The eLearning Singularity or The Inevitable Evolution of eLearning Development

Its that time of year again where everyone wants to know what's coming up in 2010. Or we look back at 2009 and reflect. Both are excellent practices, but I think everyone has pretty much covered all of the bases. If you can't find any, then just leave me a comment and I'll see what I can find for you.

This might not be much of a look into 2010 but I definitely feel a new trend. I'm not even sure what to call it. After years of thinking about it and talking about it, I finally found a blog pot hit me in the face with it. I'd also like to put this blog post up as my choice for eLearning blog post of the year.

http://antonzolotov.com/2009/12/09/why-basecamp-and-campfire-would-be-a-better-learning-management-system/

Anton Zolotov takes a very NON-instructional designer approach to looking at Learning Management Systems. He refers to Blackboard because that's what his school uses, but his line of thinking could apply to ALL of the current LMS offerings.
As a programmer, Anton simply breaks down the functionality that is most used and recognizes the fact that there are other technology solutions that function better and cheaper. In this case he points to Basecamp and Campfire and their genius design that blows most other tools in this category away. Okay, those were my words, not his.

He closes with this paragraph which is very nicely said:

"I think that we can help our customers most by making software modular. Applications should have APIs that allow 3rd party developers to integrate their stuff with yours. As a developer, you are not losing that way – you are winning, because you benefit from the value that other people are creating by extending your software. Everybody wins. That’s the way it should be in education."

There is no reason why we can't modularize the functional requirements of Learning Management Systems. But of course, that is if you are thinking about a tops down application…something very late '90s. The idea that Anton leads me too is that of starting with the user. What if we created the "modularity" by starting with the user? Traditional Learning Management Systems function like giant ERM systems and the user has no choice in how they access the data or add/delete data. By today's 2.0 standards that's simply NUTS! What if we finally started with students like Anton and asked them what THEY use…or what would they LIKE to use?

Actually the technology is already working that out. The best example is standards around XML. Anyone can send me a calendar invite from Outlook and I can add it too my iCal, no worries. And of course, who even thinks twice about email being in the "right format" any more. Nobody cares. You write an email and you send it to an email address. You don't care what app your recipient uses to read the message. Should we care what app our users have to read our eLearning? It even seems strange to say (write) that.

Our development challenge in the coming decade rests in taking the responsibility to create learning content that can be accessed by ALL devices (both desktop and mobile) and sends data seamlessly too and from any cloud source. Some will call this a dream. I call it inevitable in this new decade to be sure.

DevLearn 2010 Conference & Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

Brain Rules - Getty Images - Vision Trumps all other Senses

In my humble opinion BrainRules should be MANDATORY reading for YOU and all of your eLearning colleagues. When the instructional design of 40 years ago was...well...designed, the only thing we could study was behavior. Today's technology looks inside the brain and tells us what that mass of cells is REALLY up too. If you are in an Instructional Design degree program of any kind and have NOT been exposed to the latest brain research then go get it for yourself...on the Internet. Its all over the place...and in books.

Its these new findings that help us understand why we intuitively know that simulations and virtual, highly visual, spaces are AMAZINGLY powerful learning tools. And it also confirms that creativity is at the heart of truly great instructional design. Words alone simply DO NOT cut it!

Special thanks to @cammybean and @tmiket for tweeting about BrainRules.net and helping to spread the word.

Dr. Medina was SO awesome at DevLearn08, I'm thinking about bringing him back...what do you think?

DevLearn 2010 Conference & Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

The Golden Triangle of Tech Applies to eLearning Solutions too!

The question I get the most these days is, "Brent, what's the next big thing you see out there in eLearning".  The simple answer is, "not much".  But that doesn't mean there isn't exciting innovation happening.  The big innovation over the last year has not been a new technologie or app, but the convergence of some, or many existing technologies.  Alone they are simply isolated fun little apps, but combined with several other apps or technologies they begin to take shape into the powerful life-changing tools they were meant to be.  And that magic convergence has recently been given a name: The Golden Triangle.
I stumbled onto a blog post from A VC blog.  The author could not remember who said it but I thought it was pretty cool too: "The three current big megatrends in the web/tech sector are mobile, social, and real-time." That's the golden triangle.  Mobile, Social, and Real-time.  Apparently, new startups that have a golden triangle are deemed highly likely to have a successful company/product to offer.  Certainly there's more too it than that but I digress.  How does The Golden Triangle apply to eLearning?  One word - PERFECTLY!

MOBILE, the first of the 3 sides is obvious.  Everything is going mobile.  I love my iPhone more than any other technology I have ever owned.  One thing I discovered early in my iPhone experience was apps that were MORE than just iPhone apps became the most used and applicable to my work and life flow.  More than just an iPhone app means that it also has a desktop and/or cloud counterpart.  Think banking. My accounts reside in the bank's servers (their cloud).  I access my bank information from both my desktop AND my iPhone (and the physical location, but not that often).  I can watch video, do email, text messaging, record video, take pictures, and on and on with one simple device that fits in my pocket.  THAT, in my humble opinion is the coolest thing EVER!

The second side of the triangle, and only slightly less cool, is SOCIAL.  Many "learning gurus" have stated that all learning is social and many others have argued against that statement.  I think the biggest issue is the use of ALL.  Anytime you say "all" you're sure to set off somebody, somewhere, who can come up with an exception or two.  The reality is that our nature is to be social.  Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, and all social networks in general, give us the ability to find other people we want/need to connect to for any number of reasons.  In these spaces we build groups, or networks, of friends/followers who share their knowledge with us.  Before the internet our networks were important but it was a complicated, and long process to gather and maintain a professional network.  With today's web-based social networks it's almost too easy to create connections across many channels.  In the long run the knowledge resides less in your own brain and more in the collective brain of the network.  Let's argue that point later, but for now it certainly seems to be moving in that direction.  So, SOCIAL connectivity is important to the future of our personal learning environments.

And lastly we have the REAL-TIME completing the third side of the triangle.  Twitter is the best example of real time.  And yes, twitter can also be considered SOCIAL, but the piece that makes twitter and micro-blogging different is that the conversations you see are the conversations happening RIGHT NOW.  Conversations that happened yesterday, or even 2 hours ago or less, will run off the bottom of the interface and not be seen unless you search, or sort by hashtag.  Even then, the real use and benefit is in the real-time nature of the tools.  Its the idea used by many that its like jumping into and out of a giant cocktail party and actually listening to all the conversations that are going on simultaneously.  While that can be overwhelming, it can also be quite exhilerating.

So, can our learning content be created for mobile devices with a social element connecting us with subject matter experts that we can access in real time? 
I think so.  There's also no reason why all 3 sides of the triangle can't be tracked AND measured.  The current problem seems to be the legacy systems trying to make new media work with old media systems.  There is also a legacy of design that the golden triangle does not yet fit into.  At least it does not fit well. 

I feel like many people are already learning in a personal environment that reflects the golden triangle with the existing tools.  And that's what seems to be frustrating to many.  There is no control of it just yet, and so many need that sense of control.  It will come in time.  It won't be exactly like this.  But it will be close.  Perhaps it will end up being a Golden Square, or hexagon.  For now, I like the simplicity of the triangle and hope we can figure out how to make it happen.

DevLearn 2010 Conference & Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

My I/ITSEC Experience - Simulations Galore!

My I/ITSEC flickr set
Wow!  I spent a day and a half roaming the aisles of the Interservice/Industry Training Simulation & Education Conference.  Interactive, immersive, 3D, simulation creation is alive and well.

I was expecting to see lots of military simulations, and that's exactly what I got.  I drove a truck and took on sniper fire and an IED during my simulation "ride".  It was very cool but the screens made me woozy.  They said room tempurature has something to do with that, but I'm certain I just have a weak stomach.  There were also simulations for battle medics that were TOO real.  They had full size models of injured soldiers with legs blown off, and another with half his face blown open.  Shocking!  But its the reality of war and needs to be simulated to prepare the soldiers.  Basically everything related to battle has a simulation of some sort.  Plane sims are obvious, but how about a full size truck that simulates a roll over and your goal is to get out of the vehicle...FAST!

The thing that really stood out for me was the fact that most of these simulations were being run on LAPTOPS!  A far cry from the stacks of SGI boxes required over a decade ago. 

It was fun to see the heavy use of collaborative simulations.  I loved the use of networked laptops that allowed for multi-player simulations.  One example was in a ship simulation that connects the engine room simulation with the ships navigation room simulation.  So, basically the guy learning to drive the ship is impacted by the guy learning about the engine room in real time.  If the guy running the engine room shuts down the generator while he is training, then the guy training to drive the ship gets all the feedback he would get in real life if the same thing happened.  Collaborative combat missions were obvious since junior high kids have access to multi-player warfare experiences.  But in some of the simulators you got to hold a very real rifle or pistol, or heck, they even had a simulation for a rocket launcher.  As my son would say, "sweeeeeeet".

The mixed reality simulations were beyond awesome!  Actually, as I type this on the plane home I'm stumped as to how I can use words to explain how you turn an empty space into an instant virtual building with many rooms that need to be cleared by a team of soldiers.  What I see is a couple soldiers loaded with gear wandering around a large open space.  THEN you see the screen displaying what THEY are seeing inside their visors.  Wow! Every movement they make is mimicked by a virtual avatar immersed in a virtual space with walls doors...oh yea, and simulated bad guys with guns and grenades.  Simply amazing.  Oh! And there was also the "gerbal ball".  No, seriously.  A human sized gerbal ball that a soldier gets into and can run around a limitless virtual space.  The ball rotates in all directions but stays in one place.  However, the player is immersed in a virtual space and runs inside the gerbal ball to move around "in world". I wonder if I can get that for World of Warcraft? So much for gamers not getting any exercise, right?

I've got to thank Mark Oehlert (@moehlert) for showing me around when I first got there.  Since he works for the Defense Acuisition University he could fill me in on all the military structures and lingo, and how things work...or don't work.  With limited time, it was nice to get the inside scoop. It was also great to see "The Beard" (@mrch0mp3rs) and others involved with SCORM and LETSI.  I also saw the folks from Tandem Learning and Hybrid.  These were the folks behind the cool alternate reality game (ARG), The Zombie Apocalypse, at DevLearn09.  I heard mumblings of an even bigger and better ARG for DevLearn2010.  They are an impressive group of developers and I'm looking forward to seeing what else they come up with.  And of course, the Serious Games Czar Dr. Alicia Sanchez (Host of the DevLearn Serious Games Zone) did a great job with the Serious Games Showcase and Challenge at I/ITSEC.

I've always had a passion for simulations and virtual spaces.  I have fond memories of building one of the first inexpensive interactive 3D simulations for the semiconductor manufacturing industry (I think it was a diffusion furnace) and then moving on to virtual warehouse simulations with SAP software sim integration.  Oh, the memories.  I/ITSEC brought me back to seeing why simulations are so important to learning and more importantly to PERFORMANCE.  Its all about the DOING!  Learning is one thing, but actually learning how to DO something productive has value beyond words.

P.S. Does anyone know how I can get the "Gerbal Ball" to DevLearn2010?  Or maybe the Apache helicopter, or humvee simulator?  Yea, okay maybe not ;-)

DevLearn 2010 Conference & Expo - November 3-5 - San Francisco, CA