Stepping Back to Look Forward

As we near the end of the year, its always a great time to reflect on what worked and what bombed, what could be done better and what technology is becoming more and more important to learners. Therefore, my Saturday morning is about stepping back and trying to figure out detached and (hopefully) unemotionally what would be the most ideal learning platform for my audience. Here goes. I am going to throw these out and I know everything will obviously not fit neatly into one platform - but lets paint a blue sky first (why not, lets be overly optimistic as we are about to enter a brand new shiny year).

My Audience

Before I dive in first lets take a look at my audience: Mostly Gen X, and more and more Gen Y. Some Baby Boomers. How do they learn? I am taking a calculated gamble here. They use mobile technology (think airports, waiting rooms, trains and cars), love the iPhone and iPod, they synch with their iTunes collection regularly, they get a kick out of YouTube - video is really hot (where is my webcam?), short and sweet just in time matters, they love games and have an xbox and wii tucked in the corner at home. iPhone and iTouch devices offer the next generation of mobile gaming platfoms - clever useful apps can attract many eyeballs. Happy to give feedback with short targetted online surveys. They use Facebook and love connecting to one and other to share news, views, and reviews. What gets a positive rating amongst their own network matters - ALOT. They hate the mundane, any platforms must be easy to access, easy to navigate, kick-ass and reflect the hottest consumer trends out there otherwise it won't be used or used without passion. If they can't find it in 2 clicks and within 30 seconds consider it dead. Think: get the learning to me rather than me getting to the learning.

Blue Sky Learning Platform

• Mobile access - Learning on the Go
• Access anywhere, anytime from any PC
• Bite sized learning chunks for Just in Time Learning (Flashcards, etc.)
• Short clever Games
• (iPhone apps are cooool)
• Virtual Meetings /Classrooms for remote training
• Online assessments and evaluations (no more paper)
• Social Networking attributes (blogs, wikis, forums)
• Short Video Clips (learning videos and ability to let me share my videos)
• Short e-Learning Snippets
• Secure Authentication
• Rate a Course
• Share a Class, Link, Book, Idea
• Recommend a Course
• Tracking and Reporting capability
• User friendly
• Easy to use Search (Google ease)

What is it?

Is it an LMS?
Well the above wishlist do not in my view reflect the need to host content on an LMS or LCMS. The ones I have seen anyway. An LMS is great for automating classroom registration, course catalog, tracking and reporting, pushing out mandatory training, and setting up learning plans, etc. But is it really that user friendly? Is it easy to find content? Does it tick the boxes for social media capabilities? Can it provide mobile access? I have to be honest for all of the above and answer nope. Sure the technology is getting better but I feel it is mostly geared towards maintaining a huge analytical engine rather than a cool user experience. Unless you customize it... but then your maintenance costs can skyrocket.

Or is it a Learning Portal?
The closest I have found is something like Blackboard or a SharePoint implementation. However, I have not seen any smooth integration of e-learning, games or video. These platforms can be too overwhleming with their portlets and alerts especially if you need to focus on short sharp bites of content. Sure you have some social media functionality, search, secure authentication, and notifications but rich media seems to take a backseat and usability questionable.

Perhaps a Virtual World?
Closest I have seen to tick some of boxes we have identified would be from Protonmedia: Protosphere which has a social media box of tricks bolted onto to their pretty cool business oriented private virtual world. I love what they have done but the cost of implementation and maintenance of such a platform can be on the high side. Also, mobile access is a no no and unless you have practiced a lot, moving around and navigating a virtual world can be a challenge. I have not even mentioned getting past the company firewall and IT security.

Or...is it a hybrid?
What if you created smart content. Small bite-sized content that could be securely accessed from a PC or smartphone anywhere in the world at anytime? What if you took the learners position of accessing learning content on a device of their choice at their convenience. How would this new model look like? Are there any technologies out there to support this shift? Do we have the resources to support this new approach? Perhaps it can reduce costs? No more one hour long online courses. Is it one solution or many components weaved together? Is content development independent of the platform? Do you host content internally or move everything to the Internet Cloud? Where is the biggest bang for our bucks: the platform or the content?

Food for thought: the Blackboard platform is now available over the Blackberry and through an iPhone application. Saba also announced they will introduce an iPhone app in 2010 for Centra access and online learning. Although, both do not tick all our boxes - they are interesting developments worth further investigation. The final word - we need to consider a trade off of rich intensive media to support and encourage just in time mobile learning.

Anyway, I don't have a final answer. Not yet anyway. But I will dwell on this topic over the next few weeks and come back to you if I suddenly get a fantastic award winning idea for solving this challenge. Maybe we should call it the (Gen) Y Challenge? Maybe I need more coffee. Good morning.