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January 31, 2006

Innovation @ Learning Technologies 2006?

I visited the London Learning Technologies exhibition last week to continue my relentless sniffing for innovation and of course to network to find out what's really going on in the UK industry these days...

Here's some of what I noticed:


Chocolate Innovation - free flowing chocolate for guest dipping.


The 'Winner' of this supplier's putting contest gets a chance at a 5 day IT project management workshop (click on image to read fine print) That's a prize? Insomniacs were lining up. The days of the 5 day epic cram it all in and you're certified workshops are over, guys. At least they should be.

Now here's real innovation - streaming video to 3G phones on an open platform ready for emerging broadcast standards from Datmedia. Want to synch your corporate slides with videos, add chat/discussion, rip to portable devices, look no further.

Other standouts were our friends at Giunti Labs with the world's foremost Mobile Learning Content Management System, with clients on wearable computers, phones, PDAs, BlackBerrys and soon handheld gaming devices, and Learning Guide - still a great perfomance support tool that's easy to implement for instant system and process support online. How about a mobile version, guys?? ;-)

We didn't see much else pushing the envelope and making a difference. Did you?

Posted by Ron Edwards at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2006

World of Learning Feedback

I'm working on writing an article for the Learning Events team that produce the World of Learning conference, highlighting the value of Podcasting (we produced the first UK conference podcast for their delegates), and mobile learning which we showcased in our booth and gave away a Gizmondo in our prize drawing. I asked the drawing winner Dave Spinks of ITV for a quote on what he thought, having had a few months to play with it and here's what he had to say:

Of course Ron, I enjoyed meeting the people on your stand as you were all so enthusiastic, and have some really interesting stuff that really challenges me to think about the ways I currently deliver training within ITV and how potentially it could deliver greater impact to a wider range of people.

Making use of podcasting technology was a great idea; I found it of great use and gave a value added feel to the whole conference. I am racking my brains to think of ways we could exploit this technology.

The Gizmondo is a fantastic machine, I have played with all its functionality, and it certainly is so much more than a games machine.

The WOL event in general was very good; some of the seminars were quite similar, although I had done the rounds this year with HRD and Harrogate. However in general there was some great speakers and insightful information - certainly WOL, for me, was about opening my eyes to things like the podcast, Giz, Blogging, using GPS and the next level of online learning. Although I am still not entirely 100% sure of next steps - time for the reflector bin me to get to work!!!!

Glad we were able to bring fresh ideas to the conference that are still having an impact!

Posted by Ron Edwards at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2006

Blended Learning - Great Article!

While everybody is talking about Blended Learning these days, I haven't found many discussing the real benefits and the inclusion of approaches more focussed on continuous technology enabled conversations to better support knowledge workers. Check out this article in Chief Learning Officer Magazine by Allison Rossett, Ed.D. an expert in Instructional Design here. I think it provides more specifics on techniques of connecting people I refer to in my article on Increasing Productivity in Mobile Sales Forces here where I simplify the approach by addressing the What, Why (context) and How for global performance.

An excert of Allison's article is below.

That others are doing it is interesting, but not conclusive. Far more compelling are experiences and studies that suggest that blended learning makes a difference. What might blended learning do for you?

* Capitalize on the resident smarts in your organization: Blended learning presses people and organizations to find, store, stir and share what they know. A database might help salespeople re-use parts of proposals. Far-flung hotel administrators can “ask the experts” through FAQs, e-mail, phone calls or live video streams. Employees may turn to their supervisors to practice a skill or explore an idea. Learning experiences are paired with knowledge available on demand.
* Converge learning and work: Instructors and managers have good reasons to worry about transfer when employees go to training and return to work. This is less worrying in a blended situation because blending insinuates learning, information and support into the workplace. Got a question? You can look it up online. Got a problem? Chat with your manager or share it with an online community. Eager to get better at personnel management? There is a course you can take and a pre-assessment that will make certain you are ready for that course.
* Promote connections and conversations: Blended learning encourages the organization to extend lessons and conversations beyond the classroom and into the workplace through coaching, e-coaching and online communities. A salesperson who has learned about a new product can chat with more experienced colleagues attempting to bring that product to Asia. An executive can reach out for expert views from a trusted e-coach. A researcher can reflect with others on the investment team about how a natural disaster should influence their purchases and sales.
* Provide consistent and updated messages: Instructors are a great resource during training, but their messages sometimes differ and their smarts and enthusiasm depart after class. Technology, on the other hand, can deliver standardized messages consistently, tirelessly, swiftly, repeatedly, patiently, around the globe. Online modules, knowledge bases and archived presentations do not get jet lag.
* Nurture independent habits: Employees in blended programs can participate in online communities, seek out lessons and answers as needed, and enjoy interaction, guidance and encouragement from peers, experts, supervisors and coaches. For those who are reluctant to turn exclusively to independent learning, blending anchored in the classroom can pave the way.
* Improve performance and control costs: Studies have reported increased cost-effectiveness and productivity for those using a blended approach as opposed to e-learning alone. Other studies have reported enhanced employee retention and reduced training time for blended approaches. In addition, online resources can be easier and cheaper to update and distribute.

Posted by Ron Edwards at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2006

BETT Zoo Report


I attended BETT today, an educational technology exhibition directed at primary and secondary education and attended by 26,000 people. It filled several large halls with E3/CES size megabooths which was impressive but I have to say it was tough to find much innovation.

A few thoughts on what I did see:


Lots of games ready to play and integrate into curriculum and a lot of interest in them.


A new game modded from the Atari Neverwinter Nights to teach basic math and science that looked exactly like the $15 million dollar original but had learning baked smoothly in.

So many booths had the word 'Mobile' in them, but so few had anything new - it was mostly tablets, laptops and a few ready made pda games/learning apps. What was missing was content production tools with support for mobile phones, pdas and game platforms for both educators and students to create their own content.

However, there was at least one cool example sponsored by the BBC directed at teens to create their own content.

Nesta Futurelab also had some cool things to show from games to a context aware space learning program that showed planets in relation to where you were standing with detailed information and a 1.5m tall pointer that showed where in the sky the planet was. They also supported BETT Mobbing, which you can learn more about below.

BETT Mobbing was a way to stay informed of events at the conference via mobile phone text messages. I just registered my phone and selected a few interest categories and received updates throughout the day. Here's their welcome message:

This message is to confirm that you have successfully signed up to the following BETT Mobbing group/groups: Learning With Games - Wednesday Learning With Games - Friday Mobile Learning - Wednesday Mobile Learning - Friday

When you arrive at BETT, go to the NESTA Futurelab stand (Y30 in the National Hall) to collect your BETT Mobbing badge – this way everyone taking part will be able to identify other ‘BETT Mobbers’. You will then receive text messages throughout the day notifying you of interesting stands to be ‘mobbed’ - messages will be sent to you in plenty of time for you to get to the stand.

Share your favourites!
While you are at the show text 447800003245 to tell the BETT Mobbing team about anything you’ve seen that has amazed, surprised and delighted you, or to say what you thought of the mobbing events. Your recommendations could be passed on to fellow ‘Mobbers’ so they can share your discoveries. Please note - this number will only be active from the 11th of January.

This was a great way to get alerts on what was happening across this huge event. Here's a picture below of a small BETT Mob gathering for a discussion on mobile learning at the Handheld Learning booth:

I'd recommend the approach to other large conferences.

Of note, I organized my first Flashmob 3 years ago in Picadilly Circus for an Interclass conference I helped design. It was more fun instantly dispersing into the crowd than the crazy chant we did when we got there. It was a bit worrying to see my US colleagues not know how to send and receive text messaging when I was explaining the exercise! ...sometimes with innovation you have to start with the basics!

Posted by Ron Edwards at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)

January 03, 2006

'Tis the season...for predictions!

I continue to advocate mobile, social and gaming technologies for learning and performance support. It's fun to see others who are even MORE bullish on when their appplication will become mainstream. Check out Rob Reynold's post from Future Trends here and Godfrey Parkins blog here where he writes about the Future of Corporate Trainers - declining with the shift to informal personalized learning and outsourcing.

Always a good source of identifying trends to watch and accessing links to everything related to gaming, mobile learning, technology, and more is Mark Oehlert's eClippings blog here where his latest post references a cool new Social Networking tool called Frappr.

It's time to rethink how organizations approach learning and performance as the days of event-based time-sink training courses with content locked into cumbersome LMS's are waning (but what's taking so long to adopt better models??)

I wrote about this need with a focus on Sales Force Productivity in an article for Chief Learning Officer Magazine published here this month. Your comments are welcome!

Posted by Ron Edwards at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)