Let's avoid the hype in the mobile gold-rush

So all of a sudden, mobile learning feels like a gold rush. New (rapid) tools are on the stocks from many of the established suppliers and some new ones, there’s rarely a brief from a major client that doesn’t mention mobile learning, and most of the large e-learning production houses have new senior staff in place with titles like “Head of Mobile Learning”, or “Mobile technology lead”. I was at Epic’s health-related event on Wednesday and, impressive as the health content was - and it was very good - my view is that mobile stole the show. Their GoMo authoring package looks like a pretty nifty way of getting your learning app up and about and I suspect it may make quite a splash.

But in general the e-learning industry has a poor record of dashing headlong after new fashions - led by technologists and salesmen – without considering learning or business benefits.  I’m really hoping that we don’t drag mobile learning through another e-learning hype cycle although I fear we might. What concerns me is that once again we may be transferring the characteristics and methods of one medium, in this case “static” e-learning, to another: mobile learning. We’re probably also repeating the error of confusing information delivery, whether presented interactively or not, with learning.

Much of the discussion around mobile learning concerns “delivering information at the point of need”. This is great and can have real value. If I want to show a customer around a new car, or consult with a sick patient, or find out the financial needs of a new client, there’s a lot to remember and having information at my finger-tips can be crucial. But if that’s all we use mobile learning for, we’re missing a lot of the potential value creation. Andy Clark, in “Natural Born Cyborgs” talks about how, as humans, we’re innately well-suited to extending our cognitive functions through the use of tools; of integrating these tools into what we are, and how we think and act. This seems to me where mobile learning can really work. So rather than regarding mobile devices as means of delivering or accessing information, and of the information as a prompt for learning, we can think of these devices as extended parts of ourselves; as cognitive tools to help us think and behave differently. Academics like David Jonassen have written a lot about this kind of thing, but in the real world at least some of their recommendations have been constrained because the kinds of tools they talk about have often been tied down to static locations. This is no longer the case.

So what would mobile cognitive tools be like? They'd probably be open-ended, user-controlled, obviously highly interactive; possibly light on information - because learners/users will provider that - and loosely structured. They'll resemble the many tool-like apps we have on our smartphones and tablets, rather than mimic typical e-learning courses. Like our smartphone apps, they'll integrate into how we live and work, rather than remove us from our work in order to “learn”. And they'll probably be created by product designers, not instructional designers.

Comments

[Brian Bishop]

I'm reluctant to use the term "mobile learning" because we in the corporate world are, indeed, in danger of trying to harness something organic to make it the domain of L&D - as many have been trying with "social learning".

We must, however, take steps to deliver useful, easily found information to mobile devices; for example, putting QR codes on pieces of equipment so that people can quickly find out how to operate it. Once we master that, we can extend the tech to be cognitive tools. Are the following examples of the cognitive tools you're talking about?
http://bit.ly/uxbmoc
http://bit.ly/sYHw60

[Tim Drewitt]

As I mentioned in my WOLCE 2011 presentation about my recent mobile learning pilot, I believe we still have much work to do before we'll know exactly what's what with mobile learning.

I can see a clear case for higher profile single projects, where the need, audience characteristics and learning environment scream out : we need to learn something from a mobile device out in the "field"...literally and figuratively.

This is where all the current vendor-pushed case studies sit, which paint a rosy picture.

What I'm not yet clear about in my own mind is where mobile learning fits in as a general platform through which we can deploy a wide variety of learniing (support) materials. This was my challenge. Here I've appreciated the need to really get to know your audience and their propensity to use a mobile device for something other than making phone calls, messaging and surfing the mobile web.

Just as I believe we're now exposing the myth that younger workers "get" social media in the workplace learning context, I also believe we can't assume that just 'cos something is available on a mobile device, that a professional learner will want to consume it that way. I'm now working to better understand what those who "get" accessing content via a mobile device use it for and how I can work with them to shape the sort of content that will support them in the workplace.

As I work more and more with mobile learning, I'm taken back in time to the mid/late 1990s. All the issues that arose with "e-learning" seem to be around still, just in a different guise.