This is Jenny. A couple of years back she was encouraged to go all out and get an App for learning in her organisation. After 12 months of research and development, supplier engagement and iOS7 by Fisher Price she has just been to Learning Technologies 2014 and found out that it might not have been her greatest moment.
Now it's funny when I think of this as it rings true with a lot of what is (and has been) buzzing around for a while and certainly on my now annual pilgrimage to LT it seemed to be something I heard mentioned a lot and I got to thinking some more after
Brian Solis delivered his keynote speech on the opening day. A couple of stand out points he made (
which sounds like an injustice as his whole talk was stand out) stuck with me, first up, the point about how we are losing muscle memory, and how it begins to feel strange when you pick up a pen. Now you wouldn't normally think too much about that (
although these days I can bench press 120lbs with my text 'n' tablet thumbs) but when you do start to think about it, how many times in your workplace have you heard someone make a comment about handwriting on paperwork or applications forms etc? In 99.9% of cases the person who wrote it is probably under 25 years of age and then the current education system gets blamed. In other words as Brian said people claim the world is changing but sometimes it isn't the world that needs to change. Generation C (connected) are merely living the their life in the moment. Whereas some of us have made the lifestyle choice to become digital, we need to teach our kids analogue?
Awwww.... Now the mobile / anti app theme rolled on when Terence Eden of Telefonica spoke about the practice and pitfalls of mobile learning, he likened an app to a puppy, often yearned after but can require a similar amount of care and attention. There are thousands and thousands of apps out there and most are rubbish, lets be honest, totally rubbish. Reason for that is the lack of understanding as to what is required and ultimately if required at all. In most cases the perception is that everyone will want it. Reality as demonstrated by the case study from Helen and Alison from the NHS is that it takes and awful lot of time and money to get what you want and it is not always successful......of which at that point the manager who wanted the puppy suddenly finds the other toy they got for Christmas is much better. Now perhaps the most interesting thing about this session was that the team from the NHS are sticking with their strategy to produce more apps, partly because it is probably right for the target demographic but also because they have learned lessons, taken on board feedback and actually adapted other strategies to suit the need. Internal platforms to build there own content is now order of the day although costs are not necessarily that much cheaper.
So the conclusion here was there should be clear evidence of need, you have to work harder at the promotion of the app and most of all make it future proof and flexible..............if of course you do really need one :-)
Next up in my schedule was Doug Belshaw and Tim Riches and the topic of
open badges, now I have followed the world of badges for a good few months now, mainly from afar but they intrigue me. I can see a use for them but only once the right project or reason comes up for them, I have an idea around contact centre agents and cross product skills training but the challenge for delivering this would be the stigma that is unfairly associated with them. The perception that they are for kids is merely attributed to the fact that they work so well in an educational set up but with big hitter corporate supporters in NASA, Disney/Pixar and Intel coupled with a 1400% growth in badges over the last couple of years it has to be something worth exploring? Doug and Tim would like to see badges as a new type of learning currency that foster community, provide authenticity and even as a potential recruitment tool.
Badges have the ability to provide a connected learning platform but I wonder if they might have to rethink the marketing strategy in order to break the stigma.
So last up of Day 1 for me was a talk about Google Glass by David Kelly @LnDDave this was a fascinating insight into one of the Glass explorers who are getting to play !! prior to commercial release.
2014 is being tipped as the year of wearable tech and what was good about this talk is the emphasis is not on the tech itself, not even on what the tech can do but on the possibilities it brings. Glass provides an immersive experience and aside from looking like a squirrel retrieving a nut from its cheek when using the touch pad it is hands free which provides amazing opportunities for surgeons and engineers to name but a few. Of course big brother theorists will have a ball given the fact the product is linked to what Google knows about you and its own products but then it doesn't stop me wanting a pair from Santa at the end of the year.
So that was my Learing Tech Day One experience, part 2 will follow as soon as get some sleep :-)
That Learning Dude @LearningXDude
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