3-D mobile

Ok I can't believe this even exists but I recently read an article in Technology Review featuring a 3D software program for mobile phones.  Dynamic Digital Depth has developed a way to display 2D graphics as 3D without the use of special glasses.  It does require a special type of phone to work, the Samsung B710 currently supports this application.  The picture shown in the article (shown below) illustrates a video game being played in 3D so I'm wondering what type of learning or training content would be useful with this type of applicatcion. 

It doesn't mention how much it costs to develop content in 3D but predicts that by the year 2018 there will be 71 million devices that support this type of software application.  I need to do some more thinking on this but if anyone wants to chime in on some ideas pleaes post a comment on what type of 3D training or learning application you would build.

Justification for Mobile

I was giving a presentation for the Chicago Chapter of ISPI last week on mobile learning and one of the questions that was asked was how do companies justify the need for mobile learning.  As I went through my usual response of tying it into a specific business need, we also discussed the fact that the next generation of employees simply use mobile devices for standard day to day communications.  So I thought when were we faced with a similiar situation in regards to conforming a work process based upon technological advancements?

If you think about it, how significant was the PC's impact on work productivity.  In a research paper written in the Journal of technology and management innovation, they examined both the pros and cons of PC's impacted the workforce and business process improvement.

One story that illustrates how the next generation of talent views the use of mobile devices-- we talked about the news story of 2 girls in Australia who fell into a storm drain.  With mobile phones in hand-- rather than calling for help, they updated their Facebook status to inform people of their situation.  This may sound like a ridiculous situation but in their minds, the phone's primary use was for connecting to their social network-- not as a phone.  So when we circled back to the question of justification for putting training or performance support and job aids on mobile devices, the justification will be easy-- because that's where the employees expect to access if from.

Technology was Blogo's enemy again

I was watching the TV show Celebrity Apprentice and observed how the use of Mobile Devices gave the winning team an edge.  The team's project managers were sent on a private jet to find out what their assignment was for this week's episode.  The project manager for the women's team was Selita Ebands, a runway model and the men's team project manager was Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of IL.

Due to the fact that the were not informed of the task when they left, the teams were left to fend for themselves until word came in from the PM what they task was.  Upon finding out what their task was, Selita, sketched a rough drawing of the 3-D Disney display she had in mind for their project, used here phone camera to take a photo and then sent it to the team to print out and get to work.  She also emailed additional details from the phone and computer in order not to have verbal discusssions that might be overheard by her opponant.

Rod on the other hand- is a technology cripple-- unlike our current president who is very tech savvy, this former governor couldn't figure out how to use the phone to make a call let alone send a text or email.

This was a very key factor in why the men's team lost the task.

There are two lesson's here
1- By using mobile devices, teams can learn how to collaborate very effectively and decrease delays in taking action
2- By not teaching people how to use mobile devices properly, it can impact productivity

So when you think about moving into using mobile devices for performance support or as job aids, make sure you provide the users with coaching or hands-on experience on how to use them, not everyone is adept as using the newer technologies but once they see the benefits, they will quickly adapt.

Here's a highlight from the show

 

RSS What is can do for you

Tracking your podcasts/vodcasts and blogs.  I'm sure by now many of you have either visited a blog, listened to or viewed a podcast.  But how many of you that are creating this content really know who is accessing your content?

I'm going to share with you a tip on how to create an email subscription link on your blog or for your podcast files and it's Free-- yes Free.

The first step is to register for an account with Feedburner.com -- which is now part of Google's Tools.  So if you already have a Google account you can easily access Feedburner.

If you are a blogger, you can add blog URL into Feedburner to create the RSS tags.  On Feedburner's main page look for the box that looks like this and copy and paste your blog URL into this blank field

Then hit Next and you will see that Feedburner created an RSS feed URL for you

Then hit Next again to see the full subscription string

Click on Skp directly to Feed Management and click on the Publicize Tab

Click on the email subscription option and click on the Activate Button.  You will then see some html code that you can copy and paste into your blog site or if you are using Typepad or Blogger, it will automatically publish the email subscription tool into your blog or some of you may have blogging tools that allow you to add this feature.

So now not only can you track the traffic but you know exactly who is subscribing to the blog and it does prompt the subscriber to opt in to ensure you are playing by the rules and not spamming your viewers.

You can do this with podcast files too.  This is a little more complicated because of where you may be posting your podcast files.  If you are posting them into a blog that's great just follow the steps above.  If you want advice on how to do this in some other way, give us a call to help step you through how to do this with your podcast content.
630-221-8759

Microsoft SharePoint: Enterprises Get Boost by Integrating Social Tools - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

I've heard organizations like Wal-Mart, Accenture and Motorola are looking at how they can leverage SharePoint as a learning portal.  I just ran across this article from CIO Magazine with a great example of how Accenture is integrating social tools into SharePoint.  I've also seen examples from Moodle implementations that are leaning in this direction too.

Microsoft SharePoint: Enterprises Get Boost by Integrating Social Tools - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

Posted using ShareThis

Helping people think for themselves

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who was staying at a hotel for a wedding.  The after wedding party was taking place at one of the hotels and as a crowd gathered in the hotel, the after party group began to get larger and louder.  Not wanting to disturb the other guests in the hotel, the party asked if they could use one of the meeting rooms.  Now keep in mind this was on a weekend late at night ---- no one is using these rooms. 

The hotel desk clerk's response was "I'm sorry but you have to reserve these room 24 hours in advance" -- the wedding party offered to pay for the room -- but again the response was "sorry we can't accomodate you." 

So rather than allowing the party to continue in a more discreet area and creating a revenue source for the hotel, the clerk stuck to the rules and forced the party to be held in the lobby.

Now what does this have to do with training -- everything!  Back in the days of video training I used to sell the ever so popular "In Search of Excellence" program where Tom Peters sought out companies that demonstrated excellence, empowered employees and beat the odds in performance. 

I see a lot of companies so focused on strictly functional training that I'm fearful some of the non-functional training is getting put on the shelf in an effort to try to save $. I know that we all struggeled financially in the last 12-18 months but now more than ever, we need to provide training and support on the skills that encourage initiative, customer service and risk taking ---.

Defining Video PodCasting

We teach a class on how to podcast and how to creat video podcasts.  I quickly realized in the video class that not everyone has the same definition of video podcasting or vodcasting as I did. 

True video podcasting makes the assumption that you will be producing and MP4 or MV4 file that is to be displayed on a mini video player like an ipod or other mobile device.  But what I discoverd is that many people are categorizing video podcasting as short videos played on the computer like YouTube.  The process to develop the content for both is for the most part, the same but with a couple of differences.

1- When producing content for a smaller screen like an ipod, you have to be more sensitive to any text on the screen or how detailed the picture has to be in reference to what you are communicating.  For example a screen shot of a web page on a mobile device such as our home page, is hard to make out what you're looking at vs. the same screen used in producing video displayed on a computer. 

You can still use this content but use something like Camtasia's video editor to use the zoom and pan effect to zoom in on the area of the screen that is important at that time for what you are communicating. 

2- Another difference is the publishing options.  You can produce web video content as Flash, Windows Media, AVI, MOV, MP4, etc.  but for mobile devices you should be publishing as MP4 MV4, H.264, MOV or 3GP.  So make sure the tool you are using allows for that or get your hands on some low-cost conversion tools like Danuisoft or AVS4You.

As more and more people are pushing for video content there are some great options out there but be sure to confirm what they expect to play the video back on and then decide how to produce the content.

If you have any questions on how to create video podcasts give us a shout!