s on the road to Mt. Vernon.

If memory serves me right, the site of the conference, the Old Town Hilton, is the site of one of the first fatalities of the Civil War. The proprietor of a hotel there shot a Yankee infantry colonel who entered the property to remove the Confederate flag flying above it.

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Jay Cross is the Principal of the Internet Time Alliance and will join us at the Enterprise Learning! Summit March 20-21, 2012 in Alexandria, VA as a Keynote Presenter speaking on “Enterprise 2020: Thriving in a Net-Work Era.”

A champion of informal learning and systems thinking, Jay’s calling is to help people improve their satisfaction in life and performance on the job (they’re not unrelated). His philosophies on the power of informal learning and net-work have fundamentally changed the world of learning in organizations

Jay coined the term eLearning. He co-authored Implementing eLearning, founded Internet Time Alliance, served as CEO of eLearning Forum for its first five years, and writes for many industry publications.

An internationally acclaimed strategist, speaker, and designer of corporate learning and performance systems, Jay is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.

This article is copyright © 2012 

I had the pleasure of attending Training 2012 last week in Atlanta, GA. It was great to see such an event come to my own home city (and it made for easy travel arrangements as well).  The event was held and the expansive Georgia World Congress Center which I’ve visited numerous times for many events from concerts and conferences to career fairs and religious services.  For three days I woke up each morning and navigated Atlanta rush hour traffic. Atlanta didn’t serve up it’s best weather, but the climate inside Training 2012 was warm and welcoming. With a morning serving of Starbucks each day I was set up for half a week of learning about, well, learning.

After attending the conference I’ve come up with five things I think that every professional should make sure to do when attending a learning or training event.  These steps most likely also apply to any professionally focused conference one might attend and I’d use the same approach if going to a technology conference or industry focused summit.  Try to check all of these off the list next time you head to a large scale conference and expo and I think you’ll find you maximize your time there and recognize some benefits as well.

1. Attend Keynotes

This one may seem obvious, but you will be amazed at the number of empty seats one might see in a keynote session. It is not uncommon to see attendees scattered outside the lobby of the auditorium on conference calls that “just couldn’t wait” while innovators, CEOs and masterminds present and share golden nuggets of information.  Then there is always someone who walks out halfway through the keynote presentation, missing what is usually a conclusion full of advice for your industry, practice or profession.

Training 2012 had excellent keynote presenters, including Dan Pink who started off by listing out the three keys to a great keynote presentation: brevity, levity and repetition.  He stuck to all three as he addressed mastering purpose and using it as a motivator for employees.  Speaker Miguel Nicolelis amazed the audience with research that seeks to merge brain functionality with machines creating the possibility for quadriplegics to walk again.  Stedman Graham challenged us to change our thinking and routines in order to maximize our potential.  He joked about his romantic connection to Oprah Winfrey telling attendees not to merely be defined by those around them, but to define themselves.

Keynotes can be once in a lifetime opportunities and you never know when what you hear could be a boost to something you need to do in either your personal or professional life.

At our upcoming Enterprise Learning! Summit, DC taking place March 20-21, 2012 we will hear from a number of powerful keynote speakers. Leland Melvin, NASA astronaut will present “One Small Step for Mankind, One Giant Leap for Education.”  Retired US Navy Captain and former POW Dave Carey will present, “The Courage to Lead.” We’ll also hear from SuccessFactors CEO Karie Willyerd, Jay Cross, Principal of Internet Time Alliance and Nick van Dam, Global CLO at Deloitte.

2. Tweet, Tweet & Tweet

In 2012, if you are at a conference and not live tweeting you are missing out on the action, discussion and networking that goes on behind the scenes of every major professional event these days. Live tweeting doesn’t mean you have to lug a laptop around everyday either. Many attendees of Training 2012, which used hashtag #Training2012, stayed active on social media with tablets, iPads and mobile phones. You can simple tweet out points during presentations that resonate with you or even ask questions that moderators may present to the panel or speaker.  Tweeting during a professional conference like this almost always guarantees quality, new followers who you know have similar professional interests to your own.

For the Enterprise Learning! Summit next month we plan to live tweet during both our onsite and virtual events. Our hashtag is #ELS12. Join in on the discussion!

3. Attend One Session that Sounds Boring on Paper

This one may sound silly, but I challenge you to try it. We often go for the sessions that have the exciting names, headlines and descriptions. But sometimes it is the sessions with a mundane title or somewhat humdrum summary that end up being the most engaging or content rich sessions.  At Training 2012 there were a number of sessions on exciting trends like social media and mobile learning. While I enjoyed those, one of the most interesting sessions was “Designing User Friendly Job Aids” with John Courtney. Not only was this session informative it had more attendees than some of the other sessions with hipper titles.  As someone who had to create job aids for Talent Management System users I learned some practical tips in the session.

Our Enterprise Learning! Summit pre conference workshop titled “Let’s Get Real About Measurement” is bound to take a subject that some find tedious and shed light on the best ways to leverage learning analytics and data in your organization. Bob Danna, Executive Vice President and COO at Bersin & Associates will lead this three hour workshop which promises to provide best practices in the area of measuring the impacts of learning.

4. Network Outside Your Group

I attended Training 2012 solo, but at times we attend conferences and professional events with colleagues and coworkers.  It is easy to stick with the same people throughout the entire week or days of the event. Make sure to mix things up by going to different sessions or just merely sitting next to different people in workshops or at lunch. Part of the purpose of these professional events is to learn, but we also learn by widening our network and sharing experiences with tools, technologies and strategies.  See the “Tweet, Tweet & Tweet” section above, as this is another way to connect and meet with others virtually and then perhaps in person over coffee between sessions.

We’ll have a number of ways to network at the Enterprise Learning! Summit next month. Networking sessions, luncheons, receptions and dinners will be throughout the event.

5. Cruise Through the Expo (Don’t Rush!)

It is easy between keynote sessions, workshops and presentations to rush your way through the expo hall after lunch or in small bursts.  Particularly if you are a decision maker in the buying process, make time to stroll through the expo hall allowing time to meet with vendors and talk to them about their latest offerings.  During my turn around the Training 2012 I was able to meet several companies based in Atlanta, such as Intellum, a learning management and e-learning provider.

At the Enterprise Learning! Summit attendees will have a chance to meet our Learning! 100 award winners.  There are multiple chances to meet and interact with the winners and learn more about their success stories at the Learning! 100 Networking Reception and Learning! 100 Awards Dinner, both on March 20th.  We will also have Learning 100! presentations throughout the day on March 21st.

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So get out there. Attend those 2012 conferences, and make sure to remember the 5 things you must do to maximize the experience!

See you at the Enterprise Learning! Summit next month!

This article is copyright © 2012 

Looks like Google’s “Terminator” sunglasses project is going to become a reality at the end of 2012.  Reportedly, Google’s X Laboratory will provide us with sunglasses that have a computer overlay (Augmented Reality) of the real world.  The price range is rumored to be between $250 to $600, and will supposedly keep us from reaching into our pockets to grab our smartphones for information.  The operating system will be Android-based and is rumored to be equipped with GPS and motion-sensors.

Of course, immediately coming to my humor-warped mind would be their potential use as a modern version of “beer goggles,” which will alert you to your “tipsy-ness” as well as flash a red warning light when you’re about to do something stupid, like approach…  Well never mind that.

Anyway, this could be a great new tool to wear while driving your car.  Those of us familiar with the wonderful Web 3.0 aspect of the Android OS will appreciate the ability to speak your next driving destination and receive those driving instructions overlaid on your sunglasses.  Of course they would include AdWord campaigns telling you that you can get a discount at a restaurant you’re approaching, but where do we print out the coupon?

In our world, it will be interesting to see how we might be able to use them for learning.  Here are a couple of ideas to get the brainstorming going:

• How about as “orientation glasses” for your campus?
• How about to provide instructions on how to operate a new piece of equipment or new product being released?
• Or instructions on how to fill out those nasty expense reports (why don’t they just trust us?!?), and
• Obviously, if you follow our magazine, you will have seen the BMW AR repair glasses, the overlay of X-Rays on a surgical patient’s body, and so on.

However, far more useful will be fulfilling my own personal needs:

• Step-by-step assembly instructions for Christmas toys and all things that are 3 dimensional but come in a flat box;
• How to properly iron a dress shirt;
• Duct-tape repairs to my aging ’96 Z3;
• Micro-expression detection to advise me of a car salesperson lying to me;
• Language translation or clarification assistance when ordering at the McDonald drive-through;
• An embedded Thesaurus (and spelling checker) when I’m writing blog posts; and
• Of course, how to re-align that troublesome dish on my roof.

Well that just about empties my left and right brain, so what comes to your mind?  PS – if any of you would like to add me to your holiday gift-giving list…I don’t have these sunglasses promised to me by Google yet.  They are “no-commenting” this.  At least that’s what the automated voice said when I tried to get through their telephone triage system.

PS – Private note to Google: we love you!  In fact, you’re one of Learning! 100 Award winners this year.  And that was before we knew about these nifty sunglasses.  Did you want me to reserve you a seat next to me at our Awards Dinner on March 20th?  Go here for instructions:  www.ELS.2Elearning.com.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Come join us on March 20^th-21^st at the Old Town Hilton in Alexandria, VA and expand your horizons.  Take home new ideas, new perspectives, and re-ignite the learning passion in your enterprise.  In addition to Leland Melvin, Dave Carey, Karie Willyerd, Nick van Dam, and Jay Cross mentioned above, you’ll also hear what 25 of our top Learning! 100 Award winners have to say about topics like:

• Secrets of Top Performing Companies
• The New Leadership Role
• Creating Collaborative Cultures
• And much more…

To sign up and receive the latest generation Android Tablet, with the Ice Cream Sandwich OS, click below:

Enterprise Learning! Summit 2012: www.ELS.2Elearning.com.

This article is copyright © 2012 

In elementary school I remember when books were passed out. First a slightly weighty math book, then what felt like a two ton history book followed. When the teacher said, “Take one and pass them back,” that was, for my generation, a calorie burning workout, especially if you sat at the head of the class.  I remember in middle and high school wearing a backpack that I think any chiropractor would say was too heavy for my teenaged spine. Again, strapped down with 4 to 5 books, notebooks and supplies.  Let’s not even discuss college, when I was too cool for a backpack and thought walking across campus lugging books by hand on programming, women’s lit and chemistry was a good idea that made me look more intellectual.

Books continued to be a part of my life even as I entered the workforce in late 2000.  There was a thick on boarding “notebook” at the consulting company I joined.  Client projects generated “books of record” and “process maps” printed out on page after page. If you were lucky the client sprang for the cost of binding all of these documents into a nice booklet eliminating the need for the three-hole-punch in my cubicle.  In my home office now, all I need do is turn my head to see a bookshelf full of books and guides collected along my professional journey, like “Visual Explanations” by Tufte or Robert Mager’s “The New Six-Pack.” (yes that’s 6 books)

In my role as a Learning Development and Learning Technology manager I had the chance to put together participant and facilitator guides.  We scribed page after page of these documents. I recently talked with my colleague, Jennifer Lacasse, an independent consultant and strategist in the learning space, about how times have changed.  We once designed paper based learning toolkits for clients and now it is essential that these types of learning tools become multifaceted, ready for mobile delivery to the market of devices available and leveraging the social channels that engage, motivate and spark unplanned learning opportunities. It started way back with online learning, but now we have e-books, e-readers and recently Apple announced iTunes U, a comprehensive tool to help educators at all levels create and deliver courses on their Apple devices.  We have social channels and tools that make learning cross boundaries of culture, language and time.  I can recall having international pen pals in school who I wrote to about what I was learning, now kids today can hop on an app and share that learning in real time, while looking through a web-cam at a fellow student thousands of miles away. One need only look at what Sal Khan, our keynote speaker at last years Enterprise Learning Conference & Expo, is doing with the Khan Academy to see that learning doesn’t have to involve heavy books and can be dynamically delivered through free videos, beyond the black and white text of a workbook.

As I think of the future and see YouTube videos of two year olds playing with iPads, tablets and laptops quite effectively I wonder how education will evolve and if indeed we are in the midst of saying goodbye to books.  Do teachers have to say “Take one and pass them back,” anymore or is the new lingo “Share the app with your partner?”

It’s an exciting time to be a part of the next generation of the learning and development industry.  I am not personally ready to say good-bye to books, and I don’t think they will completely disappear from use in my lifetime.  However, I would be blind not to recognize and embrace how trends and technology are driving us into a much different and interactive way of developing and delivering learning.

Conclusion? Learning’s E-volution is here to stay.

Find out what other leading learning and development professionals think about the future of learning in schools, government, the workplace and beyond. Join us at the Enterprise Learning! Summit March 20-21, 2012 at the Hilton in Alexandria, VA, Our speakers and panelists will appear in sessions including “Thriving in a Net-Work Era,” “Learning Technology CEO’s Power Panel,” and “Best Practices of the Learning! 100.”

This article is copyright © 2012 

Learning Professionals at all levels are constantly looking at how they can impact their students.  Constantly leading the instruction and making sure that when participants leave a session, whether virtual or onsite, they are able to take the skills from that learning event and place them neatly in their toolbox for use on the next organizational project or initiative. Learning Management System administrators busy themselves with making sure data is updated and that the technology is being leveraged effective and efficiently. Instructional designers work tirelessly to create the next mind-blowing courseware. However, where do learning professionals go to learn? What can a learning professional do to retool, renew and restock with knowledge around new trends, techniques and technologies in learning? Where is the learning professionals classroom?

I was thinking about this the other day and decide to compile a short list of ways that learning professionals should and could always be learning.  Some of these may seem obvious, but in the day to day madness and rush of work it is easy to forget some of the simpler ways that we can grow and learn ourselves.

1. Twitter Chats

I never thought I’d be such a huge fan of Twitter chats. Professionals from all facets of human resources take to Twitter throughout the week to share best practices, thoughts and to pose questions to each other in real time chats.  Chats are designated on Twitter by hashtags. Now before you think I’m speaking a foreign language, hashtags are trends on Twitter designated with the “#” symbol in front.  These same trends, or hashtags, may be used to represent a chat as well. An example is #lrnchat This weekly chat takes place on Thursdays from 8:30 PM to 10:00 PM EST and learning professionals of all levels and backgrounds discuss trends and technology as it relates to learning.  Another weekly learning chat is #IOLchat which stands for Inside Online Learning. Recent topics include “Online Learning & the Workplace” and “Preparing Students for Online Learning.” This type of chat also brings in the perspective of students or learners who add their perspective to the discussion. There really is a chat for everything, from leadership development to recruitment and talent management. There is a long list of Twitter Chats available on Google Docs.

2. LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups are a great resource for learning and development professionals to discuss topics related to the industry. There is no shortage of learning and development groups to chose from. Some of the popular groups include the Learning, Education and Training Professionals Group ,  elearning Professionals Network. and simply Learning & Development.

We at Elearning! Magazine also have our own LinkedIn Groups Elearning! Magazine Network and Enterprise Learning! Events

You will find active discussions on all of these groups and encouragement from the community to contribute to the ongoing dialogue.  Just spend 10 to 15 minutes surfing the discussions on these groups and you are sure to learn about a new product or perspective related to learning and development.

3. Webinars

Just as Twitter chats take place daily, weeks are often full of free and paid webinars and virtual sessions on learning technologies and strategy.  You can find these webinars by simply doing a Google search or better yet look at the websites of the vendors that make the learning and development tools you use most frequently.  You are bound to find that they host webinars to discuss not only their products but data and trends that impact the learning industry.

We also host learning and development webinars frequently.  We have a session coming up, “6 Best Practices of Powerful Virtual Learning” on Thursday, February 26, 2012 at 1:00 PM EST. Join us!

4. Conferences & Virtual Events

It is the beginning of the year so now is the time to plan your conference attendance calendar for the year and ask your manager to reserve budget dollars to attend in person and virtual learning events. It goes without saying that these events are chock full of learning for learning professionals, but also the opportunity to meet industry leaders and network. Virtual events are helpful if your travel budget has been slashed. You still get the benefit of the content and also have some interaction thanks to webcams, twitter and chat capabilities housed in some of the virtual event technology.  There are various lists of upcoming training and development conferences floating around on blogs and conference directory sites. Search around to find the ones that resonate the most with you. I found what I believe to be the most exhaustive list of learning, elearning, training and development conferences out there!

Elearning! Media Group also has two events this year. Our first is coming up in March. Enterprise Learning! Summit March 20-21, 2012 at the Hilton in Alexandria, VA, Our speakers and panelists will appear in sessions including “Thriving in a Net-Work Era,” “Learning Technology CEO’s Power Panel,” and “Best Practices of the Learning! 100.”

We’ll also be back with the Enterprise Learning! Conference and Expo at the end of the summer.

This article is copyright © 2012 

I had a conversation with another professional consultant at the end of last week about enterprise learning trends and how there is a huge push for more mobile learning. We discussed the idea that mobile learning must be more than taking what was a web based learning course or an instructor lead course and merely replicating that for delivery on a mobile device. We both agree that there is yet some work to be done in order to construct courses specifically for mobile delivery and a focus on how courses can best be designed for this medium so that they have an effect on the learner to change behavior to positively impact the business or complete key business processes.

According to recent research, use of mobile devices for learning in the US has increased from 9% in 2007 to over 20% in 2010. Generally speaking when you look around an airport, restaurant or local coffee shop you are likely to see a large majority of the people in your viewing area using a mobile device of some kind, be it a tablet, phone, e-reader or other smart device.

What are three things we can remember and focus on as we develop future mobile learning solutions?

1. The Device Does Make a Difference
Mobile learning is more than just putting courses onto a device with a smaller screen. When we think about true mobile learning it is the activity of learning no matter where the subject might be. A 60 minute course delivered on a laptop may need to be shortened to a 6 minute combination of short video, that takes into consideration lower bandwidth speeds, and navigated content geared for mobile learning. The idea that someone might have 60 minutes while on the job to focus on their mobile device is likely a mistake. So therefore we have to adapt our learning development strategies for the mobile learner and the devices on which they are accessing learning.

2. Focus on What Needs to Be Learned
We know all the reasons why we should use mobile learning, but despite the medium it is important in all learning development to determine what is to be learned. What is the action that we wish the subject to take or implement upon completing the learning? WIth mobile learning, this goal should still ring true. Mobile learning should not be viewed as an activity for ‘on the go” employees to complete and checkoff a list as if for mere training compliance sake. As the learning is designed, it should be crafted in such a way is to leave the subject equipped and capable to apply the lesson in their day to day work environment.

3. Create & Deliver On Demand Learning
We use our mobile devices in our personal lives, on demand. It is the same also as we think about the use of mobile devices in a work environment. Workers are often in situations when the need to understand a new concept or new skill for their jobs comes up at varying times. For one sales professional the time and expense process may come up during their first week of work, while for another, a month of cold calling may make this skill unnecessary at first. A “how to” delivered via a mobile device on demand can be a good way to make sure the sales team has access to this learning when and where they need it.

Learn more about mobile learning trends at our Enterprise Learning! Summit March 20-21, 2012 at the Hilton in Alexandria, VA, particularly in the session “Digitizing the Enterprise: Cloud, Mobile & More.” Our speakers and panelists will appear in sessions including “Thriving in a Net-Work Era,” “Learning Technology CEO’s Power Panel,” and “Best Practices of the Learning! 100.”

This article is copyright © 2012