Back in 2008, Bill Gates highlighted what he called the "power of the natural user interface" at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show. "The first digital decade was largely driven by the keyboard and the mouse. Just in the last two years, we've started to see the emergence of other modes of interaction," he said. "Touch on the Windows PC, touch on the iPhone, the Surface device that we're talking about. We started to see speech the Tellme capability built into the phone, the Ford Sync, where you get to talk and interact with your media or your phone capabilities." A Gartner analyst predicts the demise of the computer mouse in the next three to five years. Taking over will be so called gestural computer mechanisms like touch screens and facial recognition devices. Touch and speech technology are not the only ideas that could replace the standard desktop mouse. For example, Microsoft's Natal offers "touchless" technology where you motion to the screen to control the interface, skipping a touch display and speech input altogether. What has this got to do with learning. Well everything in fact. We need to be considering how users can benefit and learn from these new interfaces. How should we build content for these new devices? Instead of developing e-learning that is driven from a keyboard or mouse, should we explore developing gesture-driven wii-type games? Or thinking about virtual classrooms where the learner can step into a 3D environment with his/her own gesture-driven avatar which seems to be the direction Microsoft are taking with Project Natal. What about building games and e-learning for touchscreens - how should the content be structured and what will this mean for our usability guidelines? This all seems a bit futuristic and maybe not all that relevant for today. However, as more and more audiences begin to explore consumer games and edutainment options outside a company environment, we must think about how to harness this interest and technology for more company-driven training and create a buzz inhouse.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Interactive Learning Devices (or Bye Bye Mouse)
Back in 2008, Bill Gates highlighted what he called the "power of the natural user interface" at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show. "The first digital decade was largely driven by the keyboard and the mouse. Just in the last two years, we've started to see the emergence of other modes of interaction," he said. "Touch on the Windows PC, touch on the iPhone, the Surface device that we're talking about. We started to see speech the Tellme capability built into the phone, the Ford Sync, where you get to talk and interact with your media or your phone capabilities." A Gartner analyst predicts the demise of the computer mouse in the next three to five years. Taking over will be so called gestural computer mechanisms like touch screens and facial recognition devices. Touch and speech technology are not the only ideas that could replace the standard desktop mouse. For example, Microsoft's Natal offers "touchless" technology where you motion to the screen to control the interface, skipping a touch display and speech input altogether. What has this got to do with learning. Well everything in fact. We need to be considering how users can benefit and learn from these new interfaces. How should we build content for these new devices? Instead of developing e-learning that is driven from a keyboard or mouse, should we explore developing gesture-driven wii-type games? Or thinking about virtual classrooms where the learner can step into a 3D environment with his/her own gesture-driven avatar which seems to be the direction Microsoft are taking with Project Natal. What about building games and e-learning for touchscreens - how should the content be structured and what will this mean for our usability guidelines? This all seems a bit futuristic and maybe not all that relevant for today. However, as more and more audiences begin to explore consumer games and edutainment options outside a company environment, we must think about how to harness this interest and technology for more company-driven training and create a buzz inhouse.
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