I recently had the opportunity to attend a mobile learning seminar hosted by CSTD here in Toronto. The key note speaker was Dr. Mohammad Alley from Athabasca University. Dr. Alley is recognized as a world visionary when it comes to Mobile Learning. He talked about what is going on around the world with regards to mobile learning. He did go to great lengths to point out that the US and Canada are very behind the rest of the world when it comes to mLearning. He spent a great deal of time discussing his speaking engagements around the world and what boards he sits on. I was a bit disappointed more time was not spent on the state of the technology and the development tools. Theory is great but at some point the rubber has to hit the road. I am glad to see that our CellCast technology solution is light years ahead of what is being used in the industry both in Canada and around the world. Dr. Alley was not familiar with our solution his grad students from George Brown College were very interested in learning more about real solutions. Dr. Alley did share the following YouTube video showing the potential of mobile technology. This was a speech that was delivered at TED during their annual symposium on the sixth sense. I hope that you will be as excited about this as I am.

Engagement of the Learner is paramount.  Finding techniques beyond multiple choice and drag and drop is a must to keep learners on their toes, creating sales training that allows the learner use what they learned.

For one of my clients we created a final exam that required the learners, who were salespersons, to answer a series of questions regarding selling a home.  We added the twist of putting a timer in the top corner of the screen with a picture of the customer from the scenarios.  As the timer ticked down the customer’s facial expression became less tolerant as they took longer to answer to the question. They would interject comments to the learner, putting on additional pressure.  The response to this was amazing.  I had company veterans go through the course and say, “wow that final exam was tough, especially with the Customer getting upset at me for not having a timely response.”

Bring a little real world to the learning and it will go along way.

We are constantly striving to find innovative ways of engaging learners.  Often Scenarios are designed to illustrate correct behaviour in a given situation.  The problem is we cannot really tell if the learner is paying attention and grasping all of the subtle nuances to be successful.

By creating a “First Person” reinforcement activity, learners can practice what they learn in a safe and supportive manner.  A few years ago I began to experiment with this technique.  As technology has evolved we have become able to do some amazing things.  In the past we would have to create a storyboard matrix and lay out the possible paths a learner could take during a conversation.  Once these were identified, scripts for both the Learner and the person with whom they were interacting onscreen had to be created. The script for the onscreen person was recorded with an actor in character.  The script of possible responses or questions was laid out on screen, giving the learner the opportunity to select a response or question from 4 possible ones at that moment.

The tricky part was recording the video with all the necessary outcomes that wouldn’t take the learner so far down a path they couldn’t recover.  I remember in one situation we had to get the on screen character to get more and more upset with the learner during the course of the conversation.  We had over 40 video clips she needed to record.  By the end the actor told me that this was one of the most difficult shoots she had done, especially getting more and more upset, staying in character while keeping it feeling real.  However the project, which was for a very large accounting firm in the US, got an overwhelmingly positive response, with learners scoring very high.

The feedback from this style of learning was fantastic.  Companies were able to see immediate improvements due to the fact that the training was not static and the role playing that typically went on in the class was much more consistent and controlled to maximize the learning.

Results from this online learning experience were fully tracked and then sent back to the LMS when appropriate.

Where are we headed next?  Avatars, “Second Life” style characters, Learning 2.0 online virtual mentors ….?

For those of us trying to stay on top of trends in the learning space, consider this: How can you re-purpose the tried, tested and true?

It’s easy for us to get caught up in the really big “2.0 what-a-do” of large scale project implementations, systems integrations and markup languages, but what happens to our brains when we see headway being made by a whiteboard?!

I know that in my head, the light goes on and the words tumble right out… “BUT OF COURSE!”

That was my reaction the first time I watched the Common Craft Show. This dynamic duo (husband and wife) were teaching me about some of the newest tools and trends in web 2.0 by using cut-outs, erasable markers and a whiteboard. Granted, the scripting was perfected and they knew of what they spoke… but seriously, paper cut-outs!?! It’s almost too perfect.

Believe it or not, the CC team didn’t arrive at this magic mix on the first try. Nope. They experimented and experimented some more… falling short a few times here and there. Until finally they decided that laying a whiteboard on the floor would work. And work it did. Now they do custom instructional videos for the likes of Google and Salesforce as well as other big name companies who’ve jumped on the bandwagon. But they haven’t forgotten the secret of the web and still provide a Common Craft branded version of their “101″ videos free to YouTube viewers.

And if you’re ever trying to explain social media to your own customers and want to license a video of theirs, you can. It’s cheap to do and you get the white labeled version.

So the next time you’re wondering about what instructional designs of the future might look like - consider remixing what’s right in front of you first. In many ways, this is the mashup mentality you’ll need to get good at in order to survive the social web revolution.