Are we really like the Walking Dead?

I had a dream the other night....an old school sheriff in a sleepy town woke up from a coma into a post apocalyptic world and found a world overrun by zombies.....at least I think they were zombies.....well.....when I say zombies what I really saw was that everyone wandered around, heads down with faces in a plethora of smartphones, tablets and kindles. This group of biters were oblivious to anything and everyone....well unless you you managed to bump into one and they devoured you.....wait, that wasn't right.....eh....ooh...I know !! I know !! now I remember, they devoured your bandwidth and fed off free wi-fi. In amongst this story our sheriff journeys along collecting a band of survivors who face a series of dilemmas as they battle this dangerous epidemic of the modern world, yes......the zombie overlords of the ministry of education !!!

So lets go back to earlier that day ....as with most ideas and thoughts that bubble up on my head, I am on the train. and like any other day I am reading my newspaper.........(just like the terribly social people of yesteryear in the picture) and an article that makes me think is all about the shadow education minister saying children need to be taught attentiveness skills to help combat the influence of social media. Children "need to learn the ability to concentrate for sustained periods, especially in today's world" was the exact quote that caught my eye........especially the part about today's world. What exactly is he meaning by today's world? If you look at that picture again, this was the world of today back then. A time without mobile's, emails, laptops, tablets and so on and so forth. To them, yesterdays world presented challenges with the age of automation, refrigeration and conversation. Simpler times.....perhaps...but do our children face anything different?

Now I might add at this point that while reading my newspaper, I checked Facebook, Twitter and oh yeah......quickly jotted some notes down on Blogger.....a multi- tasking skill of the digital age that I have taught myself over the years.

Now, back to the original quote about today's children. "Concentrate for sustained periods", especially in today's world. I don't deny or oppose the idea that there is a need to shift some educational goals but once again the soft and easy target is Mobile and Social Media. The point that seems to be missed although blatantly obvious to everyone else is that today's world has evolved.....and us with it. So what is it that the ministers and shadow ministers don't see?

A comment I heard the other week made things very clear to me, there is a need to teach kids analogue just like we had to learn digital. It is therefore critical in my opinion is that we have to approach it in a manner that is appealing to youngsters. Education has to be in touch with how they like to learn. To target social media and mobile technology as the problem is hardly going to stop them from putting the tech down and picking up a book but you could use it?

How cool would it be if we built elements of the curriculum online? How much more engaging could you make homework if you introduced gamification? and how about awarding badges as a reward for homework? These are things that are already out there, so cost implications aside why hasn't it happened? Let's be honest, like the zombies....the kids would bite.

One of the finest examples of how out of touch they may be is the talk of increasing the number of hours on the curriculum for Greek and Latin !! I agree, it is important to teach the classics and I still rate them amongst my favourite classes at secondary school but it must be relative and the opportunity to use technology would open the subject up to greater potential as well as engaging the yoof of today?

The classroom has changed, not the kids and are we really wanting to stop them using technology? Be it tablets of yesterday or tablets of today we need to provide the tools of engagement but out of touch politicians are not the only ones to get in on the act. I was reading another article which spoke of the link between ADHD and mobile/social use. It seems a 66% spike between 2000 & 2010 could but isn't attributed to a more people being diagnosed, could but isn't attributed to a greater number of kids being tested at parents request but like the other easy option they cite that the reason is probably linked to a generation being addicted to dopamine fuelled online activities such as emails, testing and social media! I always see this as a cheap and easy target  but what makes me smile in all of this is that the writer would probably not have the career they have today without the very thing they attack, given their huge Twitter following, frequent TED talks and other avenues of self promotion. There is one final thing before getting back on track, the recent neknomination furore. How simple was it for people to blame social media rather than the lack of alcohol awareness education?

Kids aren't zombies, although they do have an insatiable appetite to learn and in a way that they want and it's our job to feed them. If we always blame what they embrace then there will only ever be one outcome.

The task for the education ministry, is to concentrate on one thing.......how difficult can that be?

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Learning Technologies 2014 - Day Two - Neuroscience....makes you think !

'D

Okay, so given I woke up at 3:45am on the morning of Day One  at Learning Technologies I had hoped for a pleasant evenings sleep to provide me with plenty of energy for what Day Two had in store however, given the Copthorne Tara is located above the train tracks and the mini bar fridge (unopened boss) was encased in a cupboard that provided cavernous acoustics every time the fan switched on......about every 45 mins !!!! then I can assure you rested I was not. It was a welcomed sight though to see the coffee pots in the Olympia and I did stock up before heading in for the Day Two keynote speaker Beau Lotto provided a truly fascinating talk on perception, creativity and context :-) You can see a bit of what he talked about here on a previous TED talk. I wasn't sure initially what to think when he started the session with the words "anything interesting begins with doubt"  :-) but I really enjoyed this.

 So after some more coffee and the onset of a blast of energy, I headed downstairs to see what Sarah Bell (account director at City and Guilds Kineo) had to say about the work they had been doing for Compass Group. From the minute Kineo got together with City and Guilds I was curious what direction they would take, and idle curiosity led to a very pleasant surprise.

The Managed Qualification Service is a great piece of work which has great potential beyond its Compass journey. I loved the interface which looked fresh and engaging, food for thought indeed and something I do want to find more out about.

Next up was lunch......I know, you are beginning to wonder if I did anything else but this time it was with Brightwave together with Marks and Spencer. This was to look at their Heroes customer service blend which was designed to improve the knowledge in flowers as well as drinks and spirits.

Again, the interface was crisp and clean, a theme that was more than apparent among many of the platforms on offer over both days. The success of the programme is there for all to see and this is down to the blend it has on offer. I can see many opportunities to cross this over into areas in many sectors.

and yay it came to pass that time was pushing on and there was time for one last session before Gatwick was calling. So given this year I am looking to shoot some video for work i thought a trip to listen to Mark Copeman of 845tv . He give some pretty good tips for those starting out in video and this was followed up with a session by BP on the diversity programme they produced which is heavily video rich.

Video is certainly something I want to do more of this year but not in isolation and as a stand alone or replacement to workshops etc. I intend to integrate into all learning areas, pre, post and within our programmes. Much to do ands much to think about.....can't believe it took me a week to finish this....hey oh, off to watch some Winter Olympics. ......might be something else to write about in there :-)

@LearningXDude

Learning Technologies 2014 Day One - Don't mention the apps !

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
  

If Frankenstien had curated?

Picture the scene.......Dr Frankenstein is in the lab, bringing the very SPARK !!! of life to his Monster. He hooks up all the relevant cables and with the twist of a dial bubbles gloop up through a series of giant beakers. Bursts of electricity growl out of a giant van de graaff machine and he gestures to Igor to flick the switch. The final surge of electricity pulses over the monsters hand stitched body.....He's alive.....!! ALIVE !!!!!.............now before the monster can sit up, in walks Dr Frankenstiens accountant. You see.....old Frankie boy has been racking up one heck of an electricity bill of late.....then there is overtime payments and health insurance for Igor, the upkeep of his lab and not forgetting his P.R agency fees.

Accountant- "Dr Frankenstein, this obsession with creation can't go on. In order to maintain your standard of living you need to consider a new strategy. have you ever considered Curation over Creation?"

At this point Frankie (real name Victor) recalled a conversation he was having at a recent mad scientist convention where all the talk was about content over creation and he pondered over why you couldn't have both.....and if indeed they were not one in the same so in order to allay the fears of his account there was only one thing he could say....

Frankie - said "relax"

He needed more time to work on his project but agreed that perhaps some parts of his experiments could be aided by sourcing information, material and the odd formula from other like minded crazy professors but where would he start to look?

First port of call for most people these days is of course the good old internet, but tread carefully as Mitchell Kapor would say as this is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. The wide web of wordly information is a fabulous place but you should plan and be strategic about what you need, when you need it, how you will use it or how you will support it. A random search for "making life like frankenstein" takes about 0.4 of a second to come up with 6,280,000 hits but Frankie is easily distracted and gets lost in a recipe for monster marshmallow pops........he could be there for hours. However, had Frankie focussed his search on "electricity and the human body" he would have eventually came across articles about the work of Luigi Galvani which he could have used to great effect rather than investing heavily in his own set of tests......alternatively he could have just rubbed a balloon on Igors head and watched the static flow. 

Mary Shelly was curating a number of theories and ideas of the time and put them together. You have Galvanism from Galvanis work, references from Paradise Lost by John Milton and elements of influence from Humphry Davys Elements of Chemical Philosophy. All of these combined to create the novel which in itself has been curated by others, turned twisted and fed a whole new generation of stories. 

So Curation isn't new. We are maybe led to believe it is but like many things it is really just a buzz word and  way of of bringing content together in a place that allows us to source it and then display it or comment on it in a chosen format. We even have a number of  tools available that have been created to produce and release content for like minded people or those with a passing interest. In fact if you think about it these lend more to Frankenstein than we could imagine. Take Flipboard, Scoop it and Paper.li, are they not Curation tools created to stitch a range of content from various sources together then bring it all back to life?

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Dr Who and my incredibly tenuous link with 70:20:10

Okay...I'm torn.

You see. I wanted to do a piece on Dr Who given we have the 50th anniversary show this weekend and I started to rattle some ideas around Learning Dude HQ in the last couple of days. Like anything when you grow up with something you learn things, for example, Daleks can fly up stairwells, you can hear Cybermen coming and Ood's can fair hold a tune.....but......

I got an email today and along with the content of that email, the mention of something on a Webinar and comments made recently to me I felt that the only way to mask my frustration was to merge the two and therefore I give you Dr Who and the incredibly tenuous link with 70:20:10.

So lately I have been grumping a little as more and more people start talking about 70:20:10 again. For those that don't know what it is, this (in learning)  relates to the "theory" that 70% of what we learn happens on the job, doing tasks, projects or problem solving (to name but a few) 20% relates to coaching, feedback and positive role models etc and 10% accounts for formal training, or old skool classroom training. As a theory and concept I don't have a problem with it even if it is a little dated given the origins date back to the 1960's and a little flawed as it is based on a fair degree of assumptions but what really winds me up more than the SS Madame de Pompadours Clockwork Men is when it is when people make a conscious decision to talk about 70:20:10 as a thing, a product or a way of life when really it is just a wrapper of numbers around content.

However, to appease business leaders we throw them some numbers and apportion the biggest chunk of learning to the business and tell them...yes....70% of what we learn requires no effort....yep, it will just happen.....projects?......yep, learning......tasks?...yep learning and so on and so forth but this is born from an assumption that the business can take time out to develop ideas, try some new things and then review and embed the learning, perhaps trying new strategies born out of that review........but if that was always possible, why would a companion not be able to fly the TARDIS on their own? Why....? well because with the job, in most cases everyone just gets on with, there is little time to stop. That's not to say you don't learn on the job but you only have to look at Donna Nobles problems when she was gifted with the her boss's.........eh Doctors knowledge. The thing about the 70% it removes itself from the formal aspect of learning but I don't think that can happen, they need to be connected.

Now we come to the 20%. Here we place a reliance on the coach, the manager and the support of a positive role model. I have no issue with this but if we consider what we said about the 70%, without structure or a connection to the formal learning part it becomes a struggle to help people develop. What I find laughable is people spend a lot of time dissecting learning to come up with 70:20:10 and then because they don't really get it they add the 70&20 together and proclaim, it's all about the 90% .......eh? .....uhuh ....okay....? What is? ....."eh.....you know the on the job and the coaching you get" Oh right, okay so what you are saying is you're going to leave even more to the business? and that's just what the business will hear......we're leaving it up to you and that's not a positive message. They need to know that while they facilitate this possibility, we are there to support it but if we leave them to it, they will go off and do it all them self which we all know means armed with lack of knowledge and a corporate credit card. Good news for the external, bad for our reputation but back to the Dr Who link. Companionship or support is an essential part of development but how can you put a figure around that? The doctor has sometime travelled with one companion, two companions or as and when required brought old and new together and lost some along the way. Different development requirements require differing levels of support but by putting a number around this to try and comfort business and say, you will only be required to coach 20% of the time......eh but you just told them 70% was on the job......and some of you said 90% lies out with the responsibility of the development community...........quick hide !

.

So.....here we are at the end of my tale and yet I hear the cry of "what about the 10%?"

Here's the thing......it doesn't exist, at least I don't think it does. You see, 10% of what... is formal?

For me, there only is 100% of everything, unless you have a structure and strategy that supports dissecting learning and passing bits off here and there we should just keep it all in one spot because it grows and will only continue to grow because we have an ever expanding need for knowledge. We can go back in time and bring information forward and into the consciousness. We can plant information for future reference and ultimately regenerate ideas to match the technology of the time............why it's as if learning itself is our very own TARDIS.

I am glad I got that out of my head, now I can crack on with plans for Dr.Who........time for Day of the Doctor.

That Leaning Dude @LearningXDude

Hollywood, Fiction, Science and Innovation

How many times have you sat watching a film intently when someone sitting next to you says "that couldn't happen?" and then launch in to some scientific rant of hawkingesque proportions about black holes, gravity and theoretical physics. This kind of talk always takes me back to the Deathstar blowing up and the noise that reverberated around the cinema as empirical scum were blown to pieces and I overheard someone say oh you can't hear that sound if you're in space. I then recall the smart ass tagline of Alien in 1979 which seemed to echo these comments where it said in space no one can hear you scream. Now I ain't going to fall into their trap and explain the principals of sound transmission in a vacuum but needless to say John Hurt squealing like a pig at the dinner table lets you know that the theory was pretty much thrown out the window fairly early in the film.

I know, I know, you think I am ranting again. So where are am I going?

Well I am reading an article the other day about TALOS Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit and it got me thinking. The TALOS has been dubbed Iron Man suit which is reported to be an exoskelton covered in some form of liquid armour, al very clever stuff and adding the Hollywood name to it for media purposes gives it a little edge for interest but what other innovations lend them self to the movies for the idea and vice versa?

Lets go back a bit, in 1865 Jules Verne wrote De la terre a la lune (from the earth to the moon) and with this began the early (loose) connection with Hollywood, fiction, science and innovation. Verne had the idea that he could use a cannon to fire a capsule containing three passengers to the moon. Seemed a decent enough idea for a book, and along with the H.G.Wells novel First Men in the Moon in 1901 it inspired the first science fiction movie A trip to the Moon................. ......... however.....with that came the first recorded science pedant, no they never made reference to anything about screaming in space but in 1903 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky shattered the dreams of every Victorian planning to take a break from Brighton for the summer and head to the moon. Tsiolkovsky said such a cannon would have to be of lengthy proportions and subject to thousands of g etc etc etc.......didn't stop him from going on to be one of the founding fathers of space flight. So early inspirations came from written work and movies and more has followed over the years, learning off the job if you like.

Now it's also worth noting that although Iron Man has been around for years in comic form, it was only with the movie releases in the last few years that the link is now being made with advancements in infantry armour from science fiction but of course this like most of what I say can be subject to interpretation.....after all, Colonel Steve Austin was a man barely alive after a test flight went horribly wrong when for the princely sum of $6million dollars was rebuilt faster and stronger to fight crime for a covert off the radar type operational unit.....although for a few dollars more it could have perhaps helped to add some improvements as his bionic limbs were a tad problematic when the temperature dropped.....All the bad guys needed to do to outwit him was take a fridge with them or stick to robbing banks in Alaska during winter.

So what else is there?

Well the Lightsaber is a good place to start. Top notch weapon of choice for Jedi and aspiring Jedi alike but as soon as the amateur starts to have a bit of fun making vemmming and vooshizzing noises with a stick along comes the debunker..... ...."oh how can you stop the beam being longer than a couple of feet?" "why doesn't the handle melt?" "oooh what about the power source?" ........For the love of the force, did mummy trade you to Qui Gonn Jinn? Get over yourselves...oh and for the record, a couple of dudes from Harvard and MIT have made a discovery that sees a certain molecule behave in a similar way to the fictitious lightsaber. Yes fictitious.....but someone is thinking about the physics of it and saying, hey this could happen.

That's how it works, you think about it and you develop it.

Teleportation.....ah yes. You were expecting me to talk about Star Trek and the idea of this happening in the 60's? No chance.....Willy Wonka developed the idea to transport chocolate (large bar of it at that) from one side of the room to the other, total genius, I mean at the moment I have to get up and go to the kitchen cupboard to get one and aside from the side effects suffered by Mike TV it sounds like a great plan but oh no look out...here they come "Oooh suicide machine" " Ooooh scanning and replicating at an alarming rate" Oh yeah......well here's hoping a fly gets into the mix when your popping down the shops in a few years time. Again in theory and in the lab it has been shown it can be done so who are we to debunk it just yet? (although I'm busy if they ask for some UAT)

I could go on, and usually do but be it the tractor beam, invisibility cloak, time travel and the rest there are a number of examples where something from the movies has been written off as impossible and in theory or in some cases in reality people prove it can happen.

Now I know it's just the movies and I ain't completely debunking the debunkers but to be Innovative you have to dream it can happen, think that the impossible is not unreachable and have the will and desire to prove the doubters wrong. If you do that then who knows?

That Learning Dude @learningXDude

#NoNovation......and scraping the bottom of the Apple barrel

Wooohooooo I'm back..........(pauses for cheers and rapturous applause).........still waiting.......?

Anyhoooo.

So, I'm back after a summer break spent watching some glorious sporting achievements and fine sunsets over the west coast of Scotland. My intention for this blog post was to write about some of those summer adventures when BOOOOOM it happened.

Apple held a press conference.

Now I still like to point out that I do...did like Apple, mainly for their past exploits in terms of what they have done to shake up the industry and drive competitors to make their own stuff bigger, badder and better but in doing so have lost a little bit of sparkle and keep churning out numbers rather than products. I call this NoNovation. Now just to be balanced I would say that it is not unique to Apple, other tech companies, like Samsung, Nokia and Microsoft et al all seem to have forgotten what made them successful and where to go to next. You only have to look at the humble wristwatch, it is generally noted that the first wristwatch was created for a Hungarian countess in 1868 remarkably for the purpose of (a) being worn on the wrist & (b) for telling the time. Innovative at the time and since then yes there have been watches with calendars, timers, alarms, lights and more but ultimately designed to do the same thing. Which I guess is where Apple are currently at. The iPhone is still an iPhone oh and regardless if Samsung, Sony and others have brought out Smart watches......they're still watches.

So back to today. I know millions will rush out and buy one.....maybe both models (innovation for the ambidextrous) but different colours, plastic back and fingerprint recognition......is that the best that they can do? It's NoNovation. I see the appeal, I hear so much from so many friends who have them but cannot get my head round the fact that people will want to upgrade. If you want a choice of colours, take your current phone and head off down to your local garage and invest in some spray paint and masking tape, far more colours to choose from or alternatively go down to your local market and find the angry birds or star wars cover you have always wanted. Fingerprint readers? How long before the first de-thumbed person reports a stolen iPhone? Okay extreme scenario but it's still NoNovation.

Overload !!!..... i'm gonna stop now. Hopefully Apple return to the innovative product development soon. I am sure they have it all in hand but if that involves the rumoured iWatch I think I may explode. I still pray that they were actually winding everyone up when they let the rumour slip it was in development and they are going to to come out and say narr narr na na narr we weren't developing a watch but we have the iTardis !!

But then one can only hope.

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude on Twitter.